Why I Blog

I am a blogger.

There is a pejorative weight that comes with the term, a subtext that elicits a raised eyebrow and cocked half-smile in the listener. “So…What do you ‘blog’ about?” (The quotations around the word are nearly always audible.) Suffice to say, one doesn’t highlight “blogger” as an interest on an eHarmony account.

Given that there is virtually no social cachet in it, why blog? For me, blogging filled a vague, ill-defined need. I started my blog, née 1000 Words, while I was working at a number-crunching, intellectually unstimulating job. I had recently left the military, and my son had just been born. I could feel skills I spent years sharpening–writing, intellectual curiosity–collapsing into cubicle dust.

My blog became two things: an outlet for thoughts that had hitherto been trapped in my cubicle and a way to keep my writing and thinking “skills” (how skillful, always debatable) sharp.

Other Elkridge bloggers have similar reasons for getting started. Jeff Six says, “I write my blogs…mainly for myself, with the additional goal of getting that contribution out there to anyone interested in reading it.” Erinn, at Something Else to Distract Me, began blogging to escape the inherent loneliness of pecking at a keyboard. “Blogging is a way to reach out to other writers who are experiencing the same thing I am…[and] it’s a way to reach out to other writers who are also parents.”

Writing, at its core, is a solitary affair. Blogging, on the other hand, may not need to be. Recently, I’ve begun exploring the massive and active , generally shorthanded (particularly by the Twitterphiles among us) as HocoBlogs. While the HocoBlogs site is an amazing curation of local writers, overseen by social media maven Jessie Newburn and technical whiz Robin Abello, the community is more than just a collection of links. Wander briefly through the Hocosphere, and you’ll have a great perspective on our real-world community via its digital incarnation.

Need a restaurant review? You’re covered. Interested in local politics? Why, try here, here, or here. Photographer, oenophile, cancer survivor, musician? Bam, bam, bam, bam.

Erinn, who recently started dedicating a day a week to HoCo-centric posts, had some concerns with the condition of the roads in her neighborhood after a water main replacement. (Full disclosure: Erinn and I live a few blocks apart, and my street is also in pretty rough shape.) So she took some pictures (well, a lot of pictures), and posted them to her blog. With a little guidance from Newburn, Erinn was able to leverage the power of Twitter and Elkridge Patch, swiftly receiving a reply from the County Executive’s Deputy Chief of Staff. “Because we can't be everywhere all the time, we rely citizens like you to bring issues like these to our attention,” the deputy chief wrote in response to her post. Erinn might focus on fiction, but her writing helped make local government aware of an all-too-real problem.

Over in Columbia, Tom at HoCoRising seeks to change the prima facie passivity of blogging by taking literal action. As ably covered by the , Tom is mobilizing his readers to end homelessness in Howard County. The HoCo blogger community rallied around the cause, Tom has blown away his first fundraising goal, and it certainly seems that his ambitious project has every chance for success. (Interested in finding out more, or perhaps joining in yourself? Click any of the convenient links above and read, learn, donate.)

As a government, Howard County is leading the One Maryland Broadband Plan, which seeks to connect major government and community hubs with fast, dedicated information pipelines. With its relatively wealthy, educated population and position as an emerging cyber leader, Howard County is at the bleeding edge of online engagement. I don’t think the confluence of these two things, Howard County as a digital leader and hotbed of online activism, is any coincidence.

We, in Howard County, have a chance to be a role model for both the nation and the world (grandiose, I know, but I’ll stand by this statement) for what online engagement can mean in a local community. With the means at our disposal, it is incumbent upon us to use them wisely.

It’s easy to find boundless optimism or endless pessimism on the effect and future of the Internet, a nonstop stream of prognostication. Look close to home, however, and you can see the real power of an engaged citizenry armed with nothing more than a browser and interest in making their little patch of the world a little bit better. That, ultimately, is the power and utility of blogging. Fixing roads and helping a few hundred homeless might seem like small potatoes, but it is real, and it is here.

So while I blog for myself and my sanity (vanity), the medium allows for so much more, gives an amazing set of tools to anyone with some free time and a computer. Much ink has been spilled on the flattening of the world and the possible power of Twitter in revolutions, but here, at home, we can use these tools for the seemingly banal tasks and responsibilities of active citizens in local government.

If you’re reading this, I know you’re online. With the box below, you have a voice. Follow a few of the links above, and you’ll join a growing community with an expanding power. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility. And tell your friends.