Why Do I Blog? What Am I Here For?

There are a couple of things that I wanted to write about. It ranges through questions about quality of life, how one see one’s friends, how the actions of others affects one’s feelings and how some random blog was created for the sole reason of filling up the void of tabloid in our blogosphere.

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact need for me to write up a post, there is though, a need to write, or else be consigned to be pushed back down the troughs, where every newer blogs have to wade through, to achieve the level of readers that I already have.

What purpose then does it serve to do this? When I started blogging with LiveJournal(LJ), things were (and still are) much more simple yet engaging. With LiveJournal, I have the freedom to bestow readership status on some of my LJ friends.

I engaged with other readers in a community-like environment, SG-Ljers and SG-Snapshot, discussing about the various reason to be in Singapore. Be it food, culture, politics, social scene and the arts. We get readers who come in to plug about their latest wares, music groups and calls for surveys. The bigger impact came from the political and social scene where the cut & thrust of life is left hanging for everyone to offer their opinions on it.

When I write on LJ, I do so with all the endeavours that I have to ensure that it is read-worthy. And I have fun doing that. The gamesmanship or the upmanship of such is a good challenge. With LJ, there are no advertising that can be directly attributed to you. Thus, there was no real need to blog for profit. And thus, reading LJ somehow becomes more interesting as people write things that are really close their hearts.

I am not saying that, people who do not choose LJ as their platform of choice write callously and are impersonal. I am positing this view as, for me, moving from the LJ platform to the self-hosted platform, I see myself writing lesser & lesser, while realizing that I do not have the drive to write as much as I used to. Now everything is about high readerships, numbers from the advertisement avenues etc. Suddenly there are KPIs for blogging and it just does not get exciting to me anymore!

It became more like work.

There are reasons for me, when I first initiate the creation of this site. The reasons for doing so have been documented in previous entries as well as archived as parts of About Me. So, the subconscious part of me have already validated the fact that this blog will be sensitive to money issues. I see the need to pen this down as I try hard to pinpoint my sudden lost of drive for writing.

Some of my previous posts were in fact, re-publishing of posts I have done on LJ. That may give me an inkling that perhaps I am not really prepared to be in the serious business of blog-writing. It just makes me wonder then, what am I here for?