Blogging - why bother?

When I first commenced this online missal, I really didn't consider the reasons or implications of doing such, so now I am. Don't worry - I'm not going to get too revealing, soul-searching or misty-eyed (this isn't daytime television, after all).

But when I considered the above, I thought of the redoubtable genius George Orwell, and his essay 'Why I write' (from one of the many tomes which contain some/all of his collected essays). Now don't get me wrong - I'm certainly not comparing myself to the great man - far from it. I'm simply drawing a comparison between the 'act' of writing, and of 'blogging', and posing the question: are they so different?

Of course, it's a yes and no answer. I will go out on a limb here and state that Orwell, for example, wrote because he had something important to say, certainly not just for the sake of being clever and throwing words around (any idiot can do that - just pick up a newspaper). I think it is beyond doubt that he had a social policy/conscience agenda to push, and good on him. If our current media folk were perhaps ten per cent as convicted and driven as him, the world would be a much better place.

So I guess I am then saying this: if you don't have anything worthwhile to say - don't say it. If you do, say it well! And I extend this to all the twits and facebookers - social networking, or just virtually showing off?