Why do we blog?

The blog comes along and hey! Suddenly, everyone has a voice! We want our opinions about this, this and this to be heard. There’s almost no censorship and it’s ours; we can write what we want. Well, firstly, MDA will disagree with you. There is no practice of free speech in Singapore; in fact, what we have leans more towards responsible speech. Why should someone be allowed to say what he wants and not have to account for it? We also have pretty strong defamation and slander laws so that’s food for thoughts.

As for blogs being an avenue for your views to be seen, it’s not that straight forward is it? If everyone talks, who is going to listen? You have to be pretty famous before you gain the whole critical mass and the snowballing starts. In the meantime, you are really blogging for yourself. Some may argue that those who remained obscure have blogs that sucks. Well, you be the judge of that.

There is another view that we blog because we can remain anonymous but this anonymity is only perceived. Many people have gotten fired for blogging because they unknowingly posted work-related topics which some employers are extremely sensitive about. On the other hand, some companies have also started to use blogs as a marketing channel. The more honest of these might provide popular bloggers with endorsement deals or give freebies to these bloggers and hope they blog about it and influence others to get that products. The more deceitful might start a blog and pretend to have no affiliation with the company yet sing their praises sky-high.

Another reason to blog is because we are egotistical and exhibitionistic in nature. Some like to post lots of photos of themselves while others like to talk about their lives and themselves. This would suit the voyeurs just fine because they can openly peep into the lives of others from the comfort of their own homes. I heard that some of these people even ask their friends to refer to their blogs to know what’s going on in their lives instead of having a face-to-face chat.

There’s also the bloggers who start a blog out of pure boredom or just for fun. Somehow I suspect that these will be the ones who are less popular. I mean, to churn out a really good blog does really some thinking after all. But judging from what started them out, they are likely not to give a shit about their popularity or lack of.

Lastly, there’s the group who will blog to jump on the bandwagon. The herd instinct is strong and in order not to be left out from the “latest craze” and from conversations, you blog.