Andrew Sullivan's "Why I Blog"

In Andrew Sullivan’s article “Why I Blog” cites many reasons why he enjoys blogging and has continued to blog since 2000. I think the most important reason why he blogs pertains to the fact that he has been writing as a journalist with restraints for years and writing blogs is something outside of the box for him. He writes, “I’d edited a weekly print magazine, The New Republic, for five years, and written countless columns and essays for a variety of traditional outlets. And in all this, I’d often chafed, as most writers do, at the endless delays, revisions, office politics, editorial fights, and last-minute cuts for space that dead-tree publishing entails.” It seems like writing is something he loves so he choose to be journalist, but blogging gives him a chance to create a hobby out it. He does it for himself and his readers. The existence of blogging provides Sullivan the opportunity to connect with his readers in a personal manner because there is no middle man because his blogs are not edited or published by anyone other than himself. The message transferred between a writer and the audience is “raw” but it can also be “brutal.” Sullivan used these two terms to describe the relationship in blogs. I think the fact that the words written in a blog are permanently recorded (until deleted) causes blogs to be a more accurate account than memories. While humans can choose to remember memories in a certain manner, the blogs will be different, but it sustains the element of honesty as much as a personal memory. Almost everything is changed with time but blogging is like a recorded log. Blogging in this way is an evolving manner in writing and life.

Sullivan compared blogs to logs kept on boats at sea. He describes the logs at sea as follows, “Away from land, there was usually no reliable corroboration of events apart from the crew’s own account in the middle of an expanse of blue and gray and green; and in long journeys, memories always blur and facts disperse. A log provided as accurate an account as could be gleaned in real time.” Immediately, I thought his description of logs were very similar to diaries. Both hold valuable information that are true and can withstand the inevitable changes that comes with time.