Tagged – 5 ways blogging has changed my life
Jim Parsons (Rev J) has tagged me from a meme created by L.L. Barkat. I’m supposed to write about 5 ways blogging has affected me. Funny. I never respond to chain letters or e-mail, but here I go: the power of the blogging meme.
1. Blogging affects what I think about. By reading other blogs, I get ideas and thoughts that I would not have gotten on my own. Sometimes, I write about these on my own blog. This can be bad. When I get sucked into the round-a-abouts over hot button issues – ones where one more thoughtful or not so thoughtful blog post is not going to change anything at all - I get upset at myself. But it can be good as well, giving me new ways to stretch my own understandings.
2. Blogging lets my real life family and friends inside my head. I’m a raging introvert – as my wife will affirm. So, putting some of my thoughts in a place where she and others can read them lets them know a little bit what is going on inside that head.
3. Blogging connects me to others of my kind. When my blog went dark earlier this year, it was so touching to realize there were others who cared enough about it to try to track me down and see where I went. It was not why I killed the old blog, but it is nice to know I’ve become part of a community that noticed when I disappeared.
4. Blogging makes me laugh. We Methobloggers can be a serious lot. But there is also humor and wit out there. Thanks to Methobloggers, my teenage children and I are hooked on the Marvel/DC YouTube videos.
5. Blogging swallows up time. This would be the biggest negative. I sometimes spend too much time scanning other blogs or posting my own thoughts when I should be doing stuff with and among the real live humans who put up with me every day.
And now, I’ll tag the following folks (my apologies for anyone who have been tagged before):
Craig Adams
Guy Kent
John the Methodist
Matt Judkins
Will Grady
Here are the rules should you decide to keep them:
1. Write about 5 specific ways blogging has affected you, either positively or negatively.
2. Link back to the person who tagged you.
3. Link back to this parent post (L.L. Barkat is not so much interested in generating links, but rather in tracking the meme so she can perhaps do a summary post later on that looks at patterns and interesting discoveries.)
4. Tag a few friends or five, or none at all
5. Post these rules— or just have fun breaking them
The one on swallowing time… oh yes. But I remember reading in someone else’s response that she no longer watches TV. So maybe it’s a tradeoff?
Great to read these!
Well, I’m not a big time TV watcher, so mostly it has sucked up human contact and book reading.
Hey John,
Thanks (?) for thinking of me, but my Internet connection @ home has suddenly gone goofy & I don’t know when or if I’ll respond to this. (Since getting back from vacation, I have felt swamped with church responsibilities, too.)