Being the irrepressible annoying pundit that I am, as I viewed the nominees to a blog contest, I couldn’t help wondering about blog competitions per se.
I’ve never been a stranger to competition, in fact the years I spent playing sports are of tremendous value to me purely because of that. I’m not gonna say I loved it all, in fact in my younger years I dreaded it. Competition brings out the best and worst in you, and it had so many positive and negative aspects to it.
And that’s what I worry about in blogging competitions.
Maybe it’s just me. I still think of blogs as nothing more than a blank piece of paper on which one would write his thoughts and to hell what anyone else would think or do about it. At this very moment, that is in fact what I’m doing. I’ve an opinion, I use Microsoft’s Notepad to write it down, after which I’ll log onto my wordpress blog, paste it on there, edit a related pic or two on Photoshop to enhance it, publish, sit back and appreciate what I have done, then go back to work. Blogging is just writing. Writing is expression. Plain and simple.
I never in my recollection thought that any of my blog posts as any better, or for that matter, worse, than anyone else’s. I read other blogs and the length of time I spend reading it is judgement enough as to whether I like it or not. I forward it to others whom I know would appreciate it, both factors varying widely considering what content is in it. Techie content goes to techie friends. Celebrity gossip goes to my gf and / or other friends, and so on.
Is it then possible to judge a blog as better than others? Is it like movies where we have criteria like cinematography, direction, acting, sound, etc.? Are bloggers then like *gasp* movie stars?
More importantly, is ranking one blog over another even necessary? I’m sure one is always curious as I am to know if anyone checks them out, especially if you want to make money from it. Obviously, I am guilty of both. But regardless, I’d like to believe it doesn’t matter to me if no one visits my blog. If I take out the ads, the hit counter, and even the comments, I should write the same.
Anyway, when I was a kid I stopped dreading competition when I finally understood it for what it was meant to be – a statement declaring the mastery of your discipline, via testing yourself against those who strive to master it themselves. When you understand it to be so, and not one-upmanship as it seems like in the surface, then you will begin to long for competition, and enjoy it.
Blogging is not a competition, because there is no period similar to when you would work out in a gym till you can’t think straight from muscle pain, when you spend lonely hours shooting a ball, where you play till your body is numb, to master your sport.
Blogging is not a competition, because when a competition rewards you with win, it is sweet beyond words because you know you beat others who have invested as much time and effort and are as disciplined as you.
Blogging shouldn’t be a competition, because we shouldn’t be worried about winning or losing. We should just blog and blog and blog away, with no worry or fear of being better or worse than anyone else.
I do not think of blogging as a discipline, and especially not a sport. It is merely a modern form of expression. As such, competition seems misplaced.