Hello, My name is Bakkouz, and I’m a blogoholic.

I, along side Many of us are addicted to blogging, and i suppose I find myself often wondering why, and i think its safe to say that this question has been asked by many a blogger before and we always find it puzzling, Actually, this is also true for all kinds of addiction, it all comes down to the substances or the ingredients of a certain substance that makes it addicting, the chemicals and the inner workings of an object, but whats the difference between being addicted to blogging and being addicted to drugs for example? however, as the chemical compounds in drugs induce certain feelings and affect the brain in strange ways i cannot begin to comprehend, blog addiction is simpler to analyze.

Fame and Popularity
First off, I think the majority of bloggers started blogging by induction, that is they were introduced to blogging through a friend or a group of friends, much like any other medium of social networking, heck, if your friends think its cool, it must be cool. so you check out their blogs, you read their stuff, you see that number of people leave comments on the stuff they post, and you like that! you start your own blog and leave comments on people’s blogs, after a while people start leaving comments on your blog and and soon enough you’ve established a ring of friends and acquaintances and you think this is awesome, And now, you are somebody, you have more and more pageviews, more people leave comments on your blog and interact with your writings, Ah, the intoxicating taste of popularity!

The power of choice
You may chose to be anonymous or you may want to use your real name, either way, you have that power and nobody can have control over that but you, you may want to chose blogger, wordoress, typepad or whatever platform you wish, you have the choice and the means to use whatever visual theme that fits your personality, you write stuff and you have the power to edit what you write and you can even edit the comments that people leave, you basically have the power ever everything in your own little world, but hold on, there’s more, smilies, archives, search form, contact form, visual text editors, tools that make it easy for pretty much anyone no matter how computer un-savvy they are to just write and express themselves freely, no hassle no complicated procedures, with a few clicks, write and publish and you’re done, Let there be light!

Availability
I think the main attraction of a blog is that its always there for you, always available, always ready , as is your blogger friends, they’re always willing to listen and provide feedback and support, you know you always have a way of letting it out or just sharing a thought, a movie or a photo, and you always know you have a listening ear, and even if not, the mere fulfillment of being able to do so is satisfying. and on the other end, from a blog readers point of view, the availability and reach you can get to the vast amount of bloggers and writers is just astonishing, the diversity of topics is just remarkable and the ability delve deep into peoples minds and personal thoughts is thrilling.

In my opinion, availability alongside the popularity factor is what i think the essence of blog addiction, since you have a fan base, you are expected to blog, on one hand in order to please your fans, and on the other so as not to lose popularity amongst them, i think this is the dominant drive within amature bloggers, as opposed to professional bloggers who write for other reasons, and I should say here that I really admire people who can write, and by that i mean who can really write, people like Batir who have the ability to write daily on various subjects, it truly is a remarkable feat, I myself can’t do that, I do enjoy writing but not on demand, I can’t be forced to write something within a deadline or a certain time frame, I write only when i feel like it, Those who can write, I salute you.

So there you have it, I am not sure if blogging will continue to live on full force or if its just a phenomenon that will die over the years, we shall have to wait and see.

Posted: 03|18|07 at 11:58 am. Filed under: Internet.
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