Why do you blog?

Do you ever start looking up one thing on the internet, and half an hour later, you're completely distracted by an article you found by linking from one website to another (to another...)?

Today I was looking up some sewing projects that we could focus on at some sewing workshops this spring here at work, and somehow, I ended up reading an article from the Globe and Mail titled "Why are bloggers male?". At the time of publication, this article seemed to create quite a stir, possibly because someone at the newspaper had made the misjudgement of connecting some of the authors comments with the deaths of some snowmobilers in an Avalanche a few days earlier. Many others though - particularly women - argued back that women make up a considerable portion of the blogging population, and while very few of us reach the level of the Pioneer Woman (did you hear there's a movie in the works??) or The Daily Dish (as mentioned in the article), the community that is created, and the contribution we all make to each others lives, and the world at large, are best compared to rain drops. They may individually create very little impact, but when gathered together, have the power and movement of a flood, or monsoon.

More from her article:

"Sarah and I believe the urge to blog is closely related to the sex-linked compulsion known as male answer syndrome. MAS is the reason why guys shoot up their hands first in math class. MAS also explains why men are so quick to have opinions on subjects they know little or nothing about.

Do you ever wonder why, long after the rest of journalism has become pretty much gender neutral, the talk shows and opinion pages are still dominated by male voices? That's why.

Opinionizing in public is a form of mental jousting, where the aim is to out-reason, out-argue or out-yell your opponent. Women are just as good at this as men and, in some ways, better. (No man could do it the way New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd does.) Women are simply not as interested in doing it. "

So why do you blog?

Is it 'mental jousting', trying to out blog, out create, or out parent the person blogging next to you?
Is it to comment on what is trendy and 'viral' even though you have very little experience in the matter yourself?
Do you do it for page views, or for ad income?

While there may be many benefits that come from blogging, including income and exposure for one's craft business, publications, or design services, that seems to almost limit the scope of what we do.

I think there is something deeper at the root of our desire to blog - at least for those among us who are 'mommy bloggers' or 'house bloggers' or 'craft bloggers' (though I hate to label). In many ways our society has sped up, sending us all over the place each day, attending to our families (and hopefully our own) needs, chauffeuring to all manners of sporting events and music practices, that we no longer have the time to get together as women and socialize, or even just to spend time together as we work on our individual projects.

So we write blogs, and create friendships. We celebrate when others publish books, have babies, or create homes that welcome their families and others. We celebrate the community we feel with others, even when we're so very busy. Even if we're not PRESENT in the lives of those we connect with as we may have been a decade or two ago, we're also presented with the opportunity to open our lives to an even larger group of women, and share in their successes and experience their lives.

So why do you blog?

(ETA: Supposedly hyperlinking doesn't work when posting by email. All links now fixed!)