Blogging is Not For Everybody

I know I’ve said it before, but I will say it again here: I love WordPress. I love the blogosphere. It is a realm different from social media but in a few ways very similar to it. Both forms let me express some quick thoughts or make a point, but the blog lets me ramble on and on and on without worrying about what others may think about seeing a long post in their Facebook feeds. It’s also much safer.

Obviously, when you talk a lot about sensitive and political issues you’re bound to be attacked by the opposing side sooner or later. I have run into some length comment debates with liberals here on this blog, but thankfully they’ve remained just that–debates. The easy and rampant hatred and vile energy that has ruined Facebook and Twitter has not infected CrapPile. I am extremely grateful to have been blessed with readers who have treated me with immense respect, even if they disagreed with every little thing that I’ve written. That is totally fine. You’re not going to get every single person to agree with you, and you’d be wasting your time if that’s what you were trying to do. Intelligent conversation, however, is great for both sides. And unfortunately that is next to impossible to do most places these days, but at least in this blog I can be open and honest without anyone painting a target on my head.

It is for these reasons entirely that I believe that blogging is not for everybody, and I hope to God it never takes off the way Facebook has. True, anyone can make a blog. America is still a free country in a mostly-free world. But as with all rights, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should or that it IS right (hear me, flag burners?!) To me, it takes a certain special kind of person to be a blogger.

It is easy to become one, and by that I don’t mean just creating a WordPress or Blogger account and saying hi to the world once and only once. To be a blogger, you must have patience. A lot of people join expecting their blog to just be “found” and take off from there until they’re Perez Hilton or John Scalzi or any other uberly-successful poster. It’s a grind that a lot of people quickly get frustrated with. It also takes patience to handle criticism, and judging from the kinds of people who have their eyes glued to Facebook on a daily basis, that is a quality most of the world just doesn’t have. Social media is for the emotional. The blog is for the intelligent.

Also, I feel like a Facebook page is just a little snapshot of one’s life, whereas Twitter is your two cent’s worth. A blog is much more. It is a gateway into the blogger’s mind and imagination. It is a front for opinions and a safe haven for the opinionated. It is a medium for practice and and a venue for debate. Social media is like a strip show for the vile.

It is very easy to accept that some people have no place in a blog. They are little bombs just ticking, waiting for the wrong moment to explode and cause chaos and destruction to something that has no place being destroyed. Free speech is under attack left and right, but at least for the most part in the blogosphere it remains unscathed. Those of us who write blogs and subscribe to and contribute to others’ know this, and respect that what we read might not always be what we want to hear. Others just don’t give a damn and are just eager to get their hands dirty pointlessly arguing shit with those of us who just don’t care. If I wanted to argue or let my blood boil, I’ll scroll through Facebook for a bit. Not here, though.

The blog has no place for the loser.