This might be a relatively brief ‘discussion’ which, actually, is pretty much summed up by the title of this post.
I’ve never been much of a numbers girl. I’m well and truly a right-brained, artsy, wishy washy, literature girl through and through – to the extent that I sometimes struggle now with remembering how to do long division (I wish I were kidding). And we all know numbers, whether those numbers stand for followers or number of posts or views or likes, they’re all nice enough in terms of analytics but, actually, become meaningless in the grand scheme of things. That follower count? Just a number, a mark on a screen, nothing more.
And, don’t get me wrong, whilst it’s nice to have the validation via those pesky numerals, it’s not the be-all-and-end-all of why most bloggers blog. I blog because having to sit down and put words together to express an opinion is actually something that has helped my own sense of self and my confidence enormously over the past few years.
I’ve always been someone who struggles with very deeply ingrained insecurities about whether anything I have to say is worthwhile saying… or worth anyone reading, for that matter. Hence why I sometimes seem to slip into radio silence on this blog. Chances are I’m still reading and thinking about books, but I’ve just had a moment of ‘oh woe is me, I don’t have anything new to say, let’s not bother’. That is a destructive and cyclical mindset and having this blog has actually really helped me try to break out of that vicious cycle.
So, “what is the point of this ‘discussion’?” I hear you ask. Well, I recently reached 200 followers. To me, that’s amazing. The fact that 200 people care about what I (occasionally) write? That’s astounding. I’m definitely not the biggest or most prolific blogger ever (ha, not by a long shot) but the fact that someone else cares (let alone 200 of you) is really quite something. And it does wonders for silencing that ol’ inner critic of mine who does so like to pipe up at every opportunity.
So, sincerely, thank you to each and every person who has ever read, commented, and/or liked anything I’ve written on this little blog of mine.
I appreciate your support more than you could ever know.
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The Terror of Knowing 
4 responses to “Discussion | Blogging Stats and Validation”
[…] Discussion | Blogging Stats and Validation by Emma at The Terror of Knowing. I swear, it’s like all my blogger friends have been reading my mind lately. This is another topic I’ve been thinking about a lot (and wrote down as an idea for a future discussion post). It’s a great post, and gives bloggers something to think about. […]
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I used to be very conscious of what I was writing and how it might be perceived but then I reminded myself of why I began blogging (an online reading journal and to link to things that I liked) so really, who cares what others think and even if they read?! Keep blogging!
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Congratulations! I know exactly what you mean when you mention struggling with self confidence when writing blog post, I feel the same much of the time. Keep blogging!
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Thank you very much! It’s a vicious cycle because feeling like that means you don’t end up posting which then means you (or at least this is true for me) feel like a bad blogger because you haven’t posted in a while and so the cycle repeats. It’s important for us all to just be supportive of each other and encourage everyone to keep blogging on through the moments of self doubt. :)
Keep blogging too!
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