/blog

In Blogging as self-care, Bix writes:

It’s just that for many of us, “the way we interact with our selves internally” is something we perform publicly where other people can see it...

...externalizing the internal in order better to examine and understand it

echoing my thoughts from a few years ago:

A blog is like a personal therapy session where other people can nip in and out to see where you're at. It's a space to think out loud, to share your thoughts with anyone who might want to listen – some of which might just resonate and grow beyond the confines of the receptacle (or, maybe, the exhibition case) into which you place them.

Robert Birming on not quitting blogging for the wrong reasons, writes:

“I spend all this time writing, creating, and sharing. For what? Does anyone even care? Why bother continuing?”

That’s the sad soundtrack playing in the background. That’s the need for validation hiding behind something that sounds reasonable.

Yes, I do spend time writing, creating, and sharing. But I do it because I love it, not to be recognized or to make a living from it.

He's written before about quitting but then always coming back to it. So, why quit in the first place if you're only going to start up again? I've taken breaks, and felt I needed to, but always come back.

Robert, however, is talking about hard quitting, deleting it all and having to spin up a new site when the urge pulls you back.

So many bloggers will tell you that they write to think, and it's only by seeing the words that they can truly get to grips with them.

This could be done in a journal app or completely offline, but there's something about making the words public that adds an extra element. It's not narcissism and not necessarily ego (in response to Bix) but something else.

It's a need or compulsion. It's something you can't really explain and makes absolutely no sense to non-bloggers, despite the frequency with which many post to social networks.

To not blog is a denial of part of yourself.