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blogs are cool, actually

estimated reading time: 6 - 7 min

originally posted on my previous website around 2024-04-09, it's too good to be forgotten.

remember when personal blogging was a thing? i do. many people my age probably do not. but blogging is so cool. you can say anything you want, whenever you want. you can design it however you want, change it whenever you want. blogs were your personal place. seo didn't matter, and not being found by google wasn't a big deal (it still shouldn't be, but yeah).

notebook and pen

image by freepik

blogs serve as a place of personal expression, to just have your thoughts out. without having to worry about what algorithm will love and what will give you more likes. those things weren't important. but humans are just junkies hungry of dopamine, and seeing the like count go up makes our monkey brains happy, and i guess that is one of the problems of social media and many other online platforms.

the web without passion

we have the constant stream of ads and popups, more and more trackers, and data-hungry corporations. their only end goal is to make more money off of you, either directly, or indirectly. you could, use ad and/or tracker blockers, but then websites will whine and cry like "pwez disable awd bwockers so we can make moni". no, shut the fuck up. ads are annoying as fuck. and maybe if it was one, or two, people wouldn't care. why do you need to place a gazillion ads on one page? and honestly, what happened to providing people with useful information? you always could ask for tips, and if people believe you've provided something of value; they would send you tips.

the ability to make money on the web is what killed all the passion and creativity. if it's not sparkling clean and perfect, advertisers don't want it. this is one of the reason almost every website looks the same nowadays. its all cookiecutter, copy-pasted, corporate bullshit. the ability to make money is what killed the desire to invest time and resources to make sites just for the sake of making the site, sharing something you love and enjoy. the ability to make money is what killed the passion itself. because if your hobby becomes like a job, that isn't a hobby anymore.

don't get me wrong, everyone needs to earn, and make money, but not everything has to be monetized either. and you may be thinking that you are an idiot for not monetizing your content (which you shouldn't even be calling content), but on other hand, if you have intrusive advertisements, that will only drive people away.

running a site is not that expensive. in fact it can be done for free. if you're comfortable around gnu/linux many cloud platforms, such as oracle oci give certain resources for free, which you can use to host your website on. all you need to do is manage the server itself. obviously, they don't do this out of the goodness of their hearts, they hope you'll become a paid costumer eventually and upgrade your account. unless you own a big website that constantly needs to be scaled up or down, their paid plan is probably an overkill.

if you want to "properly" lease a machine, you can get a decent one, for as low as $5 from companies such as linode, digital ocean, or similar. if you're techncially inclined, you can even run a website from inside your very home, too. which isn't recommended if you're not absolutely sure what you're doing, but it is still an option. if you want a hassle-free way, you could use a static hosting such as neocities.org.

none of above links are affiliate or referrals!

platforms aren't your "forever" homes

social media is limiting, and isn't a permament home, its more like a rented apartment. nothing on the internet is forever, and everything is bound to fail eventually. everything you post, will be purged, eventually. "what you post is forever on the internet", or so they say. but this is not so true. this was mainly used by our parents to warn us of the big scary internet. but nothing is truly forever. more so now, than ever before. due to many data privacy laws, you could request for your data to be excluded even from the archives. and many services are likely to delete your accounts, once you're of no use of them. which is usually between 6 months to a year after last login. data storage costs money, and if you don't make them money, you don't matter.

if you want stuff to actually stay available forever, or at least, for as long as you want-- put it inside your actual forever home, your own website. put it on your blog. and no, i am not against social media platforms, unlike many people interested in revival of blogs. although they can, indeed, be brainrot, i'm fine with social media platforms. i like using them. they're far from perfect, but their existance isn't evil. the corporations that own them, are. but not the platforms themselves (in my opinion).

it's dumb to call it "content", and quite rude too

imagine you write something out of pure passion and love, sharing it freely with the world, in hope someone, at least one person, enjoys it. and than someone comes and reffers to it as "content". it reduces someone's creativity, passion, love to just another piece of content, meant for quick entertaiment, and it greatly undervalues the effort went into writing and/or making stuff. i do not provide content. i simply provide written flow of thoughts, whenever i feel like sharing it. it is different from making youtube videos, or posting a viral post on social media. my stuff isn't meant to be consumed the same way... i may not be a great writer , i may not even be a good writer , but i consider blogs a written creative work.

granted, any written media, could be considered "content" in some way, and maybe it is, but its also much more than that, too.

your (future) readers aren't "users"

another thing that broad web has brainwashed us into believing is that we're "users", and anyone using a service, is an, well, user. the same extends to people visiting personal blogs, they're "using" so-and-so website/blog. but don't you think this is a bit dehumanizing ? you're not a user, you're a reader, a visitor-- since you visited, and are currently reading this page.

okay, but why should i have a blog?

blogs are (almost) perfect for self expression. my first reason why i want you to have a blog, might sound selfish at first. but i hope to see a broad spectrum of human experiences represented online. we're all different, yet so similar, and it is interesting to read about our differences and similarities. besides, in some ways, i feel that leaving a digital legacy might be the closest we can get to achieving immortality. not that everyone wants to live forever, but i'm also pretty sure you do not want to be forgotten either. "my life is too boring to blog about". i strongly disagree. even if you were to spend seven days straight at home, simply gazing at your ceiling, i would still be curious about your thoughts, there would still be something you could say. there's always something worth discussing. there is always something you could share. remember: blogs arent social media platforms, how many people like it doesn't matter. all what matters is that you like it, and that you're willing to share it.

as human beings, we encounter the world through diverse perspectives, and our interpretation of events is shaped by our unique circumstances, regardless of what others might label as "significant", "imporant". on personal blogs, none of that matters, as long as you, yourself find it to be important.

your blog doesn't need to focus solely on your political views, ethics, or beliefs. not everyone identifies as an activist, developer, or political enthusiast. there are many other things you could share about yourself, your life. and trust me, at least one person will find that information useful, or interesting.

your blog doesn't have to be as monotonous as a daily diary recounting your activities. it can be simple, silly, stupid. it can be you. or anything you want it to be. it can even be a fake persona you've made up. it could be a larp of events that never happened. someone will find it interesting, someone will read it.

one day, dear reader, i would love to read stuff you've written, just like you've been reading this now.

so yeah, please write a blog.


got more to say? email me: hi[at]riri[dot]my

posted on: 2024-08-23 06:37 PM