There was a very thought-provoking post in the blog So Lovely called 'Rethinking the Whole Blogging Thing-- Are you Cyber cool enough?" (also read the comment section to see the responses)
Hmm. That got me thinking...Is blogging a popularity contest? If yes is it a bad thing?
Well, let me insert luscious images from Eclectic Gypsyland's flickr page, which i can't get enough of, I'm drunk with it, and let's tackle that issue shall we?
Blogging can get a tad nasty, discouraging at first. There is the issue of courting, I guess I'll call it that. When you fall head over heal in love with a blog, but the love is not reciprocated. You pour your soul in a lengthy comment but are neither visited nor acknowledged. You write a loving post about another blog, praising their utter magnificence and professing your undying love, and the blogger just can't be bothered. Maybe it is because, as Irene of Happy Turtle so eloquently put it "There are people who are polite and courteous and send an e-mail or post a link, and there are people who are little monsters of pride and self-value. " (he, he, love that!)
You know how rejection works, suddenly you're back in high-shool: Your clothes are all wrong and your hair is-like-totally retarded.
Well maybe it's true, blogging can become about popularity, so you have to thread lightly, know yourself. Is your heart easily broken? Then beware. You better acquire a certain philosophy about the whole process. There will be rejection, there will be neglect, and those who get bored with you will move on (and yes, let's admit it, maybe you'll be the one who gets bored and moved on cause ya'll can be a fickle bunch.)
What is important I think is that in the end you touch and attract exactly the people you want and need in your life (minus the occasional Troll. Hopefully that troll is not a personal friend because then aïe caramba.)
I think you attract the people whose heart sings along with yours, and i cannot explain it with any other words.
Now how many of those soul-matches one needs varies with individuals. How many will it take before we feel understood, appreciated, listened to? How many before we feel less lonely? I personally needed just one to be won over by the world of blogging. I thought, "What?? Are you serious!? There are real-live-talking-breathing people out there reading my prose!?" There was no turning back.
Also blogging is where you get to be Free At Last. This is where you get to risk being entirely yourself, a.k.a not trying to be everything to everyone, not trying to be popular. Let the bomb drop and just see what happens. There is nothing more liberating. Because I often wondered, what is the point of being liked by those I don't so much like myself? In real life we have to make efforts not to alienate, but here? Oh it's a cinch to lose readers, but I say good riddance. I lost readers when I became rabidly political, and then suddenly there was this peculiar jump in readership. My people had somehow managed to find me.
Needless to say I felt giddy when that happened.
So is blogging about popularity? I think yes. I sure like my little sliver of cyber-popularity. In real life I am annoying many I'm sure, being opinionated, being so irritatingly RIGHT all the time. The problem is they can't run away. Whereas you can!
