This is a guest post from a dear friend and colleague, Mr. Thejaswi Palakshachary. The views presented here are his ‘undiluted and biased’ opinion on blogging.

This post does not, in anyway, resemble my opinion on this topic. I totally confess to being a 21st century ‘Pontius Pilate’ and wash my hands off this ‘bleader’.

Is blogging a form of narcissism?

Why would anyone want to blog? Furthermore, why would anyone want to read these blogs? Doesn’t it actually boil down to narcissism?

Let me try to explain. If someone has a point of view/opinion on something/anything, a blog is the easiest and most popular way to reach out to a www notice board. At the end, what is achieved by posting a blog? Obviously and needless to say, reaching out to an audience, who could either applaud (silently) or throw rotten eggs, verbally. So, it actually turns out to be an ‘unrehearsed’ public performance, on a stage, in a park, where people are loitering around, looking for interesting ’shows’ looking for a display that can draw the most/interesting attention.

Let me ‘blog’ my point of views on the elements of a blog.

The blogger:
To me, it would seem like the blogger is only looking for/craving for importance (who doesn’t? ). The more uncommon/weirder the topic, the more the expectation. In spite of this being my first ever blog post, which is kind of an advantage in this situation, I would want to have a look at the ‘number of hits/’comments’ on my posting. So what would I do immediately (1 day later) after posting? Advertise the same through unsolicited emails to my near and dear friends (birds of the same feather?). But before we get there, let us look at the most important component of the blog - the ‘topic’.

The topic:
I don’t think this can be generalized. My opinion based on very limited ‘reads’ of blogs is that, ideally, some situation would trigger you to sit in front of the ‘not so total an idiot’ box. One would need a platform to vent out bad experiences or impress those you hold in higher regard or last but not the least, and most ideal topic, just for fun. Given the 3 kinds of topics that one would select, we now move to the next most important element of the blog - the ‘blog reader’.

The blog reader:
Let me see, you are frustrated at work and need a break. There are no important/fun filled emails in the inbox. What can I do next? Let me read that blog by my friend (URL link sent by email a week or more back). Once you start reading the blog, you are unconsciously thinking “do I agree with this at all?”, but, you are actually like Neo in Matrix where the Oracle says about knowing his future - ‘you already know’. How is that? People, unlike the powerful quote that I like - ‘The mind is like a parachute, it works only when its open’ - are not so open to accepting ideas/opinions. Confirms another powerful quote that goes something like, ‘It is the mind of an educated mind to entertain a thought and not necessarily agree to it’. So, either the ‘bleader’ (blog reader - my word - cant I invent a word?) gets a phone call or decides to take a coffee break and closes the blog - or if sufficiently influenced,  takes the time to vent a piece of their mind (depends on how close a friend they are to the blogger too).

So, now, having set my frame of mind out, the blogger is triggered by a situation and wants an audience to the thoughts (sucker!!), the ‘bleader’ (if you have not read the blog properly - like most don’t, please refer above), will either be a closely associated friend or another sucker looking to either shoot or applaud a bird with the same/different feather (respectively). But, at the end of the day, how has the blogger and the ‘bleader’ been affected by the blog? We are looking for the color of the feather (my friend ). If you agree on the blog - you get a boost of confidence that there is another (sucker) ‘like you’ - if not, you make sure they get abused enough to think really well before they start airing ideas. Coffee anyone?