bobquasit | Blog survey

For some reason I was asked to participate in a blog survey for a graduate thesis. It was long, oddly phrased, and had several redundancies, but some of my answers were (I thought) interesting enough to save here.

I'm paraphrasing the questions because I don't remember them precisely.

Why do you keep a blog?

1. To create a record of my life, preserving memories that I don't want to forget.
2. To record memorable events in my son's life as he grows up, both for his sake and mine.
3. To have a forum to write ideas and opinions that don't fit in to my other online projects.
4. To have a single location to record copies of posts I make elsewhere online.
5. To get feedback on my thoughts.
6. To get myself into the habit of writing regularly, with the eventual goal of professional publication.
7. To network socially, making new friends and staying in touch with old ones.
8. To share online discoveries with friends.
9. To buttress my social life, which dwindled greatly after I graduated from college, got married, and started a family.

How has keeping a blog enhanced your life?

It has enhanced it enormously in many ways.

Even before blogging as such was available, I was very involved in zine-writing for amateur press associations, which were effectively the paper equivalent of zines. I participated in or published an APA from 1991-2001.

Once online, I maintained a proto-blog on a section of my website as early as 2000. When I became aware of blogging as such, the convenience of the format impressed me greatly - and I've never looked back.

One thing about blogging: by allowing me to create a very detailed record of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences, it offers me a sort of virtual immortality. When I write in my blog, the thought that some day my young son will read it and think of me, even after I'm gone, is part of what shapes my thinking.