apcampbell

All the recent talk about why people blog
has been getting me thinking about user experience and
perception.  If bloggers perceive that what they are doing is
helping them and others, that it gives them an audience for their
writing and helps cultivate a sense of community, then of course they
will continue blogging.   The choice of whether to continue
or not depends primarily on how bloggers are experiencing what it is
they are doing, regardless of how an objective observer might see
it.  John, a prolific blogger at the EAC, writes this about his recent experience with blogging:

Maybe I have been hiding my blogging frustrations, my
doubts. I want to create something out of my blog, but I feel alone in
my struggle, even after a year and a half of work! It seems
I’ve learned a harsh lesson - No one out there is interested in
creating a community with me. Not yet any way. I don’t think I’ve been
writing enough about all of the times I’ve felt ignored. That’s a
serious issue and something that I’ve been trying and trying to
overcome - it’s the reason I’ve sacrificed content on my page, it’s the
reason I’m always changing the appearance of my blog. Overcoming the
feeling of being ignored is the greatest single motivator in my quest
to improve my blog.

But it’s a Catch 22! As a blog user
and a student learning about Weblog Dynamics I don’t know how to
overcome this feeling except to attract more readers to my site. This
is the stage that online publishing is at for me and I could easily
understand others feeling the same way. Especially when using blogs in
a learning environment. Who wants to put the effort into writing and
publishing work on a blog if no one is going to read it? I’m not
writing for my own benefit, I’m not writing to hear own ideas, I’m not
writing to document my studies, I’m not writing to archive my thoughts
- I’m writing with the hopes of being read. But I feel like I don’t
have an audience. And that feels like shit.    Read more…

There
are many positive things being said about the advantages of weblogging,
most of which ring true in my experience.  I just wonder to what
extent personality type, learning style, and attitude influence the
success or failure of any given blogging endeavour?   In
John’s case, I think he’s been very successful with what he’s
accomplished over the last 14 months, even though his current reasons
for blogging seem much different than my own.  For his own sake
though, I hope he’s able to find personal joy in the process
of creating his weblog, rather than depending upon reality meeting his
perception of what constitutes ‘audience’.  John does have an
audience and he’s not ignored.  So where does his perception come
from?
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