NBI: Why a Blog?

Much like MMOs, the commentariat has been prophesying the death of blogging for years. Perhaps more accurately, the "Death of Blogging" has been used  for years as a launchpad for yet another think piece on blogging. Of course, much of online journalism, from the NYT to Slate, Breitbart to HuffPo, is simply a series of blogs, albeit written by "professionals" who are getting paid (hopefully). In any event, individual blogging always seems to be on the wane, despite new people taking up the mantle of "blogger" every year (while others fade away). And many pundits look to social media like Facebook and Twitter—with their somewhat built-in audiences—as the inheritors of blogging.

So why start (or continue) a blog in 2016?

I use Twitter on an almost daily basis, and frequent Facebook to see what my RL friends and family are up to. I have even written fairly lengthy Notes on FB in the past. But I consider the easy accessibility and constant stream of both platforms to be a major weakness as a blogging platform. On each (as well as G+ and other social media), I am but one drop of many flowing past in a user's stream. But if you come here to I Have Touched the Sky, Dear Reader; at least for a few minutes, I have your undivided attention. Instead of me coming to your stream, you have come to mine.

Granted that it is from a Blogger template, what you see on IHTtS is curated by me, Rowanblaze. When you write on your own blog, you control the content. You control the layout. You are free to control who gets to participate. It is your own little corner of the internet, just as this is mine.

Also, unlike those other platforms, which seem to be a bit ephemeral, your blog can be an archive of the way you felt about things in the past. In writing this article, I spent a good couple of hours this morning reading several of my own past posts. It is interesting to go back and see what has changed and what remains the same in my life. What I was thinking a year ago. Or six.

There are many pluses to writing your own blog. It can be frustrating, and occasionally seems like a lot of work. You'll probably never get rich or famous doing it. But it has many intrinsic rewards. That's why I blog. And I think that's why you might enjoy blogging, too.

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