Why do we Blog?

A two-fold post for you this time:

Part 1: More about the Blogging feature on BBC Click

Part 2: Why do we Blog?

Part 1.

This week was busy – the latest episode of Click Bits -the little 3 minute tech newscast – is now online… Click on the pic if you want to watch it.

(RSS Readers/can’t click on the pic to view? link here: Http://bit.ly/clickbits006 )

…and my blogging piece on BBC Click is on this week’s show.

Thank you very much Judith Lewis , Mike Robinson , Marko Saric, Clare English and Andy Bargery for their cameos.   They each gave me about 20 seconds’ worth of blog tips on video, which I integrated into the piece.

I took a few 3 second shots of some blogs at the beginning of the package

They are listed here:

• Going Underground eccentric blog all about things that happen on London’s transport system
• cat-fest I Can Haz Cheezburger and its sister site failblog
• unchained guide showing the best independent shops in cities,
• Black Phoebe, a beautiful photo blog

Below are a few more blogs I’ve enjoyed reading in recent times:

• Something to be said – breathtaking prose and inventive fiction – with teeth
• Dead Hub – raw music and rock blog
• Rocketboom – internet culture blog

You’ll be able to read the whole transcript of the blogging feature here.

• _

part 2.

Making the segment got me to thinking about when I first started blogging, so I went back and read my “Hello World” post i.e. the first post I ever wrote, which was about 90 posts ago.

(If you absolutely have to, you can read it here. <cringe>)

Then I wondered: What makes us blog? What drives us to leave a mark of our mundane existence on the internet? Who do we imagine writing to when we’re typing?

So, of course, I came up with a thoroughly empirical theory.

As a human, I normally spend a lot of time thinking, but my mouth blurts any given thought out after little (if any) moderation from my addled, overworked, overclocked brain.  I’m assuming that other humans experience this too.*

If that is the case (and if we have the desire to do so) then writing could give us the freedom and time to craft a sentence, play with the words, and get a sense of perspective we can rarely access “in the moment”. We can proof-read our thoughts in type, then adjust that thought until it “makes sense” – to us, the authors, as much as any reader. This crafting of ideas into concrete might even result in learning something about ourselves we didn’t know until we saw it on the page.  Or of course, it could be nothing of the sort. We could just want to post pictures of cats because we love cat pictures.

Incidentally, the above paragraph took 35 minutes to write, and included moving the sentences around, working out what I wanted to say – then making it sound nice to read in my head. I’m now doubting whether or not it’s a self-indulgent paragraph of pointlessness, and now I’m thinking it’s dinner time soon, and I should probably turn the computer off and deal with this later.

Indeed, none of the above musings touch on the obvious love of story that permeates our very existence – mythology, fairy tales and even documentaries – but that is most definitely another post all on its own.

So,  please leave your comments: Bloggers, Why do you blog? Readers, what do you read?  I’d be honoured if you left your thoughts below.

*to paraphrase the great Douglas Adams, and probably a few others, the worst assumptions are the ones you don’t know you’re making.

Twitter Article hits BBC Website!

Few things persuade me to get up in the morning, but knowing I needed to finish this article in time to have it submitted to the BBC News Website was successful in pulling the duvet covers off!

 

After last night’s twestival, I arrived back home inappropriately late after spending the majority of the evening filming – it was a fun evening, even though I was working for most of it, and I hope that the very worthy charity: water will have benefited enormously from all the organisers’ hard work.

Twitter Article on the Beeb!

The pictures in this article are by @lateral – you can see more here.

In case you’re wondering, the article is all about how I think Twitter has changed in recent times as more people have joined. Click on the picture, or here: http://tinyurl.com/ljbbctweet to read it.

I’m going back to bed…

Carp Spelling

Lufthansa - Nooooooo!

Please tell me I’m not alone on this one…. 

In the big scheme of things, with the economy going bonkers, the US election results (Woohoo!) and various other events unfolding on the world stage, what follows is an utterly inconsequential and unimportant footnote in a life of geekdom.

…. so here’s my confession – I absolutely and completely enjoy getting annoyed about what is excellently illustrated above on a tube advert I took an indignant snap of.  It’s…

….BAD SPELLING ON MASS-PRINTED MEDIA!

Aarrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhh (sic) !

On my N95 phone, I appear to have many photos of these instances, just loitering around doing nothing – it’s about time this pointless bugbear was let loose on my blog. 

Bluewater – SHAME!

I feel I should qualify my rage somewhat:

1. It doesn’t sting quite as much when I see spelling mistakes in daily restaurant menus (Lemon Cak, anyone?)  or handwritten stuff, or even blog posts – I’m aware of my own unreasonable nature in this case.

2. It’s (just about) OK when someone does unacceptable things with apostrophes at vegetable stalls –  I grit my teeth, and buy my bag of potatoe’s’s.

3. When I’m travelling outside English-speaking countries, the odd printed mistake is no big deal, especially when one can probably understand the sentiment behind the spelling (“A Selection of Snakes and Desserts” in Egypt being a favourite) – indeed, if I was to attempt to write signs in Thai or Mandarin Chinese, I expect there to be more than a few spelling discrepancies, even after proper lessons – you get the idea.

However, <gets up on high horse> the cases that rattle me deeply are like the examples in the pics – they concern bad spelling from professionals who spell for a living and get paid for it! 

SAVE ME FROM MYSELF!!! HIT SPELLCHECK!!!!!!  

…even if the only person you appease is one short geek.

Reading this post back, I bet I *am* alone on this…. <sighs>

p.s. I am also prepared to bet there are loads of spelling and grammar errors in my blog, emails, websites, CDs and twitter posts – in fact, I’m quite aware that this is probably the case.

<climbs down from high horse>