I have a lot more offline friends blogging now, which I guess is a natural progression of how the Internet is developing. Anyone can be a blogger, even if it’s just on a WordPress.com or Blogger account. The plus side is that it’s becoming more accepted, it’s not a ‘geek thing’ the way it was ten years ago. Blogging is a lot more mainstream, and a lot easier for people to now pick up – in much the same way that programming used to be insanely complicated and time-consuming and is now much easier for your average Joe. All very obvious.
The unexpected minus side is that now I’m faced with a surprising amount of super-pretentious blogs. I don’t know why this is, but personal blogs often seem to offer an unforeseen and unpredictable side of people you knew offline first. Some really lovely people seem to suddenly develop a blogging style that makes me give up after the first sentence. It’s like wading through treacle – you can understand what they’re saying, but it’s a lot of effort to get there and little reward when you do.
I’ve always been a fan of simple free-typing when it comes to blogging. I type out almost exactly what’s in my head, and I only really make changes in terms of word order. I’m guessing this is fairly obvious because my good friend Tom once mentioned that my blog reads like a stream of consciousness… I’m not suggesting that everyone does that, but there’s no need to swallow a thesaurus either. Or agonise over every sentence. You wouldn’t write like that in your diary (remember when blogs were like diaries?!), so there’s no need to go all-out to impress. I guess people have different views on that, but it’s not an essay for an academic journal. Just be yourself.
Although part of me is amused by these blogs, part of me is sad. Because I’m nosey, and because I know a lot of these people have more to give; instead, they’re just hiding behind a ton of complicated words with very little meaning. I know that quite a bit of what I post can easily be interpreted as banal (yes, there’s a ‘b’ at the front) – here’s a picture of my dog, this is what I did at the weekend, etc. That’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and I’m sure there’s a great niche for people who want to ramble metaphorically about the universe. I just ramble about whatever comes to mind. It’s a way to clear my thoughts and my head, and record my life to amuse my older and wiser self in years to come.
The people who do get it right (based on my personal appreciation, not on my own writing) make up for it though. I’ve come across some really interesting blogs to follow from friends who’ve carved out their own little niches in areas I’d never even thought about. I’m a bit jealous, because I’m still trying to figure out where to go with my own blog. But I’m also happy that in 2010, there are new bloggers who can jump straight in with tone and content that match what the community has been about for the past seven or eight years.
Do you have any offline friends who blog? What do you think of their blogs? Which blogging style(s) do you prefer?









