The other day I was adding my blog to different search engines, and abruptly stopped:Why the hell am I trying so pitifully to promote my blog?
When I was 14, I enjoyed fiddling with HTML, FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Flash. With a friend we built up our webpage and our first thought was to promote it. I do not remember very well why, perhaps we were proud of it and wanted everyone to aknowledge our webdesigner skill. Once again, it was not a target we were really conscious about.
In 2001, same refrain. I had an online art portfolio and promote it without really knowing why. I think it was because I wanted people to confirm me that I was a good draughtman.
Few days ago, the same whim. I am not trying to earn money thanks to my blog, I am not looking for fame to be famous...
Question: Is there really a reason to spend our time promoting for our blog if not for fame or money?
Looking for debates? forums are more appropriates; to show-off my skill? There are easier ways; to meet people? There are better solutions too; and so on.
Some hypothesis:
1. To forge ourself an identity through the web
On the web we are anonymous and you need an ID. It does not explain why we want to be known by the others. IRL, we do not go to talk to everyone to tell them our name, do we? Self promotion does not seem very natural from that standpoint.
2. A glimmer -- more or less avow of hope to be one day famous -- or not to have the impression that we are speaking to a wall
Does not seem to cost a lot of time to promote for a website. Spending 5-10 minutes everyday.
3. We want our own thing
A forum belongs to everyone; if you own your own blog you are the master of puppets. You can say what you want, moderate the comments etc.
4. ?
Next post: Discriminative intuitions -2-
1 comment:
The way I see it, anyone with a blog that they "promote" might just be looking for some validation through other people, but I think that some of us have a different motivation entirely.
Maybe we're just looking for some kind of connection. While it's always a thrill to find a teacher, and a pleasure to be a teacher, I think most of us are looking for equals. (I don't mean "equal" as in status, but equal as meaning "the same".)
Equals are people who remind us that we're not separate from the world. They show us that we're not so alien. I think as much as we crave these people, we also fear that we'll find them. On one hand it eases a certain type of loneliness, but on the other it proves that we're not as special as we would like to believe.
It's bittersweet. In some ways it's a request, in others it's us testing our own uniqueness.
Post a Comment