I really enjoy Avril’s blog layout, and its non linear style. It makes me reflect on my blog, which follows one path, and shows just how ingrained in me are chronology, linearity and sequences as a form of processing and understanding. To me, my blog layout seemed logical and simple, anything else would confuse me and I thought the visitor. Shouldn’t they begin at the most recently posted blog? I don’t know why, but it would feel like going onto The Age and reading an article that was breaking news three weeks ago. There’s value in the content, but the world has moved on since then, we’ve changed as people, the story’s developed, the information may be obsolete.
I’ve encountered two blog posts this week that broach the relationship between blogging and narcissism; Louisa, and Marina. For me, it was difficult to begin blogging even though I knew how important it was that I start publishing my own writing. I had a fear of speaking in the first person, about my own experiences, exposing my life to just about anyone who wanted to know. We keep being told that now future employers may google our name and complete their background research on us this way, so it is important to be vigilant about what post on the Internet. This is common sense. My mum always told me that once you write something down, it’s permanent. So I’ve always taken care with Facebook status updates and Instagram posts, and certainly wasn’t immune to the selfie phase, though believe I have outgrown this tendency.
I don’t think blogging is innately narcissistic. It is a platform we can use in a myriad of ways to connect and share with others. The personality we bring to blogging dictates whether or not it’s narcissistic, and the content we produce. There’s a difference between writing about yourself because you seek attention, and writing about yourself because that’s what you know best.
“I paint myself because I am so often alone, and because I am the subject I know best.”
– Frida Kahlo
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