5 Reasons to Blog

Articulate your thoughts and put them out there, it could be more important than ever.

‘Haven’t you got enough to do? With Motoring Middle East and… you know… FAMILY life, man?’

So why do I blog here too, I’m asked sometimes.

It’s true, MME takes up pretty much all of my waking hours, and usually the sleeping ones too. Family life is squeezed in and around all the gaps in between. If I could clone myself I would. But I’d wear out those replicants soon too.

So why blog? Five very good reasons:

1. I just gotta write

I’ve always loved the act of writing, all the way back to when I was in primary school and learnt to string a sentence together – just about. I may not be particularly good at it, and grammatical accuracy is only a passing acquaintance, but the urge to create written content is too overwhelming to ignore.

Running MME and acknowledging that the direction of current content creation is inevitably video, means that I write less in my role as an Automotive Editor than at any point in my near three-decades as a journalist. The writing muscle has to be exercised though, there has to be an outlet for these words from a restless brain – whether meaningless or mighty – and this is it.

2. It’s kinda cathartic

Bottle it up till you burst? Or just get it off your chest? It’s gotta be the latter right?

Put it out there, say it, express it, discuss it. Be strong enough to drop your screens and let the real you out once in a while. Open yourself to scrutiny, analysis and, yes, criticism – for if we aren’t made aware of our flaws, how are we to improve and develop  ourselves?

Emotions can be conflicting and confusing. Sometimes the simple act of trying to articulate them in a structured format (more or less) helps us to consider, understand and maybe even resolve the chaos within.

Cheaper than seeing a psychiatrist, and far less messy than going psycho!

3. You’ll live forever

No, not really. Of course you won’t live forever. You’ll die, I’ll die, we’ll all die – that’s the one great constant in the universe, as they say. They also say you can’t take anything with you – actually that’s not entirely true, is it?

You take your thoughts, your feelings, your unique personality with you – none of that is left behind except in small portions residing within the memories of your closest friends and family. Until they die too of course.

But the written word will live for as long as people are able to read – or be read too! So by expressing yourself in this format a part of you will live on long after you’re gone.

Previously people used to live on through their journals and diaries, we can now live on through the internet.

It’s likely that at some point in the near future technology may even make it possible to construct virtual versions of dead people. It may be delusional hubris to think anyone would want to create a virtual you, but perhaps your kids or grandchildren would want to take solace in doing so.

The tech would rely on building up an accurate representation of us using all the media that we leave behind. So think about that.

4. You’re a Historian

History is written by the victors. Well it was.

The reality is that we really don’t know what actually happened in any major event in humanity’s past, because we can’t be sure it was recorded accurately and without bias and agenda.

What we really need is for someone to create screened time-travel so that we can go back and see the past but not interfere in it. Too sci-fi? You never know though.

However today, history is being written by well, us actually! More video, imagery and words are being recorded by the populace at large, mostly with total freedom to express whatever they wish, than ever before.

Future historians will have a lot of material to look at to figure out what exactly happened in the 21^st century, and I do believe it’s our responsibility to leave behind a record that will help build a more accurate representation of our lives today.

After all, can you imagine Donald Trump writing our history books? It’ll be huge. It’ll be fantastic. He’ll have large hands, real hair and a massive… Anyway, future historians will have a meltdown!

So write a blog, because it’s your duty as a historian!

5. You could make a difference

I’m not saying you’ll bring down governments, fix the economy and repair the Ozone layer with your words… although anything is possible.

However each of us has a responsibility to call out what is wrong, and celebrate what is right; to encourage, to educated, to enlighten; spread unity, wisdom and joy – and if we can impact even a single other soul on this planet, then surely it’s worth it?

And as some viral videos have illustrated, goodness has a way of being infectious – do one selfless good thing today for someone, and that someone may do the same for another, and so forth and so on, until karma ensures full circle.

Your contribution may seem very small, but it’s not insignificant. Because if we each try to make the world a better place in our own little way, imagine the cumulative impact of billions of people all doing so.

See? You could make a difference. So get blogging!