Value of (boring) blogging

I’ve been wondering, why daily blogs, vlogs and photo logs are so popular. For example, when I decided to learn about making videos, I started following Casey Neistat on YouTube. His vlog, which he used to update daily (now – once in every couple of days), is tremendously popular, and it shows how much effort it takes to publish something like that consistently. But surprisingly to myself, I also find it quite entertaining. Large part of the reason for this, I am sure, is that Casey is a great storyteller and a skilled and talented videographer. But another part, I think is the consistency of his vlog updates.

The individual episodes are often not particularly impressive, in my opinion. Mainly, because the subject matter is rather mundane. After all, with all the skill and talent you can make opening mail exciting only to a certain degree. But taking together, the many individual episodes make up something that is much more compelling than the sum of its parts. It’s a fantastic example of quantity being converted to quality.

So what is it about consistency that’s so valuable?

In a recent interview, Gretchen Rubin mentioned that she noticed that sending regular updates on her daily life events to her relatives had a tremendous positive effect on their relationship. In fact, they send each other update emails with the implicit understanding that these emails are allowed to be boring and that no response is necessary. The surprising effect is that even though the individual events described in these updates are often mundane, the overall cumulative affect of staying in charge is profound.

According to Rubin, relationships thrive on the mere act of showing up. For example, when two old friends, who were out of touch for many years, meet, they often have nothing to talk about beyond “How have you been?” – “Fine.” But if people are “caught up” on each other’s life details, no matter how insignificant, they have all these little things to chat about.

I think blogging is also a kind of relationship: a one-way communication between the author and the audience (it can be two-way, if comments are enabled, which I am currently experimenting with). To maintain this relationship, the updates need to be regular. The flip side of this is that it is sort of expected that some of them would be pretty boring. So my apologies in advance to anyone who is reading this and is considering returning.