The Ugly Side Of Blogging

Blogs are truly wonderful things aren’t they? I didn’t always think that way though. I remember when blogs first came out one of the first ones I knew who took to it immediately was one of my first editors Pam. To say that Pam is a friend is kind of stupid really, she’s way more than that. In a way, she’s like family, like that annoying kid sister whom inspite of the fact you occasionally find difficult and have arguments with, remain close to just because.

At any rate, our relationship isn’t the topic here, it’s about blogging. And Pam is in this post because she was the one who literally forced me into blogging. And since my very first post approx three years ago, I’ve written a post at least once a week. As if credit for that isn’t enough, I’m gonna credit her for one other thing, which is the most important thing of all, and that is saying in passing one day what I believe in my heart to be the truly most important thing about blogging – and it’s writing with your heart.

I once told that to a friend, and she basically laughed out loud in my face because admittedly it’s almost unbearably corny. However, in years of writing, I find this to be the ultimate truth in almost all types of blogging, whether for business, personal, tech, even reviewing movies. Hell, you could be writing about what your dog ate today, but inasmuch as I’ve read hundreds of blogs over the years, if you write with your heart, even that would be interesting.

Admittedly, I understand a lot of people will react as much as that other person who laughed at me would. She is actually a very good writer, so I know her reaction was knee-jerk, an uncomprehension of what I really meant than anything else, so for what it’s worth, I’ll try to explain:

I’ve found over the years that there are two blogs: pretentious blogs, and honest blogs. The pretentious ones are the ones that either we can’t stand, or are just plain boring. The writer writes about events, people or places in a manner that would try to make others believe that these define them, hence if they wish to impress or otherwise provide a false impression of themselves, there’d be pictures and mention of glamorous folks, expensive places and exciting (to them) events.

On the completely opposite side are the honest blogs, which for the life of me, even if they spent their day at the grocery, would captivate and entertain beyond belief, you would discuss them among your other friends who blog, and you’d even leave a comment or two. They are just terrific.

What does your heart have to do with all this? I truly believe that in our ‘heart of hearts’ (yet another corn attack. Sorry, for lack of better terms really. I even put a nice corny image of a heart on top for good measure), or at least deep inside of us, we are all interesting people, with valid opinions, interesting things to say and with feelings and emotions that are true and, well, honest.

I believe that these are the things that people relate to, what they want to read, and hence, what makes a blog, (or any reading for that matter) halfway interesting. A corporate blog wouldn’t sound like canned PR if it’s employees were the ones who wrote in it. A tech blog wouldn’t sound like fawning geeks if the writer would talk about how and why a gadget affects (or doesn’t affect) his life and work, and skipped highlighting the technicalities which are really just numbers to most. A movie review would have spirit if the writer wrote how the movie affected him, of how certain scenes moved, or didn’t move him, as opposed to concentrating on movie technicalities or worse, the personal lives of it’s stars.

Blogs that merely pretend become boring because really, it would take an incredibly gifted writer to keep someone interested in a lie. This I noticed when I feel the urge to press page-down or just click away from a blog altogether. How can anyone’s life possibly be boring? There’s always something interesting. The only time it isn’t is when the writer is telling you something that doesn’t sound true.

Granted many other things make a blog. The writer’s maturity for example, weighs heavily on the quality of the blog especially when they relate their past experiences. A person’s basic outlook in life is terrific as well. Some are cheerful and happy while others introspective and deep.

But mature or immature, cheerful or sad, it all boils down to the ultimate truth: it has to come from the heart.

It’s nothing to do with whether you agree with that person’s point of view, you may even find yourself taking the opposite opinion altogether. I believe that in our hearts, there is nothing but Truth, and the truth will always be free of trying to make an impression. It will be unhampered by attempts to paint dark clouds with frilly colors. In your heart, your opinions, thoughts and emotions are always untarnished because that is where they start. The only times they change is when you’re trying to obfuscate, embellish or otherwise improve on the truth. Find it in you to write about things as you really see them. That way, you will really enjoy what should be the whole point of blogging :

Not to make new friends. Not to speed up your hit counter, not to make people think you’re cool, not even to quit your job and live on what you make from Google Ads. If these things happen, then well and good, God has blessed you. But really, first and foremost, the important thing is, you use your blog to express yourself.