Musing on Blogging

As an avid reader and tv watcher during childhood, I've become used to the random happenings in a person's [characher's] life being strung together into a narrative, and expect my life to follow the same pattern, to the extent where, even if there isn't an omniscient third person narrating for me, I create my own narrative. I don't think this behaviour is unique to me, I think we all narrate our own life to some extent, whether it's through religion, myth, fairy tales or simply in a conversation with another person.

The thing about blogging is that it is setting something down in written text, that suddenly authorship is conferred upon the writer and that creation of the story becomes formalised and explicit rather than casual and implied. What does that mean for the narrative? Given the broader audience that they may be reaching, a blogger has to decide how much to reveal or veil in their writing and choose their vocabularly carefully -- the blog is as much a public relations tool for the individual as it is a monologue of their thoughts and cataglogue of their daily activities.

I'm sure someone has made this point somewhere, probably more saliently than I, but the whole concept of blogging raises some really interesting issues, not just about the narratorship of our existence, but about perception and construction of self to others too. If only I had the time, patience, research facilities or publishing house backing to write a book about this fascinating subject!