the Flat World's Edge

To Bare One’s Sole
(I never was very good with words!!)

Last week I made my first blog posting. I did so at a time when I was supposed to be moving house so life was a tad hectic. However, in posting the article I procrastinated somewhat before actually pressing post. Over the next few days I thought: why?

On reflection, this was because the action of posting put my thoughts out “there” for all to read; whatever or wherever “there” is! Like publishing a book or writing a newspaper article, this was creativity. Ultimately, this is what scared me - my thoughts irretrievable published for the world.

I then found this article which debated whether blogging is the domain of the creative or the commercial, noting:

"Who feels confident about their perspective in a way that they're willing to announce it to the world? Confidence is not the same as expertise. Some people are far more confident than they deserve to be; others are afraid to speak up even though their expressions are so valuable." http://www.mindjack.com/feature/linkedout.html

I would not claim to have expressions that are incredibly valuable beyond perhaps my immediate circle of friends and family, and I express myself best in dry, sarcastic wit. This does not translate well to a blog world where it seems that to succeed you have to be able to communicate in an appealing and interestingly literary way.

The key to good blogging seems to be creativity, the blog discussed on the MBA course http://randomreality.blogware.com is popular primarily because of the talented and engaging writing style. My girlfriend finds my blog colleague hmatt’s style of writing very appealing and funny and thus returns to read his posts.

So where does this leave those of us who stand at the flat world’s edge and don’t feel we translate easily into the blogosphere? Yes I like the thought that blogs turn people from the now popular pastime of passive consumerism to the more challenging role of creative participants, but clearly some of us have a way to go to discover how we can use this new medium to freely express our creativity.

Using a blog in a work/business environment is one thing, it holds less trepidation, as we tend to work with material and people we are comfortable with. Using it to be a creative participant in a much larger world is entirely another. That is not to say we should not seek to express our creativity and blogs are surely one of the most accessible tools available to us, especially given the anonymity they afford. The alternative, of course, is to join what E M Forster called “the vast armies of the benighted”.