Bloggers on blogging

Why do we blog? And how does blogging change our life? Here are some rants & raves, from MR.

From Cowen:

Blogging, of course, is one of the ultimate forms of self-experimentation.

Blogging makes us more oriented toward an intellectual bottom line, more interested in the directly empirical, more tolerant of human differences, more analytical in the course of daily life, more interested in people who are interesting, and less patient with Continental philosophy.

From the comments:

1. The IT industry has an unusually high proportion of emotionally immature libertarians, and blogging (as a recent fruit of IT) seems to provide a strong outlet for self-indulgent reveling in one's own thoughts and self-congratulations on one's rational approach to life. Plus there are plenty of other libertarian bloggers out there to make the libertarian feel a solidarity in his or her selfishness.

2. Last night I was watching television with my wife and made a comment about a TV ad. She said, laughing, "you analyze everything...and figure out how you can use it in your blog!"

3. Blogging allows me to clarify my thoughts and put them into cogent arguments well before I am called on to use them in another context. It exercises analytical writing skills by putting you through the paces of analysis on a regular basis. As a law student, I have found that is a very valuable excercise. And, yes, it does provide for a better process of self-reflection than thought alone.... by putting my thoughts down and facing them over the passage of time, I am able to more correctly identify themes in my discourse.

4. I pay more attention to everyday stuff; and it demands more coherence in my thinking.

5. I can't go anywhere or do anything without mentally composing a blog post in my head about it.

6. It (blogging) seems to encourage or provide a forum for narcissism.

#2, 4 and 5 are kind of along the same line: we tend to live life to a fuller extent if we know we will blog about it, trying to make it a more positive experience than otherwise would. #3 would be my main reason to blog since most of my posts are not directly coming from my everyday life. Points made on #1 and #6 are very valid, but who is not a narcissist to some extent anyway?