There's this post. This one here at Rocks In My Dryer. Go read it. It says things like this:
"But there is undeniable part of blogging that feeds a part of us (me) that is, perhaps, not the most sensible part: the part that craves to "measure" ourselves, the part that is naturally drawn to a false sense of urgency, the part that needs to be heard even when there's not really anything to say. "
Then you move onto the comments. READ THE COMMENTS. Yes, that was a command. Heed it. But you move onto the comments and you read things like this:
It was feeding something unhealthy in me - mostly a whole lot of narcissism. It was hard to admit that to myself, that I was wasting so much time on something that was essentially just a big ego booster. It felt awfully self indulgent.
I have felt God yelling at me to 'find the quiet' (yes, I see the irony in that statement). Blogging has started to feel like a highschool clique, and I'm certainly not part of the in group. I had started to wish I was the popular blog out there instead of just enjoying writing when I was inspired and had something to say. I was starting to fret if I hadn't blogged for a few days, worried that I was losing readers.
What was supposed to be a place to practice my writing sort of morphed into a journal and then a place to complain about anythign and everything. And then suddenly, I become more concerned with catering to the people that I thought might be reading my blog and I worried about what would draw them in and keep them
Seems like lately I come across a lot of blogs where the writer starts by saying that they don't have anything to blog about however they manage to write a very lengthy post about nothing
WHY do I do this? Is it pride? Is it making friends? Is it wanting to feel interesting or needed?
My post from last night and then reading this made me think. I haven't been posting because things aren't perfect. In fact, they're far from perfect. Really far. From here to China far. I haven't been doing great things. I haven't been canning or gardening. I haven't been finally conquering the behavior problems with the kids. Or keeping the bathroom spotless because of some great inspirational cleaning routine.
I started this to document things for my family. I could have stayed on my other blog with the readers I already had. Comments everyday sure are nice and who doesn't love the pat-on-the-back of loads of comments? But I moved. To start a blog more for our family. More about our family. And SO fast I came back to this place where I was blogging for other people, and hey, NOT blogging because of other people. In the same respect, I haven't been blogging real life BECAUSE family reads this blog. Who really wants their Grandmother (Hi Gramma! IF you've gotten this far and haven't turned back because my ramblings are too weird and annoying, I'm waving to you *wave*) but who wants their Gramma to read that they just can't seem to climb Mt. Laundry?
But if I don't mention Mt. Laundry I never post. lol!
SO what's the answer? I'm not sure. Part of me wants to not blog at all. Part of me wants to just cut this internet off and be done. Part of me wants to be able to just throw it all out the window and blog like a journal. Part of me wants to limit the blog to family stuff and farm stuff with no ramblings. Who knows. I don't. I know myself well enough to know I won't stop 100%. I know myself well enough to know I won't stop being on the internet. I wish I would. But I won't. Just won't happen. BUT I need to do something about my internet addiction. Maybe that should be the first step. To step back. Now how to do that? I'm an all-or-nothing gal. I'll pray about it and talk about it tomorrow. I've been thinking and praying about this internet thing for a while.
But for now you get my "I'm doing a blog post about whether or not to do a blog post" post. Which brings me back to another great post from the original post here
(In other words, I think writing a 47-part blogging series about Why We Probably Shouldn't Be Blogging So Much might be a little disingenous, don't you think?)
Hmm... blogging about why I blog. Blogging about whether to blog. Spending time on the internet debating whether to be on the internet. Ever wonder if because you're wondering you should just get up and stop?
See ya.
4 comments:
Thank you so much for your post... I know you're thinking of stoping, and I don't want to encourage you to keep going if you think it's just too much, but I really do like your blog, it does encourage me at times...I didn't do this, but I almost showed the pics of your messy house to my hubby "See her house is messy too", lol
I put your blog up with my favorites so that I might get a balanced view, cause as much as I love the perfect lives of the perferct families in the perfectly spotless houses, I still need a realistic blog to keep me from getting totally depressed. We all could do better, no on is perfect. Even if I come up with a perfect cleaning plan, it still will alway be dirty tomorrow and need to be done all over again. It took me a while to realize this, but even the perfectly clean houses, or ones that seem that way on the outside, aren't really clean all the time, hence why the perfect cleaning schedules from the perfect moms have been an obsession for many, cause their houses too keep getting dirty and the work needs to be done over and over. I'm an all or nothin' kinda gal as well, so why make the bed if I'm gonna sleep in it tonight again... I love big projects when there is a clear distinction between dirty and clean, but if there are only a couple dirty plates on te counter, why would I clean them, there aren't enough dishes out for me to make the effort, I'll wait till there are way more. I also wait till there is something good to write about before I blog.
I know one very popular blogging mom that had super interesting posts EVERYDAY and up to 250 comments per post as cut down herself and now only blogs 3 specific days a week. Hopefully that's something you'll consider. Maybe you won't be able to have "specific" days set aside, but don't worry about HAVING to blogg all the time. Just stick around and blog whenever you feel like it, even if there are weeks or months in between. I'll keep chequing in.
Hey Babe-
I say cut yourself some slack. You are doing fine. Sure we could all do a little bit better, but I love you and who you are! God loves you to, and together we will get better.
Your Husband-
Hi Kim. I've not been here in a while 'cause I did just what you are talking about. This web thing really steals time. So I stopped blogging all together, stopped reading most blogs I was. Instead, I've been knitting again, making lots of cheese, working on my artisan bread baking, etc. I'm calmer too. My kids' behavior is much better now too. Now I do want to blog at our Knot4Fun site but that's a business thing, KWIM? So don't be afraid to stop, at least for a while. Go do what's on that list on the right side of your blog. And enjoy the process. Blessings!
Kristin (over here in East TN)
I'm totally guilty of this. Blogging has been taking up way too much of my time. I'm one of those who was writing something... anything, just to keep my readership up. But one of my "resolutions" this year is to only post what I would post for my own reference or funny memory, instead of catering to my readers. My blog, after all, was supposed to be my personal journal of our successes and failures at this homesteading thing. I'm definitely cutting back this year! Too much to do around the house to be glued to the computer all day!! Thank you for this post. We all need it.
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