Entering the fifteenth year of blogging: why am I still at it?

I first started blogging on January 6th 2010 - it's my anniversary today! -  and since then I have posted 1337 entries and had just under 250,000 views. It seems a good time to consider why I'm still doing it. Here's what I thought when I first started:

January 6th 2010. The first day of my entry into the blogosphere. Why a blog? Certainly not because I think I've got anything particularly erudite to say. Certainly not because I want to inflict my views upon the rest of the world, although I will probably have a rant about certain things every now and again. Why? Simply because I've wanted to keep a journal for a while and keeping a blog seems to be as good a way as any of doing this. How often will I make an entry? As often as makes sense and with no commitment to make an entry-a-day.

Much to my surprise, I've pretty much kept to these objectives. Thinking about why I blog is essentially asking two questions. First, “why do I write?”, and second, “why do I write here?”. Each of these deserves a little attention.

As to why I write, the answer is that I always have. Throughout my studies and professional life, I wrote essays, dissertations, reports, reviews, papers etc. Through my involvement in a local newsletter, I've written pieces on various village activities and edited the work of others. But I've never kept a journal, the discipline of making regular entries seemed to be beyond me although I did keep several while we travelled abroad. I find writing crystallises my thinking on topics and helps me explore them more deeply than simply pondering about them. Sometimes I write so that I can understand the things I’m writing about. Sometimes just writing to relive an event or to expand on a thought is fun. And sometimes it's nice to just sit down and write whatever comes to mind, even though some of it has surprised me. I just don't know where the more obscure comes from. It can be a little worrying!

So why do I write here, in a blog? Why keep a blog and open it up to the world to read? There are many reasons for that too. Most of what I blog about comes up from things I read and see and about which I have a view. Things that intrigue me, anger me, pique my curiosity, p*ss me off. Trips down memory lane to remind myself of where I come from etc etc. Sometimes these views never quite fit into any conversation and, let's face it, there is a limit to the amount of my ranting that family, especially the long-suffering Mrs P, and friends can reasonably be expected to tolerate! Keeping a blog is like writing in a diary, but not a private one. It's a rather strange pseudo-privacy that only the internet can give. Ideas somehow become more real when they are no longer just in your head. There are a few people who read fairly regularly about what I’m thinking and, although I'm not writing for them, it's actually very satisfying knowing that they are out there. The occasional comments I get are always welcome and over the years I've struck up some rewarding virtual relationships with a few readers around the world. OK, I'll come clean: there is an element undoubtedly of ego, nay vanity, here as well. 

And there is another reason I blog and one that has emerged as I've continued: to have a witness to my life. As a family historian I quite often wonder what my forebears thought about and what they were like. Every now and again I compile my entries into a permanent record and I really like the idea of some future great great grandchild reading it. And if they think "what a miserable old git he was", so be it. Warts and all, eh? And I'll keep on blogging for a while longer. There's still lots to rant about and as long as it gives me pleasure, why stop?