This week I found myself asking the question, “Why did I start blogging?”

• One reason was that after I took a hiatus from social media, I didn't know what to do with all my free time. So, I kept myself busy by blogging.
• The other reason was that I wanted to create a way for my friends to stay updated on what's been going on with my life, without using social media. Basically, I wanted to see if I could replace social media with blogs and personal websites.

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On my previous weeknotes I said that there's no feedback loop for my photo-blog. That was part of the reason I created an Instagram account for it. Well, I was wrong. At the very least, there are stats for it. So, I guess that's something.

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Turns out, I was serious about no longer wanting to publish overly personal posts on this journal. I created a new blog on Write.as and set it to Private. Then I moved over all my journal entries into it, plus a couple more posts with personal content.

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... you’ll answer for it because when you claim Christ you choose exile, and therefore will be held to a different standard, entirely, than the world’s.

~ Throwing Away Our Holy Things by Elizabeth Scalia

Choosing to follow Christ means going against what is expected of people in this world. Sometimes I forget that it is a totally different way of life. And if you follow that way of life, chances are, you will be ridiculed for doing so. It is as Elizabeth says, to choose exile.

Back when I started this online journal, I touched upon the idea of having one without giving readers the ability to comment on posts. I still think that is perfectly fine. It is your blog/journal/website. You should be allowed to decide whether you want comments or not.

Lately, I've been trying to look at ways to replace social media with this online journal of mine. Like instead of posting on Instagram, I would post photos here. I've come to realize that my friends would probably like a way to comment, like they do on Instagram. The problem is, I don't want it to be too easy to comment. I'm open to comments, as long as maintaining them doesn't become a full time job. I'm more interested in having conversations as opposed to comments, something that Matt alluded to in his Commentary and Communication piece.

(Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash)

A few months ago, while I was researching how to start a personal blog/website, I kept running into this idea that a blog, without a system that allows comments, is not a blog. One popular blogger even likened it to a telephone with no earpiece.