...I was reading my usual spate of online comic strips this morning, and UserFriendly seemed to put a bead on some bloggers - Click for yesterday's strip else nothing I say will make sense in the next paragraph

I think Greg - the main character of this particular strip - said it all in the first panel. Written Performance. Have you ever considered that blogging might be considered a new form of performance art?

Oh sure, y'all have blogs for stitching, for politics, for comic strips, for knitting, for your personal family life, gardening, etc. It's a way to communicate with family, or to let all your opinions out there. Those are reasons that I've used in the past. But I think that this strip really sends it home.

Blogging really is a form of performance art. You're putting something out there that you have created that has a semi-live aspect of it because it is ever changing (if you edit often) and the viewer can contribute (via comments, if you allow it). Yes, I did happen to notice that the end of the strip someone else comes in and clarifies that what he's doing is akin to what cartoonists have done for decades. And I have noticed that today's strip (if you dare continue reading) that they're comparing Blogging to the new Usenet.

I can see that parallel though. You really do have to sort through a lot of drivel to get to the gems, unless you already know a bunch of bloggers who write pretty darn interesting blogs (see blogroll at the right). But even still, blogging is performance art if you're trying to get a message across. And even if you're not.

No, it's no Cirque du Soleil, as DH tried to compare the two yesterday. It's no Laurie Anderson either (betcha I get some really interesting hits on the blog due to mention of the both of those folks now). Performance art can be as simple as living your life for the whole world to see. And considering how many of us use blogs as our daily diaries we are, indirectly, performance artists letting the whole world read our lives. Or our opinions.

Some use blogs as soapboxes (see any blog that has a purpose or political message behind all the entries). Some use them as venting arenas. Some just to share a picture, or some other way to let the world know that life is good.

Me? Why do I blog? All of the above, and more? I get to deliver an opinion to whomever sticks around to read it. If no one reads it, then I still have gotten it out there and out of my head. That's another thing - I'll get some of the things that are bugging me out of my head. And it allows some of you to get to know another side of me that you might not have known existed. Or some little fact somewhere. Anyway, this was just a discourse to give you something to think about. What *is* blogging really, and what does it mean to you...

...even if you only read them.