September 6, 2009
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Blogging and Arrogance
The other day I asked a friend of mine why she no longer blogged. She looked quite pointedly at me, and then informed me that she thought a person would have to be quite arrogant to believe that anything they had to say would be of any interest to anybody else, on the internet or otherwise.
(she may have been trying to tell me something)
Do you think that bloggers must inherently be somewhat arrogant?
Comments (58)
yeap. Manilajones said this on his site few weeks back.
@assassynative - oh yea? Darn, always behind the 8 ball, it seems.
Yup.
I thought it had to do with attention-seeking behaviour….not arrogance.
Hmmm… yeah, something like that.
Bloggers just like to be heard. Some just need a place to puke everything in their head onto a screen. Sometimes it gets messy…
People who make generalizations are dumb.
If bloggers are arrogant, then every single person who ever wrote anything down is arrogant. Because we all hope to communicate with SOMEone.
@saintvi - agreed,.. furthermore- how could one person put every other person who blogs, tweets, textmessages, facebooks, utilizes electronic medium of any kind to distribute and/or save publically in one bucket with one sweeping and vague adjective? i have an adjective too… IGNORANCE
@anth0nyc - LOL
It’s not arrogant to have an audience.
I guess that same thinking would indicate that opening your mouth and talking is arrogant.
Or somewhat lonely.
Picking your boogers and eating them on the train where people can see you: is that more arrogant than blogging????????
I do not believe that at all. The many who visit and comment on my site are just wonderful people.
I agree with ModernBunny. Something is wrong with that person who said that to you. That means any information that has been passed down to us – knowledge and such – was someone just being arrogant. That doesn’t make sense.
nope, haha – I mainly blog for my own record; but having people around is fun too!
not necessarily.
it can be a diary too.
I’d call it confidence ^_^
From the above comments, I didn’t realize so many people would take offense to what she said either. Perhaps it is arrogance after all…
Martha
I just write my blog as a diary, people can read it if they want
Mine is just a diary. There does seem to be a lot of people on here thsese days that think their opinions are more worthy than others’.
I dont have to give any names because people can clearly see who they are through their behaviour.
I don’t think so. I write to express my feelings.
I think it is a background trait not dominate in most. But it is there.
No. That’s like saying all authors are arrogant to think they can write something that will inspire people. In whatever way. Which would be a REALLY dumb thing to say.
You friend is just being very cynical.
Maybe some people are repressed teachers.
Yeah, sure did for some people but not all. Blogging; leave it or join it. Either ways, please remember to keep your senses mind and your senseless nonsense self separated.
I am above answering this question. But, since my opinion completes this discussion: no. Humility is the hallmark of a great blogger such as myself. Lesser bloggers, such as those gathered here and elsewhere about Xanga, have little to be arrogant about. I was in the top blog feed on the home page yesterday.
or have a lot of confidence? i guess some people who have too much confidence come off as arrogant
i dont understand what blogging is…its driving me crazy!!
I’m not a blogger.
just an opinionated jerk with an internet connection.
No I don’t think they are inherently arrogant.
son a bitchin arrogant bloggers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!———–no—- i dont thinkso, some are –but most are assertive(to their opinions) —kinda and very very opinionated——-and kinda have blinders on to their own opinions——- kinda—-
It would be arrogant to expect people to read a blog that has no merit. Some topics have merit or value to some people and other people don’t care for anything anyway. So I suppose if someone calls a blog arrogant, it could mean the blog had little worth or merit or that the criticizer didn’t care for your blog.
What are the things I care about? Well some topics you figure are boring can be interesting when you get into it. I am getting into the topic of making blogs interesting.
For sure some people are fans of certain topics. Topics about xanga are sure to receive a lot of coments from xangians.
I resent the comment about generalizations. Generalizations usually sums up things in a nutshell and come with the disclaimer, well you did ask to sum it up. Those that refuse to elaborate will often be hiding the fact that they really don’t know much about that topic….
Arrogant? No. I think it’s attention-seeking, not in an OMG I NEED YOU TO LOOK AT ME RIGHT NOW…but in a sense that everyone wants to be heard at some point or another.
Well, I don’t think it is arrogance. We all hope to be heard, read, and understood by what we say, write. That isn’t a bad thing. And just because we hope for others to read and like it doesn’t mean we are being prideful or think we are all-important. Most writers are the opposite, at the least the ones I know, they want what they write to be read and all, but they are humble and take the compliments in humility. They don’t expect them. And she is lumping us all as one saying that. Not all of us are that way as I said, though I admit, I am sure there is some who are.
is it arrogance? or just hopefulness?
because when i’m blogging, i’m trying to make people think. that’s why i’m on here. STIMULATION from people that i don’t get in ordinary, waking life. i read blogs to get inspired and i write in hopes to inspire, or to make people THINK. i mean, how did some of the most famous authors of today get started? probably by doing something similar to blogging. everyone has to start somehwere…
blogging is just another form of communicating, really. it’s not inherently arrogant just to communicate one’s thoughts with people, nor is it arrogant to want/gain an audience while doing it. some people are arrogant about it, but that always depends on the person, not simply writing words for people to read.
how much more arrogant, then, must she think book authors and magazine writers are for thinking that anyone would care about their writings, and PAY FOR THEM. o.O
I can’t agree to that.
not all bloggers are like that. Maybe they want to document something or just talk about something that they want to get out there.
the readers then decide if they’re arrogant, attention-seeking or just being themselves.
Its simple.
If you don’t like it, ignore it.
Pssssh. So what, we’re supposed to ignore written work? ♥
Some, but certainly not all!
I write for myself, easier to do it online than on paper (paper’s hard to keep track of; online as opposed to on a Word doc. allows customization and such!).
You can’t say that it is arrogant to value one’s own opinion any more than you can say that it is self-depricating or humiliating to value someone else’s. Arrogance and humility are not related to the exchange of ideas, only to the manner in which they expressed and received.
$0.02
I see blogging as reaching out to others.
i don’t think so. some are attention piggies but i dont think being an attention pig makes you arrogant.
I can’t say I’ve ever thought of it as arrogance, though I have questioned my own needs to blog about the nothings of my life. I guess I just see it as a way to keep a diary for myself, and if anyone else can gain comfort, knowledge or amusement from what I have to say, then that’s okay too.
Anyone who has anything to say has to be arrogant. In order to speak, you’ve decided that what you have to say is so important that you will prevent that time from being used for anything else by anyone that listens to you. You’ve gone ahead and cast yourself as the lead in your own play. Of course we’re all arrogant SOBs. A blog without a bit of narcissism is going to be pretty boring. Frankly, at that point, you might as well read a text book. Blogs are about opinions and observations and us deciding that the way we see the world deserves to be shared. It’s fantastic.
What an insightful thing to say. I have to agree – there’s such a lot of memememe about blogging. Some authors are interesting, of course, but the vast majority are not worth reading. Including me, of course.
It depends on their intentions and the relationships they develop with the people who read their blogs. If you blog for recognition and with the goal to become a blogging superstar…yeah, that’s a bit arrogant. If you do it because you like to write and don’t care if nobody reads your blog, that’s not arrogant.
You friend is a fool and sounds like she doesn’t have anything to say worth reading.
Blogging is also a form of interaction. Most of the people I am forced to associate with in real life are too much alike. Here you can find people with a wide variety of opinions, sense of humors and intellect. Blogging is not about ME. The world is not about ME. However, it seems you friend has a ME complex.
Dear Nik: Bloggers are just people who think they have something to say and take advantage of the internet’s magic to say it. The arrogance comes in when they come to look upon their computer study as their throne room from which they dispense wisdom! I know what it’s like to pursue an issue that I believe is more relevant than most people realize and to make my case in spite of that. However, I also know enough to listen to my posters, pro and con alike, to gather information and to keep myself honest as to my own motivations. If I should cease to do that, I’d sink into egocentricity… and arrogance. I’ve seen others do that. For me, the integrity message is still more important.
Naw. I don’t think it’s any more arrogant than anyone else wanting to show of anything else they do (any other expression) to the world. Expecially at times if you have something you think people might appreciate, or else, could help them (and it might without you knowing), or just want yourself known to others a bit more, why not put it out there? After all, other people might relate to it, or it might help to have others relate to you. It’s therapeutic sometimes as well (both to read and to write publically). Plus I don’t see people thinking that about playing music in pulic. You don’t hear people say to musicians…”how arrogant they’d want to share that with the world…they should just always play alone.” Naw I don’t think it’s arrogant.
@TheTheologiansCafe - Yeah, that’s what i was thinking.
That sounds like someone was pissed at a blogger.
Has everyone overlooked the fact that she used to have a blog too? Thus calling herself previously arrogant?!
Anyone who is scarcely demur, are pitiable and beyond censure if they think that anyone else would take their blogs as a point of interest, internet or otherwise. ; )
I guess it just depends on the person lol
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