Bloggy Naysaying

I will be the first to admit that the idea of blogging can be construed as a bit of an ego trip for some people. My mother has been doing this for a number of years and from the beginning I thought two things (1) I kind of resent having a mother who knows how to use, and likes using technology and (2) I find her style a bit too personal and revealing for my liking. I think the worst thing is when she's mentioned myself or my siblings in a post it can become a bit 'did you really have to mention me'.* In all I have just bucked up and accepted that she has an active online presence ranging from her Facebook profile to her two (yep, two!) blogs she regularly updates.

However recently a third revelation has become apparent: (3) I have become a hypocrite for laughing at her blogs while writing my own.

While some people write about their innermost thoughts and fears, that is not my style. I find that a bit weird. I think the way in which I have commented on things that have occurred in my life over the last couple of months has been decidedly less 'I feel (insert relevant emotion)' and more 'this is the shit that went down' about the situation at hand. I realise that it is almost impossible to not evoke emotion into a personal piece of writing such as this, but I make an effort to leave my private emotions 'at home'. After all this started as a bit of fun to share some music, some tales of university life, and the odd interesting photograph.

I know that there are people out there that laugh at the mere thought of my doing this.  I have narrowed them down to a two types: 

(1) Those that read my blog once and laughed and just thought it was stupid, and (2) Those that read every post (or most of them) and laugh, think it's stupid, but continue to read 

I have no problem with either one. I think it's a perfectly reasonable thing to laugh at what someone writes and then decide that it's 'stupid'. I encourage people to have opinions and even if it's not a great one 'stupid' is an opinion. Three months ago I might have even been with the Type 1 group, laughing at the ridiculous stuff that people posted about their lives on the internet like the best of them. Although while I have always drawn the line at verbalizing any nastiness, it is in the nature of the internet for people to hide in their anonymity and say whatever the hell they want to. That is probably one of biggest freedoms the internet gives us, no matter how dangerous it can be sometimes. And so while I know that the Type 1 exists, s/he and I have no issue. At least not until one of them verbalizes it to my face, which I've accepted will probably happen sooner or later.

Now to the Type 2. I just find it amusing. If you find my writing 'stupid' or uncalled for in anyway, why do you still read it? If it's to gather fuel for an eventual attack then I will suggest now that you might need to speak to a therapist now before it gets to that stage, otherwise why don't you put down the mouse for a minute and either embrace the fact that you're secretly enjoying reading it or quietly transform yourself into the near-harmless Type 1 and just stop reading.

The fact is I write about stuff that a lot of my University of Manchester counterparts have knowledge of or are thinking about themselves. In the words of a friend: 'Rosie, you write about the library, that's funny'. 

I hope it is.

I had one small aim when I started writing and that was to not give up and I haven't so far - so that's a minor success. So if you want to piss on that, do so, just keep it to yourself in your heads. I'm not asking you to be opinion-less, just be considerate of others when forming them.

If you're not enjoying what I'm writing, don't read it. It really is as simple as that. 

*So I mentioned her here. I'm not above retaliation.