Friday, October 16, 2009

Blogs Without Topics

I just read and wanted to respond to this post by Amber over at Girl with the Red Hair.

In it, Amber discusses another blog post which claims that blogs without topics are inherently useless.

Of course, I'm a little biased here. I say that OHP is about "whatever makes me happy," but that's essentially a nice way of saying that I can't pick just one topic to stick to. Just one topic doesn't make me happy. It takes a lot of things- from books to being healthy to green living- to make me happy. I choose to blog about all of those things.

I agree with Amber that we could pick a single topic and get really, really into it. There are some absolutely amazing blogs out there that are devoted entirely to fitness, or relationships, or even nail polish (check out my side bar "Blogs I Heart" if you want to see some of my faves). But there are also some amazing blogs that are devoted to whatever catches the blogger's fancy, like Ambers, or Cup of Jo. Both have a good number of devoted followers, so that sort of debunks the idea that people aren't interested in them. Plus, I love reading blogs without topics because, personally, I like not knowing what I'm going to get when I log on each day.

Arguing that blogs have to have specific topics is kind of like arguing that newspapers should focus only on politics, or current events, or crime. Blogs aren't just about "topics". They're about human communication. And as anyone who has taken intro psych (or sociology, or anthropology) will tell you, humans thrive on communication. We love to share things- ideas, opinions, rants and raves. So if only for the communication aspect of blogging, I think topicless blogs are totally worth it.

What's your opinion on this? Agree, disagree, kind-of-sorta agree? Leave it in the comments- just be respectful :)

Big thanks to Amber for bringing the topic up! It's one I've been thinking of lately but didn't know how to tackle. If you haven't checked out Amber's blog Girl With The Red Hair, you can (and should) do so here.

1 comment:

  1. Glad the topic peaked your interest, Amanda.

    After reading all of my comments yesterday, and this post, I think my opinion has been changed a bit. I definitely agree that blogs can be "topic-less" but, even more than that, I think that being a 20-something blogger IS a topic of blogging these days!

    Thanks for weighing in!

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