What's your point?

It isn't a wonder that so many of us like blogging. I mean, let's be real... where else do we get to make ourselves and our children the star of the show, all day, every day and then have people we know and don't know come and leave daily deposits in the ego box that is our comment section...

We monitor sitemeter, comments, number of subscribers, followers... we're stoked when our comment numbers hit the double digits, and bummed when sitemeter reveals a depressingly low number of hits. Just yesterday, I lost a follower... someone actually clicked on that little button that said, "stop following", and suddenly, I was back in the fifth grade, cast aside by the popular crowd because my Sam and Libby slip ons were the wrong color...

TIME for an intervention. Why do I do this blogging thing anyway? Surely there must be some motivation beyond sheer narcissism... is it really only about the comments? The number of readers? Tis a question we all must ask and answer for ourselves... and hopefully, we all have an answer we feel comfortable with on an individual level. Maybe you blog to keep in touch with your friends and your family. Maybe your blog is a creative outlet... a place for you to vent and de-stress. Perhaps it's a support network for you... a place where you relate to others and find strength to get through day to day challenges.

My blog provides a little of all of those things for me, but mostly, it's about the words. And now to reveal an inner most secret... (oh don't get too excited, it isn't that good) I have a goal in life to one day be published... to have something hardbound and substantial with my name across the front. I want to call myself a writer and actually have something in print to justify my claim. It isn't that I plan to publish my blog... since most of the random nonsense that graces it's pages is simply that... random nonsense. But the writing of the blog keeps the words moving, the thoughts flowing. And the blog readership, the audience if you will, keeps me on my proverbial writing toes.

While there are many worthy reasons to continue blogging... for me, I've decided comments are not actually life sustaining, and followers are not definitions of individual worth. I mean, I love you guys, and I love getting comments as much as the next blogger, but when it becomes ALL about the comments, the followers, the subscribers... when checking our email and our comment section take over the pattern of our daily fabric of living...

Dude. Get a grip. It's just a blog.

Take a break. Take a breather. Go hug your kids and call an old friend on the telephone. And figure out what your point really is. Why are YOU blogging? And do the rewards you gain from the exercise justify the efforts you pour in? I'm not saying give it up... I'm certainly not going to... but reality checks are good every once in a while.

What do you do to keep your online life in proper perspective?

(Also, don't forget the contest running through Thursday, at midnight... click on the picture over in my right sidebar... or just scroll down to my previous post. :))