Psychology of Blogrolls

Blogrolls - most blogs have them but how do they reflect on us as people? Let's start with a couple of questions.

1 - Do you predominantly post on blogs that have blogrolls? If yes,

• Do you ever go back to those blogs to check and see if they added you to their blogroll due to your insightful and witty comments?
• Do you ever add anyone to your blogroll in hopes that that person will see it and add you to theirs?
  

2 - If you have a blogroll, do you have any blogs on it that are of diverging viewpoints from your own? If yes,

• What got you to select those blogs even though you disagree with part of their viewpoint?

3 - Do you tend to comment more on blogs that generate a lot of hits and less on blogs that are more obscure?

• Have you ever gone to the topsites and gone to the top couple of blogs to read and comment to see if it would generate more traffic on your own blog?
  

4 - What was your intention when you first started blogging? Has it changed?

When you finally find a medium to make a difference and to challenge yourself and others to deepen our knowledge of God and relationship with Him I really think that Satan would like to detour us into thinking that the focus is really ourselves. If he can get our thoughts off of God and put our thoughts on to what could generate discussion, what could stir up 100 comments on a post, what could make you more popular then the battle is already won. We are not the focus, He is.

• "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2
  

I wonder if what is inside our hearts and motivations in blogging can be seen by our answers to some of the above questions. It is human nature to seek approval and desrie attention. It is natural to want to be heard and to feel significant. But if the truth be told that is probably not the initial reason most of us started blogging. With a few minor changes in attitude and thinking the focus of what we do can change from making a difference for God to making a difference for self. Have you ever had a day when you had many more hits than you have had in a while and it made you feel better, not better because you had made a difference, but better because people were listening?

• Jeremiah was a prophet with direct revelation from God. He had an unpopular message that surely wouldn't have generated very many hits if he were here today blogging his message but it was still important. Technorati would not list this guy in the top lists of number of links but he still spoke out faithfully.
  
• Some of the most important blogs and websites out there are not the ones with millions of hits talking in abstraction about minutia and finely-tuned theologies but the ones that are out to make a difference for God in a practical way through service. They may not be noticed by many people or show up in the blogrolls but they are making a difference that will last forever.

Here are some things to try out:

1. I would challenge all of you to add to your blogrolls blogs that you don't quite agree with but you know have some things that challenge you in difficult areas of your life. One way I have done this is by adding Mark Elrod and Greg Kendall-ball first of all because I know them and respect them as people and second of all because their views on war, nonviolence, and pacifism stretch me and challenge my thinking. If you only surround yourself with people you agree with 100% chances are you won't grow very much.
   
2. Remind yourself of why you got into this whole thing and see how your motivations for blogging have grown or regressed.
3. Examine your motives that determine where you post and where you don't. See if your comments are heart driven out of love for God or driven out of a desire for more traffic

So this post is dedicated to the faithful blogger who posts day in and day out, many comments or few, lots of links or little more than a handful, all because they are trying to make a difference in the lives of others with little concern for popularity, links, or self-promotion. Sorry to end this so soon, I have to go to technorati and sitemeter and see how I am doing!

The Psychology of Blogging

We all have different blogging styles and that makes me wonder if our personalities show up in the way we blog and the way we organize our blog. If the Today Show can push the idea that swimsuits can reflect our personality, I think we are on safe ground in using blogs to look at how blogs can reflect our personalities. This post will be full of all sorts of technical jargo so be prepared by going ahead an opening this link. Make sure to read the fine print.

Blogging Personality Inventory:

The anxious/perfectionistic blog: Some blogs are nice and tidy. There is not a simple blogroll in the sidebar. There are eight to ten blogrolls, one for several different areas of interest. These may even be subdivided further to make browsing these a breeze. These bloggers may have perfectionistic tendencies and suffer from anxiety and fear loss of control if things are not in their proper place.

The ADD blog: They have no apparent theme. They have had an endless number of series that never quite reach completion. They may say, "Next up, a 10 part series on parenting" but only make it 3 posts in before something else gets their attention, never to return. These blogs have good intentions and have a wide array of interesting information.

The OCD blog: These are the blogs where you post a comment and within five minutes you have gotten an email from the person or a comment in reply. If you have already checked your blog and email and responded to said email within the next five minutes you also may be the owner of your own OCD blog. These are the bloggers who incessently check their statcounters and sitemeters. They know as soon as you have visited and visit your blog in an instant. They have 19,762 profile views because they check to see if it has gone up so many times that they have single-handedly pushed it near the 20,000+ mark. Other warning signs that this might be your blog:

• If every other comment is your response to the previous comment. It may be a sign that you check your blog more times than everyone else combined.
• If you think about your blog more than 5 times a day and even at inappropriate times, like when your boss is talking to you and all you can do is wonder if someone has left a comment.
• If you have more than one blog stat device embedded into your. Isn't one enough?

Any similarities to your blog found in the previous description is not intentional and in no way was meant to offend or cause any harm. The thoughts expressed above are in no way, shape, or form attacking any blog in particular but have been formed on the basis of observing many blogs over a long period of time and are generalities. If you still feel that you have been attacked or defamed in this post you may be the next kind of blogger we will talk about, the paranoid type.