The Joy of Blogging... and Having "Real" Conversations With Yourself!

Whereas I have been keeping a journal since my teenage years, there was something about the blogging format that changed the way I "connect" with writing.

I started blogging in maybe 1998 or 1999... and I was fascinated by this idea of "Instant Publication" that could actually reach an audience. Of course, it didn't take me all that long to work out that it was a lot more than an audience, it was a community.

Of course, we all have different ways of approaching keeping a blog. For me, it was always a very personal experience that allowed me to have "close conversations" with myself... whether it was just go on a rant about something, or to work through some problem — in writing — that I had been wrestling with.

The early social blogging communities tended to be quite vocal and interactive... and it was where I learned most of what I ended up applying to Steemit, all these years later.

Facebook (and to a lesser degree MySpace) pretty much caused the demise of the initial wave of social blogging sites. I suppose a lot of people liked the idea of just posting a simple picture with a short caption, rather than actually sharing the joys and tragedies of their actual lives.

By about 2007, I threw in the towel and went off to write "niche blogs" that certainly contained a lot of information about specific and often quite narrow topics, but they were very rarely interactive.

So finding Steemit (in January 2017 — soon it will be my 6th anniversary!) represented a very welcome return to a interactive style I had resigned myself to being gone forever.

So Why am I Writing This?

I got to thinking about the way the most popular and engaging content during the first social blogging cycle was that which centered about human life and personal stories.

When you create engaging content with a strong "real life" flavor, people tend to be touched by it, and it also tends to become more engaging and interactive.

I remember back in the early days of Steemit, how it would not be that unusual for an engaging post to end up with multiple "conversations" in the comment section... and ultimately 30-50 comments per post.

Sadly, much of that was killed by automated voting... and bots, those infernal bots!

Things on Steemit are different now, although I sense that there is finally more of a "living" community coming back to life... real people interacting with other people... about the actual words that were written.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying writing these "conversational" type pieces... in a style that perhaps resmebles me sitting across from you at a table over a cup of tea, and telling an anecdote. Even if I am mostly talking to myself, it's still a great way to get ideas from my head "out and about!"

Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your week!

How about YOU? Do you ever think of your blog as a place to "think out loud?" Would you enjoy Steemit more if there was more engagement between users? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20221227 23:39 PDT
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