MetroDad: Blogging as a Popularity Contest: I Lose!

November 12, 2008

Blogging as a Popularity Contest: I Lose!

I'm often humbled by the sheer number of people who e-mail me regularly asking me to please post here on a more frequent basis.

Being only human, I have to admit that this flattery often feeds the small part of my ego not already being nourished by my overinflated sense of self-esteem and narcissism. Really? You like me? Oh goody!

But as you can probably tell, I don't really write here because I want to be popular. If anything, I think I'd actually prefer a little more anonymity.

Why?

When you're young, all you care about is having lots of friends. Then, as you mature, you realize there are much more important things in life---like having lots of friends who are less successful than you are.

Just kidding.

I think.

I might have to get back to you on that one.

Anyway, in all seriousness, I admit that this blog has a certain amount of internet-induced popularity that I'm slightly conflicted about it. On the one hand, I don't give a shit about what other people think of me but, on the other hand, I'd really like to be remembered as the guy who didn't care what other people thought of him. I like to call this the "Fonzie Dilemma."

Anyway, part of the reason that I don't blog more regularly is because I don't want this blog to become too popular. As I look around the internet, I see a lot of bloggers who are more overexposed than George Hamilton slathered in baby oil lying on a bed of aluminum foil under a magnifying glass at high noon in Palm Springs. Their constant self-promotion leaves me feeling a little nauseated by the whole thing.

I don't want to be one of those people whose lives becomes obsessed with blogging. I'll never be one who posts every day, comments on hundreds of blogs, and falsely assumes that quantity can trump quality. Traffic and popularity don't mean that much to me.

I just like hanging out with you guys and shooting the shit.

Anyway, I would like to start posting here a little more frequently. It's just that things have been, as the kids say, "mad crazy." I'm watching my portfolio shrink so quickly that I picture myself spending my retirement greeting people at Wal-Mart. I'm cleaning my apartment so I can see more than 10 square feet of space at any given time. I'm cursing the fact that I bought a car that gets 12 mpg. I'm subsisting solely on meat and cheese. I'm weaning myself off coffee. I'm catching up on 3 months worth of personal e-mails. I'm purposefully losing daily games of Candyland while teaching my daughter how to tie her shoes. And I'm reading five books simultaneously while trying to figure out whether I should keep watching "Fringe," "The Mentalist," "My Own Worst Enemy," and "The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

Oh yeah...I'm also ruminating on the fact that I turned 40 last week!

More importantly, what's up with all of you?

Posted at 02:46 PM in Blogging | Permalink

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