#letsblogoff: is this thing on?

The latest topic from Let’s Blogoff: Are blogs as important as [bloggers] think they are?

My short answer? Yes and no; it depends.

I’m currently subscribed to 141 blogs in Google Reader, and those are only the ones that I want to make sure I keep up with. If you look hard enough (and sometimes you don’t even have to look that hard), there are blogs written for every subject imaginable, each of them competing for the latest headline, the greatest review, the most informative Top Ten. Blogs are, as mentioned in the Let’s Blogoff article, the New Media. They’re quicker to get the story out, and much more easily accessible than waiting for the next day’s newspaper hits the front porch.

I have a hard time imagining someone else thinking of my blog as being important. I don’t monitor how many hits my site gets on any given day, and I don’t keep track of how people are finding my blog. I would write in the same manner for 4,000 people as I would for 4. I publicize my blog automatically via Twitter and Facebook, but that’s about the extent of my self-marketing. I refuse to harass and nag people to read my latest entry, because that’s not how I operate; I’d make a horrible recruiter. I figure that I’ll blog and toss the link out there into the social media stream. Whether or not anybody wants to come along for the ride is up to them.

My goal for this blog isn’t to counsel or seek counsel, although I’ve been known to turn my therapy assignments into blog posts on occasion. I still feel awkward when I publish things that could be deemed as a cry for attention, because that’s not really what I want.  I blog to remember. And to process. Unfortunately, some (okay, a lot) of the stuff I need to process falls in some sort of self-destructive category. But I ask you not to worry. I make no attempt to hide the fact that I see a psychologist, and he reads my blog posts when I ask him to… which is frequently. I’m being taken care of and watched out for.

So are blogs important? I think it depends on the reader and what they appreciate. My blog probably isn’t considered important by the person who only likes to read about the current events in Zimbabwe. Personally, I don’t consider the celebrity gossip blogs important, because the topic simply doesn’t interest me. But blogs as a form of media definitely serve a purpose, whether it be financial gain, entertainment, or simply a forum for waxing philosophical.

Now I’m curious as to what others define as “important blogs”…