On Point on Blogging today

I am an NPR junkie and I was listening to On Point today and their story about blogging. I found it both amusing and distressing that the show boils down to this: bloggers are either narcissistic, looking outside themselves for validation of their existence, or unable to have normal relationships. I tried for about 20 minutes to call in to try to turn the conversation a little, but was unable to get through. So I sent them this email.

I am an active blogger and I also have a full, rich, interactive 'real' life with family, children, community, and work. I don't blog because I need to expose my personal life, nor because I want some sort of external validation. I blog because as a poet and writer, it is an excellent way for me to connect with a community of writers larger than the physical town in which I live. Through blogging, I participate in weekly writing challenges and keep abreast of what my writing companions are working on as well as share snippets of work in progress and have conversations about the writing process. Writing can be a very solitary endeavor. The internet, for me, is a tool to connect with others sharing a common interest in poetry and writing, not evidence of some pathology.

Not everything has to be 'pathologised.' Some of us just like the discipline of routine writing, or being part of a community of far-flung writers.

So what do you think?