Confessions of a blogger

When I first commneced this project, I was quite daunted. As mentioned, not only am I a proud Luddite, but sometimes (often) computers frustrate the bejesus out of me - especially when they will not immediately do what I want of them. My ideal computer would be one that comes up with amazingly sleek, brilliant and well laid-out graphics at the mere command of my voice, and doesn't argue when I think something's just not quite right and want to change it. Bribing recalcitrant teenagers to assist is not always practical, especially so after you have just grounded them for the rest of their natural lives (having also promised to perform anatomical miracles upon them with their iPhone if they stubbornly keep refusing to answer it). So at the end of the day, I had to figure it all (mostly) out for myself.

This has actually been a good thing (when not wanting to hurl my laptop at the wall, or threatening it with the technological equivalent of grounding - still unsure what that actually is - internet and upgrade deprivation, maybe?) Anyhow, after some frustration and angst, I'm fairly proud of what I achieved and what I now know. However, I will add a small caveat: next time I would actually want to start from scratch and do the entire thing myself, from go to whoa. This is mainly because I didn't enjoy the little idiosynchrasies of the template, and its occasional reluctance to format properly etc. Or maybe I'm just a control freak. I realise that this would entail learning HTML, but hell, I was forced to study French and Latin at school for five years, so why not? 

The biggest epiphany I think I have had (and of course it seems bleeding obvious in hindsight) is of the importance, first and foremost, of presentation - first impressions do count, especially on the internet. I became sorely aware of this when conducting searches for a variety of things. In a nutshell, it seems that if a site is slow and looks shabby or amateur, chances are you will click away. It doesn't matter how good, clever or witty the content is, because hardly anyone will see it. Presentation, then, is almost everything (and minimal is the new black).

If you have conquered the above, what about the actual content? (And here I'm mainly concerned with words). It seems that the rules which apply to any other writing also hold true here. Initially I relished this part of blogging - after all, this was non-academic, chatty prose where most of the 'normal' rules don't apply, right? So,so wrong. As with all writing, a piece which is engaging, witty and effortless is actually bloody hard work - and still requires good old-fashioned editing, more than once. I suspect this is a trap for many - self-editing is always difficult.

So here I am, almost at the end of the journey, and I guess my attitude toward blogging has changed a lot. I now see the need for it, and I understand that it's often more than frivolity and vanity. More than anything, it's a unique way for us to reach out, to connect, to question, to seek and most important of all, to have a voice. Who would have thought, I'm a blogger now. What next, facebook? (highly unlikely).

Sure, there is a lot of rubbish out there, but it's worth persisting, because every so often you will find the odd bit of gold. I will, however, continue to fight the good fight for proper use of the English language (evolving or not). Just because you're on the internet, it doesn't give you a licence to be slack and lazy! That's it - I've found my crusade - I'm now a blogger with a cause!

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