Blog, What?

Around the campfire, at the dinner table, in the gym changing room, at the checkout counter, people share their stories. And now, even if no one is listening, we blog. We share our innermost thoughts, our journeys and our lives with strangers. With faceless entities sitting on the other side of a very long, very invisible dinner table. They are shrouded in darkness - whom are we telling? And are we all so busy talking and talking and talking that no one is actually listening?

I've always wondered about how much our instincts as early humans influence our lives today. If I'd continued with my studies, and done my honours in Psychology - something I was very tempted to do, I would have focused my thesis on this very idea. I often see behaviours in our everyday actions that seem to have originally been shaped by instinct. To me, storytelling has always been one of mankind's greatest endeavours. First - for survival. Stories of hunts, of food, of trails and caves helped early man exist. Told through drawings, through signs, through grunts and noises, man showed child how to further their lives.

Slowly storytelling grew - language developed, the world became a bigger place. Suddenly there was a lot more to tell. 

So, blogging? A form of story telling? Something that is instinctive in us? A need to tell our own stories, and to see the stories of those around us in similar situations? 

I know a lot of the blogs that I read are those of people in a very similar situation to myself - in their mid-20s, recently married, working in the creative/fashion industry. Being able to relate to these people, and see their lives - something that it achievable/relatable/quantifiable - as opposed to the images we are constantly faced with in the media - those of scrawny models, over-paid actors, drugged-up celebrities and unrealistic fashion icons - that is something that is 'real'. 

So, stop blogging, start living? I find that, if nothing else, having a blog makes me live life to the fullest. Suddenly I want to do more, be more, achieve more, and show more. It has me writing again - something that I haven't done since high school. And yes, maybe at the end of the day I want an extra hour to escape to the quiet of my room to do a few updates, but if I'm experiencing so much more during the day then is that a bad thing?

Don't we often live in such a way as so to create stories? Don't we relish meeting up with friends for drinks as so to share those stories, hear the gossip, and set up further situations in which to create stories?

Is this not something that man has been doing since the beginning of time? The laptop screen now lights up your face, and glows and flickers, in place of the campfire. But what have we created? A much bigger campfire methinks. A 'global village' as they say.

So I'm not convinced by the sceptics who think blogs are such a bad thing. Yes, I'm sure they can be, and I'm definitely sure that I watch what I say, and who I post about and what I share. But telling stories is so intrinsic to who we are, that I believe we wouldn't exist without it. There are just so many people in the world now that there's more stories to share. Everyone wants their turn with the flashlight.