The Difficulties of Starting To Blog
Sometime between 1996 and 1997 I started my first blog. Back then the term blog had not been coined yet and software applications to manage your postings were non-existent. If you wanted to blog you had to find your own server, design your own pages and post them day-by-day. It was a long and difficult process, but somehow it made a difference when you got the first email from a reader. It was even more thrilling when you found out that they had been reading your blog for some time. Now, over a decade later, I’m going to give it another try.
I’m not sure why I abandoned my mission. I suppose it had something to do with not having anything important to say. Just this morning I went through my brief blogging history — which was conveniently archived in a sub-directory of a server long since retired from useful purpose. I was in my early twenties, just starting to figure out life. I had just graduated college and started my first job in a corporate environment. The first year of my blog chronicled some pretty boring stuff.
As I was reading through my posts and the posts of other friends that helped out on the project, I realized that the blog was pretty boring and mundane by today’s standards, but by 1997 standards, it was fascinating to be able to get a glimpse into someone else’s life. It was the first time that people had the ability to truly share their thoughts and their lives with strangers. In those adolescent years of blogging it wasn’t about substance, but rather pure voyeurism. I read the blogs of people that were getting married, having children, getting divorced, and pretty much every naughty thing in between.
The first blog I read was about a girl in her early twenties that had gotten laid off from her job (I don’t recall what it was now) and she had to move back in with her parents. She never gave out her identity, but as she wrote, we were all able to follow her life as it morphed along the twists and turns of life. We were with her when she started dating “the one” and when a few months later it turned out that the one also had another one on the side. We were with her when she got a puppy and again when her mother told her that the destructive jaws of the K-9 mega beast had to go. It was this one journal that kept me busy at my desk, churning out mindless work day after day.
It was this one journal that made me realize that everyone has a little secret life that they can’t share with their immediate co-workers, friends and families. That each of us has a hidden creative talent and simply needs an outlet for these thoughts and dreams. — and that secret life is what makes us all CubeSlaves.
While this blog will not chronicle the banality of my everyday life, it will be a platform for my thoughts and ideas on how to express yourself. In my case, my focus will be about creativity in the interactive world. While that might be my original goal, it’ll be interesting to look back at this first posting to see how true I will remain to my original premise.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
This is really fantastic writing. Seriously – voice of a generation caliber writing. Keep it up.