5 Myths Of Personal Blogs • 02.20.07
Personal blogs are probably the most common types of blogs you see everyday. While it may be easy to write about something personal in your life, it is hard to avoid the myths that people believe in when it comes to writing personal blogs. In this article I will talk about 5 myths that many personal bloggers believe in, and I will also talk about the dangers of believing such myths.
I started my site by writing about personal things combined with different topics, and I still try do the same as I feel comfortable writing about things I have myself experienced or learned. Following are 5 Personal Blogging Myths that I see people believing in almost every day; some of these things I used to believe myself too. I hope this list can help you realize why such myths are not what actually happens in the personal blogging world.
5 Personal Blogging Myths
- “Everyone online will help me with my problems“
Many people post their personal problems online in order to get emotional support. They assume that online comments mean that all the commentors care. This is sometimes not the case. Sometimes people leave comments simply to gain more popularity. Do not expect emotional help from all the people you meet on the internet, or else you will be emotionally drained and depressed when you do not receive comments on posts that may be extremely important to you.
People may simply be reading your blog in order to pass time without any headaches. Such people may leave nice comments innocently without thinking about how you will treat such comments. If someone offers to help or know more about your life, consider yourself lucky, the same way you would feel lucky offline if someone wanted to know more about your life as a friend.
- “I post a lot on my site, so I know how to socialize!! Take that you depressing speech professors!!!“
Many people think that posting on the internet means they are good at socializing with others. While this may be the case, many people who post a lot of personal things on the internet do so because they are usually hesitant to express anything to others in real life.
Use your blog to express yourself and try to use your blog as a way to socialize more in real life instead of considering online communication as a replacement to real world communication. Do not assume something you do online to be a form of compensation for something you cannot do offline unless you realize what you lack and what you are comfortable with.
- “Telling people online to go f%^& themselves makes me so cool and hotttt!!“
Many people love insulting others all the time on their personal blogs. Just because you can use the “F” word repeatedly does not mean you are cool and strong. The internet enables even the weakest of living things to appear strong through monitors, so it is a good thing to realize whether the power you express criticizing someone online will be the there to back you up if you were to criticize that same individual in person. The trend of insulting others all the time by showing yourself to be more intelligent only shows how narrow-minded and sensitive you are about your own shortcomings.
Be cool instead of acting cool. Try avoiding insulting other people simply to appear cool. If you really are an amazing person, other people will realize that on their own without you dictating such a thought to them through your insulting and criticizing of others.
- “Uuu don’t like what I write about?? GO DIE BI%$#!“
- “This is MY personal blog u idiot!! I can blog about anything in any manner i want!!“
The biggest myth that I see floating around personal blogs is that personal bloggers can blog about anything in any form they want. Yes, you can blog about anything in any manner you want since it is your blog, but only if you do not want people to read you on a regular basis. A personal blog should have at least one consistent thing: the perspective which is being expressed to a reader. Your personal blog is your opinion about things. The most important common element on all of the pages of your personal blog is you. Maintain consistency on your personal blog by talking about everything you mention in your own words and feelings.
Stick to your specialty and keep adding the personal touch to every post that makes your blog your own personal blog. Otherwise, people will start thinking that you are running out of topics to talk about or are confused about where your blog is headed. If you keep abandoning the personal approach on a more frequent basis, you may start losing readers who feel annoyed and confused by the irregularity and inconsistency in the basic theme of your posts.
I am seeing an increasing trend where many personal blogs are starting to tell viewers to “get lost” if they do not agree with something. Such personal blogs are run by people who usually complain about not being taken seriously in life while they themselves do not acknowledge that different people can have different opinions online.
Respect is earned, not taken by force. Show your maturity and open-mindedness by acknowledging that others can disagree with you. Respect people even if you do not respect their opinions. Always try to avoid taking extra steps to insult someone on purpose. If you say something like “i don’t care what u think!! if u don’t agree to what I have 2 say, get lost looooser!!“, it makes people wonder why you get upset over any disagreeing comments. If you really do not care about what people think, you would not be caring about any disagreeing comments you may receive. Do not let disagreeing comments dictate your emotions. Otherwise, you make it easy for people to control your emotions.
If I can make you so upset by simply leaving one comment on your site, imagine how much control I can have over your emotions if you were to ever run into me in real life. Refrain from taking things personally when someone disagrees with you. If you really get upset over a comment, try to disagree with the comment and not the person who commented. Regardless of people being right or wrong, if you get upset over anyone who disagrees with you, it means you cannot co-exist with people who can think differently than you. That is a handicap in my view, as there may always be someone who will disagree with what you say. Get rid of such a handicap before it destroys not only your blog but your emotions also.
Hold on to the good things you have on your personal blog right now and avoid the stereotypical trends and myths that are floating around in the personal blogging universe. Keep improving the ways you express yourself and the ways you deal with outside reactions to your expressions, and you can have a successful personal blog in the long run.
Personal blogging is still growing, so hold on
Like a child, the world of personal blogging is still growing. Personal blogging is also the most saturated type of blogging category out there. It is full of blogs that keep doing random things simply because many people relate personal writing to being random, vague and without any clear focus. Since the world of blogging is still new compared to things in the offline world, the personal blogging dust will someday settle and slowly some personal bloggers will either give up such blogging or move on to other kinds of blogs.
Realizing the above myths will help you realize whether or not personal blogging is for you in the long run, and whether or not you are falling victim to the myths which are starting to become real stereotypes that you can find on many blogs on a daily basis.
What do you think about this? Is there any point you agree or do not agree with? Can you think of any other points that should go along with this list? Thank you for reading.
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