Blogging just to Blog

This is only my fourth blog post, and my first in a few months. After reading something from Richard Branson about blogging authentically and constantly, I’ve decided to take this opportunity (I’m on a flight while writing this) to write about why I rarely write. I figure that my reasons for not writing are shared by at least a few people so at least if they come across this, they would be comforted by not being alone. What I believe to be the most impactful reason to why people don’t blog often is fear, mostly due to judgement. — The fear that no one will read what I just wrote — The fear that everyone will read what I just wrote — The fear that no one will agree with what I just wrote — The fear that someone will just troll what I just wrote — The fear that someone will criticize how I just wrote — And so on. I know that writing a blog post is supposed to be like a page in my journal, to open my emotions and myself for the world to see. But, perhaps mistakenly, I find that it is not the case. When people read blog posts, I perceive there to be an expectation that the post is some great revelation for the world to see, some awesome realization that may edify others. Unfortunately, those revelations and realizations are hard to come by and even when they occur in my own life, they seem too contrived to share. Add the ability to know how many individuals have read or shared your blog post and all of a sudden, you hesitate on blogging things that people won’t read. The feeling of seeing double digit views on a blog post is demotivating and single digit shares and it makes you wonder if you just wasted people’s time. Then if a ton of people read it, you wonder if you wrote it well or not because with more readers comes more opportunity for your points to be refuted and criticized. Criticism should be welcomed, but even though I am open to criticism, the criticism over the internet is sometimes hard to accept.
Which brings me to trolls. Unfortunately, there are individuals on the internet who are just straight up trolls. They want to make you feel stupid, they want to bring you public ridicule, all to bolster their reputation on the internet as a comedian. Now, I don’t really mind this from friends for the most part (given that I’ve been a troll to them as well) but it’s the trolls outside my immediate friend group that I fear. I’m not really sure how to eradicate this population. Someone should make an app for that
Another fear that I felt deserved a separate section is from the permanence of the internet.
Once you write something, your blog post will be out in the world, and it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to remove it entirely from the internet. Somewhere, somehow, there will be a trace of what you just wrote.
For me, this fear of permanence is very real. I’ve always thought about running for public office, and I fear the day that if my views on a particular controversial topic changes, my blog post on my previous stance will be brought to light to paint a negative picture of me. Of course, I recognize how stupid this sounds given that people change their views all the time!
If you can tell, I don’t point out how to overcome these fears. I don’t do it because 1) it seems contrived haha 2) I wanted people to feel the same way to know that I don’t have it figured out and so I wasn’t willing to tell people what to do without having actually figured it out. Join me on my journey to blog more, or make the choice that blogging isn’t for you. Good luck!