We all live in our own bubble these days. The ads we see online are determined by an algorithm that knows what we like and shows us what we like. We no longer all watch the same TV programmes – there are so many channels and so many catch up options that we can avoid the programmes we don’t enjoy and only ever watch the ones we like.
So – we know about what we know about. And sometimes we get brought up short by someone who doesn’t know about the same stuff.
I mentioned this blog the other day to someone. And she was polite and sounded interested. Then suddenly she said, ‘What exactly is a blog?’
I was truly surprised. I thought it was something that everyone knew these days. I’m pretty sure that everyone I know knows what a blog is – well, apart from this one person, obviously.
The word blog comes from the idea of a web-log. Like a Captain’s Log, it’s a sort of diary, that’s how the idea started. Web-log – weblog – blog. But unlike a normal diary, it’s very far from being kept secret – it’s out there in the world, being read and commented on by anyone who wants to.
It’s a strange concept – when did we go from wanting to keep our innermost thoughts private, to wanting them to be spread all over the world? Or maybe we’ve always had a yearning to do it – but back in the day only famous people could get publishing contracts for their memoirs. Now anyone can do it.
The first blog was written in 1994, but they weren’t called weblogs until 1997. And it wasn’t shortened to blog until 1999. It hit the dictionaries for the first time in 2004.
There were 23 blogs in 1999. There were 50 million by 2006. So I’m a bit late to the party!!
Some of the most successful blogs are in fact about blogging – meta-blogs, if you will. All this information came from https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/03/a-brief-history-of-blogging/ – with thanks.
I started this blog after my husband left me. Four months after he’d told me he was leaving, on the day that also happened to be our wedding anniversary, I hit the blogosphere for the first time.
It’s my attempt to work out what the hell happens next – but also, now, to write about what has happened next, because some things that were in the future are now in the past.
I’ve always written – it’s my go-to way to cope with things. It allows me to work out how I really feel about stuff – and it’s also a way of clearing my brain. A bit like an external hard-drive, or cloud storage – once it’s written down, my brain can relax and not have to keep thinking about whatever it might be. And then I can go back to it later and decide if that’s really how I felt at the time, and if I still feel like that now.
I’d like to just mention something that’s just started to happen recently. I’ve had some people who have basically sat down and read every post. Every post!! Thanks for taking the time, it makes me so proud to think that people want to keep reading.
So this blog is part diary, part therapy, and part, I hope, helpful for other people going through the same thing. I don’t have any answers, but I hope fervently that just knowing that you’re not alone is helpful to someone. I know it helps me.
Thank you for taking the time to read this – and if you are going/have gone/think you might go through something similar, please post a comment on here, or send an email – and know that you’re not alone.
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