I don't care if you care what I did, but I'm still going to blog about it...

KB @ Pajamasmedia hates having to pretend she cares what her online friends are doing. Why do they need to post their boring daily lives online?

So why does madanthony feel the need to post aspects of his life online? And should you care? The answers, of course, are because and no.

The way I've come to look at my blog is as a sort of diary that I let the public read. I write in it for the same reasons that people keep diaries -as a way of getting thoughts out of my head and organized, of rethinking events or feelings. Sure, I like when people read it, when I get a comment or an email agreeing with me or comparing their experiences with my own. But I know I don't have a huge readership, and that's OK.

When I first started blogging, I tended to be mostly political - I had visions of being the next Instapundit. But as time went on, I talked to coworkers who commented that they liked my personal posts a lot more than my political posts. So I started concentrating on the personal - I realized that there were plenty of people out there who were more knowledgible on politics or economics than I am - lawyers, professors, ect - but nobody who knows madanthony better than I do. I still write about politics and econ when I feel I have something to say, but this isn't really a political blog anymore.

I think people read blogs about individuals for two reasons - shared experiences and writing quality. While people might not care about individual aspects of my life, I think I touch on themes that a lot of people can relate to - dating (or lack of), work, school, ebay/hamfests/bargain hunting, cats, ect. As far as writing quality, well, I can't really judge if I'm a good writer - I hate reading anything I wrote. But one of the few bloggers I make point to read daily is James Lilek's The Bleat. Most of his posts deal with everyday life - dropping his daughter off at school, going to Target, driving around town - but he's a talented writer, and he makes it interesting, and provides a lot of "wow, that sounds like my life" moments (well, except the part about having a kid).

I will admit that I don't really "get" twitter - I don't use it because I don't really think anyone cares that "madanthony is taking a poop". But I think blogs are different - it's not about what you did, but why you did it and how it made you feel, about what it says about you and what it means for your future.

So I'm going to keep blogging. You can read it. Or not.