The Greed of Blogging

This post is centred on Christian blogs for I cannot speak of other brands. Within that, this post is largely a self-critique, but all the while wondering if it is not a fairly universal thing.

As with all the things that bounced through the new year, I have pondered this blog. I have pondered its content, its author and how life was and now is for him. I try to reflect on worth and value, point or pointlessness, propriety or otherwise of all that I do.

I noticed something in my own blogging behaviour that niggles me, and that is greed. I have taken the process back to the start:

1. I felt like I ought to write a blog, without any real knowledge why. I hoped that someone somewhere might read it

2. I constructed one and wrote a post.

3. Some people read, and that was nice - so I wanted more.

4. I wrote more and more people read, and that was nice - so I wanted more.

5. I learned tricks to expand readership, and they worked, and that was nice - so I always want more.

I often try to evaluate the theological rationale for this outpouring from the depths of my fleshy inner-bits, and the answer is as yet unclear. I think I have something relevant to say; I think I have a perspective that appears so far to be largely unique (among bloggers); as a means of communicating the Gospel and a Christian perspective, this is an acceptable means; I could just make a difference somewhere. This oscillates from one end to the other of the 'Pointless Waste of Time' Spectrum, but always there is an emerging greed in this. Whatever I want to say, I hope that people will read, and then in greater numbers. I hope that this is underwritten by good intention, but greed is greed and that troubles me a little.

I take some small comfort in knowing that I am not alone. I know several bloggers personally (though not biblically, you understand) who have confessed a similar appetite, and I wonder therefore, if the greed of blogging is not universal. If it is, is it wrong? Is it a symptom of writing something that we hope will be read, or is worth reading? It may be, of course, that I am deluded and the only blogger in the world who wants more readers (or is prepared to say so, out loud).