confessions of a blogaholic. my name is jon and i am a blogaholic. i have been blogging for over three years now and it has changed my life in unimaginable days. people make fun of me for my symbiotic relationship with my blog. girls mock me when i go out partying with my blogger t-shirt. my eyes turn red from a lack of sufficient blinking. sometimes i take my leashed computer outside on sunny days and walk around in an attempt to get females to stop by and say, "how cute, what kind of blog is he?" positive results are still pending. but despite all this i blog on, immune to the social party foul that is a blogaholic's life. chicks and girls may shun my bones but words will never leave me.

it all started so innocently, blogging as a way to keep track of my days and the events that unfolded. there's something appealing about an organized place that allows you to go back to any particular month and see what you were doing or going through at that time. but soon the appeal of a "this is what i did today" blog starts to fade away. nobody needs to hear what your daily calorie intake was. or how often you wiped after going to the bathroom. that's only interesting to you and your significant other. and sometimes he/she doesn't give two shits either. after awhile, the daily content in a blog starts to get weeded out and the only thing that remains is amusing anecdotes, observations and analysis. the beautiful thing about blogging is it's ease of use and it's versatility. a blog can be anything you want. write down your life events for friends and family. write down thoughts for yourself. link to other interesting sites on the internet and feel connected to the world wide web.

before blogging there was the homepage. along with an overpriced education, each college student receives a corner of their very own on the internet and this enticed people to want to put information about themselves online. not everybody of course, but there was a genuine grass roots curiosity about sharing yourself with the world. the interaction of the private self with the unpredictability of the public sphere was intriguing to some and irresistible to others. but the barriers to creating a homepage were intimidating. without knowledge of coding, design or uploading protocol, many were hesitant to invest their time in trying to get online. blogging changed all that. with a devilishly simple interface and fluid instantaneous publishing, anybody could set up a blog and start creating a dynamic site. and all for that most magical of words: free.

for me this was a godsend. let's be honest, there are really only two things that anybody visits a personal web page for: thoughts and pictures. a blog was just that, thoughts and pictures. no annoying splash page, no random links to every which place, no boring extra fluff. everything that a random person might be interested in was right there in front of them. glory be.

the question you ask now is, why not put your thoughts into a diary or a journal? why put them out on the internet for millions of eyes to see? the answer is, as human beings, we like to share. we are all special and unique people -- or so we've been told -- and our thoughts and individual ideas are important. sometimes we don't get to share enough with the world. we are constrained by our friends, by our patience and by our lives. it has been said that half the things a person thinks never makes it out in any tangible form. even the most reserved and shy among us have much to say but often we lack the means to share it. blogging can help.

i personally write just to write. i enjoy the process of writing, of committing words to paper and having some sort of permanence attached to a mental state. i like to find good writing and read good writing. but often it is difficult to find good writing that addresses your current life situation and/or your peer group. where else can you find the budding minds of today expressing themselves except over the internet? actually, don't answer that. because the budding minds of today are everywhere, procrastinating and slacking right beside you. but really, it's not often that we get such direct access to so many different types of people.

how many friends can you possibly have? how many different types of people do you possibly know? i have three friends and they are all just like me. so that means my worldview is very narrow and limited. but through the power of blog i have an idea of what it's like for a young man to go through his first year of medical school. i've read what it's like for a manic depressive to go through their daily ups and downs. i know that the reason the cute reclusive neighbor down the hall is crying is because of her boyfriend's infidelity. that shady fucker, i knew it would happen sooner or later. she's too good for him. i'll also coincidentally know exactly when she needs that sympathetic shoulder to cry on. and guess who'll be right there in her moment of need? that's right. don't knock the omniscient powers of blog.

that's the thing about blogs and blogging, it provides a window into another person's life. we are all voyeurs and curious about the world around us. by cruising around reading other people's blogs, we are "people watching" at a far more intimate level. we are able to visit friends and strangers and almost literally read their minds. this has no appeal to you? then why are you watching the real world? it's not for the outrageous gratuitous making out and hooking up is it? no, never!

but the thing to keep in mind is that the blog is still an edited version of yourself. you can be anybody you want to be on a blog. you can present yourself any which way your vocabulary allows. by committing yourself to the prying eyes of the masses, you risk people knowing things about you that you would rather not have them know. some people don't want you to know anything about them, so they don't have a blog and scoff at the underlying narcissism that exists in maintaining a blog. we are all narcissistic, so get off your high horse and admit it. some people are fearless and share of themselves recklessly and honestly, posting and documenting life's triumphs, disasters and embarassments with equal audacity. we like those people.

whether you have a blog now or hate the idea, i assure you that having one won't harm you in any way. try blogging because it works. try blogging because it's fun. try blogging because that twenty page paper isn't due until 2pm tomorrow. be an army of one. blog today.