This blog is one week old. I created it on a bit of a whim last weekend while asking P (my husband) about how hard or easy it would be to create and maintain a blog. It was so easy that, while poking around on the internet to research options, I ended up creating this blog. Since then I have been digesting the idea that I am putting myself out there for people to read (and perhaps judge) my words. I have not yet told anyone that this blog exists. I think I needed a little time to let the fact that I am creating an on-line presence steep in my mind.
Being that I haven't told anyone that this exists, it was actually quite a shock and surprise when, on the very same day I had created this blog, I received a comment. To be honest, I was somewhat unnerved (and excited) by it. The person who left the comment was January One (Cara), someone whose blog I read. It was baffling to me that in this big ole internet world I had been found and read in my "newborn" state and that I had been found by someone whom I "knew".
I am not someone who comments on other people's blogs. I belong to a few on-line knitting communities but those communities are tied to real life events like knitting groups and yarn stores. I have been reading blogs as entertainment, inspiration and information. I haven't really felt like I been using blogs as a conscious community building activity but I guess that in retrospect I was gaining a sense of community from them. I have just been that person in the community who has been quietly sitting and taking in her surroundings without giving much back.
I have been trying to figure out why receiving a comment was unsettling. I have only been able to conclude that by writing in this forum, I am becoming vulnerable to judgement from others while also relinquishing control as to who has access to my thoughts. It also weirds me out a wee bit that I may come into contact with people who know things about me (that I have posted) but I don't know that they know those things. For some reason, that messes with my head a little. I'll get over it though.
So, in the end, it wasn't really about the comment. It was about the confirmation that the words I had whispered into the internet world had been heard by someone.
Even more strange was visiting the January One blog and finding that Cara had posted about the importance or lack of importance of receiving comments on your blog.
http://www.januaryone.com/archives/2007/03/best_laid_plans.php
Her post referred to a larger discussion happening on another knitter's blog http://acunningplan.typepad.com/andsheknitstoo/2007/03/lotsa_brown.html
and
http://acunningplan.typepad.com/andsheknitstoo/2007/03/well.html
I see this discussion as rooted in the same question that I have been asking myself: Does it matter if people read (and respond to) what I write?
I think so. I like the idea of sharing with others (my mom taught me well!). It makes me excited to see what other people might have to say in response to my posts.
I would like to thank Cara for welcoming me to the community. I am glad to be here and I'll try to speak out more since I now know that comments do matter.
On a practical note and in preparation for the gobs of comments I am bound to get (ha!), can anyone inform me as to the best way to respond to comments on blogger?
Sunday, March 25, 2007
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I'm sorry! I certainly didn't mean to weird you out! ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be fun - and just remember - you get out what you put in so you can pull back whenever you want. I think. I got sucked in BIG time.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteThis topic of whether comments matter probably comes up for every blogger. I imagine that every blogger has a different thought process that leads to subtlely different conclusions.
For me this topic came up in a conversation with the writer of Double Helix. Staying in the theme of my thoughts on the subject, I offer you a link to my post. If you go to my blog, you will see that I am an infrequent poster. That's because I'm blogging about a certain aspect of my introspection rather than as a journal. So, my considerations about comments may be different simply because of that.
I wish you the best of luck and joy with your blogging pursuit.
Oh, and by the way, Double Helix has one solution to your question of responding to blog comments. You might take a look and see if it would work for you or ask her if she has any thoughts on the matter.