On the Narcissism of Blogging

It occurred to the author, many weeks ago, that blogging - as in, the form of communication in which one essentially writes whatever one wants, generally for the purpose of having other people reading it - has the reputation of being narcissistic. That one must have an accompanying over-indulgence of self-actualization to think that other people would derive pleasure from reading one's blog. But truly, blogging is not so different from what we, as a social species, do in social gatherings. When one gathers friends around to tell a story, or shares a recent escapade with family over dinner, or complains about work to a spouse, one is, essentially, blogging verbally. That a blog takes the form of the written word seems to create a disconnect between the fact that most people, are, at some point or another throughout their lives, a storyteller; even if they never touch a blog in their life. To wit, nobody seems to consider popular bloggers or writers too self-indulgent, because people have expressed an interest in said blog or writing, but if said blog or writing was never started, then said interest would have never been realized.

In summary, blogging is, ultimately, no more narcissistic an outlet than what many humans do in their day to day life. That this author finds much of that behavior somewhat annoying, however, likely makes the author a hypocritical, trenchant fool.