First Blogaversary

So here I am, one year and a little over 109 blog entries later, and I’m contemplating the whole nature of this blogging business. There are many of us doing this now – I’ve heard one estimate put it at 23 million blogs – available for public consumption. This just proves to me that everyone has something to say and many of us are exercising whatever freedoms and technology we have at our disposal to say it.

Many people probably wonder if anything they read on the blogs is worthwhile. That’s the beauty of this writing. It is up to our readers to decide the worth of our work. The blog writers put whatever they want out for public inspection, or (like the old cliché) let’s run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it. Many readers do salute, adding their two cents to this, the largest public written forum known in human history. Think about this: we are contributing to the largest community bulletin board invented by mankind.

Future historians may use our blog writings as a primary resource for their research, much like we now use diaries and journals from the past. Our blogs could be invaluable to them in determining our attitudes, trends and mores of the 21st century. The possibility that our writings could be influential in the future staggers my imagination, even as I realize that all of us will never know what our words will mean to the generations yet to be born.

The pop culture media seems to have a love/hate attitude towards blogging. Many will dismiss it as trivial, but when a blog states something that fits their agenda, they’re more than happy to sample the writing in their own outlets – newspaper, Internet, or otherwise. One (fictional) character from Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury went as far to dismiss bloggers as those who are too lazy to become journalists. Perhaps there is some truth to this, but I also hasten to add harrumph in response.

As for me, I lived many years lacking confidence in my own writing that kept me from pursuing a career in journalism. Those years and opportunities are gone forever, but there is also the probability that had I started a journalism career twenty years ago, I would not be a journalist today. There is a good chance I would be unemployed, given news corporations recent trend towards downsizing staff and pushing reporters into early retirement.

So, today I write these words for free, without monetary compensation. I hope that this situation will change someday. In my first blog entry, I compared myself to Lana Turner sitting with a tight sweater in Schwabs Drugstore when she was discovered. Granted this story might be more legend than fact, but it does give me a small bit of hope that somewhere there is someone on the other side of the computer screen looking for my talent. In the meantime, I will continue to write, gaining experience and confidence in my skills, and hopefully giving you, my wonderful readers, a reason to smile and reasons to think.

This coming year I may have to do things that will raise my profile, and get someone to notice me. Maybe if I took off my sweater...