Reflections Upon A Milestone

Yes, this blogging turtle has reached a milestone — 100 000 visits after 1500 posts. Although 90 000 may come from AC himself checking things out (kidding), it seems like a good time to reflect just a little on this thing called blogging.

Just over six years ago, I read something about being able to set up a blog very easily on this site. I'd heard the word, blog, and barely knew what it meant, but I signed up. Now, six years later, I have hit the 100 000 visit mark. I know such a record does not exactly set the world on fire because most of you would hit that mark a lot sooner. Not that it matters; we blog for our own reasons, and one of mine is just to put something out there and have some people stop by to take a gander and vice-versa (which after sixty years on the planet I still want to write as visa versa, so being a slow learner I have to re-check almost every time).

I like to write, hit publish and see my thoughts and words go online, but although I like getting my words down on paper, I had trouble doing it consistently prior to blogging. In the early days of the internet I had a number of penpals — in Japan, Singapore, Australia and America — so that got me writing more, but penpalling quickly gave way to blogging once I was introduced to this forum.

We all blog for different reasons, I suppose. I do it mostly to write my stuff down. Without something to motivate me to pound out the words, it's unlikely that I would get around to it. I certainly never did it consistently BI — Before Internet. Although I write to some degree with readers in mind, I confess that I do it mostly for myself.

Perhaps I blog to leave some sort of record that I have been here on this planet. I think I hope that my musings will someday be of some insight, interest or comfort for my scions. I am not holding my breath that Smudge or Zach or anybody will really care, but what I do know is that I wish I could read thoughts from my antecedents. Sadly, however, there are none available to me.

What has surprised me in the last year or two is to come to the realization of just how much of a social networking tool blogging is for an awful lot of folk. As I have begun to select "Send Me Follow Up Comments By Email" more often after I comment on someone's post, I find myself greatly surprised by how much back and forth chitting and chatting goes on in the comment sections of other bloggers. For many, this social aspect seems to be a bigger draw than the opportunity to write: kind of a Facebook that is a lot more cumbersome and takes a lot more time. Which is okay; I'm just saying the extent of it has surprised me.

I don't know if the social aspect wears thin over time because bloggers sure come and go at a rapid pace. As I scroll down my roll in Reader, I can easily identify more than a dozen good folk who have quit or who at least post very infrequently, and I'm just referring to those who are still on my roll not to those who departed a long time ago. In this regard , just for interest, I clicked on one of my posts from June 2006 at random. Of the dozen who left comments on that post of long ago, it appears to me that six have left blogging completely, four have become infrequent bloggers, and two I can't even remember.

Although scores come and go or at least barely hang on, I imagine that I will persist for some time. While I do go through brief periods where I take a bit of break, I can't see that I would quit writing for a long time, never mind forever. No, I imagine that I will go publishing my ploddingly pedestrian posts into the indefinite future and turtle on and on as blogging friends come and go.

I blog what I'm up to and what's on my mind. For that reason, I must confess that weekly memes such as Sky Watch or Ruby Tuesday or whatever, don't hold much appeal for me. I see them as somebody's homework assignment, which I don't much care to do. I'd simply rather not have to scrabble around to find something to post for a theme that somebody else has chosen. To each his or her own, however, and if that's what keeps you motivated, I say, "More power to you."

Finally, I think, although I don't chit and chat in the comment sections as much as most, I do appreciate your visits and your own thoughts on your own blogs. I hope, whether it's for a short or long duration for you, blogging fills some sort of need for you as it does for me.