the pinocchio syndrome

it appears that it is a soul searching season for blogs, what with the development of recent events in malaysian cyberspace. people are starting to evaluate their stand point of blogging and the real role it plays in our lives.

so why do you blog?

it was an unremarkably cynical evening when i engaged a fellow blogger on the issue of blogging. question of the evening goes as such: if no one reads your blog, would you continue blogging?

which to me, really begs the question: why do we blog? or more importantly, is the blogging phenomenon becoming a popularity contest?!

oh ye attention deprived!

here’s another stupid observation: someone even tells me that the success of a blog is determined by its hit counts. so if someone gets a hundred hits, that person is naturally a more successful blogger than one who gets like twenty? or no hits on their blog la.

oh oh, here’s another one that i came across the net: the more popular the blog, the better the writer! wow. someone throw the grammar teachers to the soup kitchens, because technology is taking over!!! reality check: i will not be the first linguist to start being pissy about students writing college compositions ala blogs – and when marked down, start bitching about their lecturers on their blogs.

ingat lecturers zaman sekarang tak tau pakai the search function ye?

and i simply cannot understand the psychology of the topics that appear on some people’s blog. not the topics, mind you – that is solely the blogger’s own business – the PSYCHOLOGY of it. i once asked a blogger who kept on blogging about fish (subject changed to protect the identity of said blogger). when asked why he kept writing about fish the way he did over and over again, he replies, “that is what my readers want.“

YOUR READERS?! sell out. hypocrite.

don’t even get me started with the PPP.

waitttt…!!! i know what comes next: “my blog, so suka hati aku la whatever i want to write on it.” – betul tak?

i laughed so hard when some bloggers expressed depression when they were unable to blog because of power cuts.

so really, because i am feeling particularly curious today, tell me why do you blog? someone please tell me that there is real hope for my tech-savvy blogging generation. someone please make me understand that this is more than just a fad to you.

tell me that all that freedom of expression cries are simply a joyride you people are on, and reality really is a more gentle place than the very angry malaysian cyberspace.

as for me, i blog because i need to keep in touch with friends both when i travel and when i am back at home – because to many of you lucky, lucky people got PRs overseas. i used to mass email everyone. now i blog. i feel absolutely no obligation to update my blog everyday or on a regular basis.

i know that my style of writing is (as AB says) too powderful for a lot of people. but i like it this way. people who know me know that i speak like this too. why should i resort to the use of simpler language if i am perfectly happy this way?

i have even gotten an email for someone complaining that my posts on linguistics are boring. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! lagi aku mau put things on linguistics on my blog. didn’t i promise one of the pluralist representation of structured societies? patience, my young padawan!

blogs are supposed to be fun. i’m just bugged that so many people are turning it into something serious. having said that, if you do seriously want to transform your blog into the next human rights agenda, then go all the way with it. don’t have it a half personal – half activist sort of thing.

i echo the general blogsphere proclamation that everyone’s resolution should be to blog less and to LIVE MORE.

now repeat after me: i have a life outside blogging. i have a life outside blogging. i have a life outside blogging.