The beautiful yet ugly world of blogging

I look back at my older entries on this blog (I can’t believe it’s been a year) and I’m fascinated by how productive and driven I used to be. I was focused and I had a plan that I actually acted upon as opposed to now where I’m struggling to find clarity in my life. I thought I had it all figured out, but it’s funny because sometimes we wholeheartedly believe we have a good understanding of everything when in reality, we’re clueless and far from knowledgeable about our present.

This is exactly what I love about blogs though. I read certain older entries and I become uplifted and inspired seeing mature positivity (as I do at the moment) or I read others and I am surprised or bewildered at my utter naivete and stupidity. Blog archives have the power to either inspire us to become the best versions of ourselves (competing with my past self is on my agenda after reading my older stuff!) or they have the ability to make us realize how much exactly our understanding of the world has deepened and matured over the years when we read entries (when I read my older blogs pre-2004, I feel pretty damn good about who I am now!).

Understandably enough, I find reading others’ blogs is so much more intriguing to me than writing my own—I think a huge part of us enjoys reading others’ blogs because we like to read about lives completely different from ours (or heck, similar) & try to understand their psychology. That applies to me, at least. It’s kind of like the thrill we get from watching movies—we get completely absorbed in other people who we have no connection with whatsoever. We feel their pain, sadness, happiness, euphoria, and whatever else there may be.

Some days, when I read a blog that I consider rather perturbing, I wonder why we even blog anyway. Who cares what some random person has to say about particular subject matter? For all we know, they can be pulling stuff out of their ass that may have no credibility or truth whatsoever, which I think is the case more often than not. Blogs can hurt as much as they help. However, this holds true for almost anything, whether it be newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television shows, or whatever other sources. It’s how the tool is utilized that matters in the end, and people should have the sense to realize that they shouldn’t believe absolutely everything they read or hear. Common sense is beautiful–use it.