I really never dreamed - when I took my first scary and hesitant step into the world of blogging - that it would come to mean so much to me and become such an integral part of my life in the way it has.
I do believe it has made me watch and listen to the world more closely and to hear and see things that I might otherwise miss or ignore. Whilst most of what I write is about me, my family and what we are doing, I am conscious that every experience we encounter is potential blogging material. The children often say "will you put that on your blog" if someone does or says something they find amusing or interesting so I know they are conscious of our little patch of cyberspace. And whilst initially very sceptical about the process and the product, Cesar is warming to the concept and has even suggested a couple of subjects for me to include.
Yes, the blog is part of our lives.
But it has a life of its own too because it changes and grows - it really does feel like a thing alive. Each time I open it up, I can be surprised, delighted, amused and heartened by things I didn't write. I suspect this feeling will never dull. I read a lot of other blogs and without doubt, it is the comments that others leave that makes blogging so very special and exciting. Contrast my initial fear of being read when I first published a post, compared to how I feel now, when I check my statistics and see that as well as the readers (who are people I know) in the UK, the States, Australia and Spain, I now have readers I don't know - also in the these countries - but in countries as far away as Iran, Costa Rica, New Zealand and China, to name but a few. It really is quite mind-blowing!
And I am loving it!! It's wonderful to me - to us as a family, to my family back in England and to my close friends who want to know what we are doing - to be able to keep a record of our daily life, our big move, how we are coping with the decisions we make; to have lovely photos of all the places we've been able to visit and to have a 'place' to come when I want a bit of time to myself. All of these things would be a good enough reason to have a blog. But to have readers as well, who talk back to me, who also blog - and write wonderful, funny, sad, interesting, philosophical or just plain dippy things in their own blogs - who visit regularly... well, I guess bloggers - certainly the ones I have 'met' - are special people. All the blogs I follow are written by people who like to communicate, who see things in the world in a way that casts a new and brighter light on them, who like to share.
I was going to write about the history of blogging but it's really boring! I'll simply tell you that it started around 1997 - with the term 'weblog', which in 1999 was written thus: 'we blog' and from there, just 'blog'. In February of this year, there were around 156 million public blogs according to Blog Pulse. (Only go here if you are seriously interested in blog stats!) We do indeed blog!
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Hip, Hip, Hurray!!
Are you a mind-reader, Annie? I was just thinking about writing a post about blogging and you've gone and done it for me :-) I'm still a very new blogger, but I too am amazed by the sheer variety of blogs and love getting to know the people who write them. Such fun!
ReplyDeleteIt is a craving isn't it? I know. I went for years without comments. It's not necessarily the attention that matters, it is the exchange, the interaction that is gratifying. Sometimes I say something that feels kind of *out there* and am about to retract it when a person comments, relates, understands, and then it feels so right. Congratulations on your first year. It makes me happy for you that you have found support, and so many good reasons to continue... blogs do come to life, I hope yours is long and satisfying.
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