Middle Aged Mama

Blogging about my Midlife Adventures

Is Blogging Just Useless Chatter?!

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There are now approximately 75 million trillion* blogs clogging up the internet … but is blogging just useless chatter?!

is blogging just useless chatter

And if so – why are blogs so popular with readers?

Once you start blogging, you will find there are thousands of blogs and experts telling you how to do it “properly” – and the way to do that, apparently, is to “be useful”. That is, to write content that is useful to your readers (and so that people can find you via Google).

This is why you see so many posts with titles using the old “Who, What, When, Where, Why, How” approach, like this:

As you can see, I’ve written more than a few of them myself 😉 !

The beauty of blogging for me, however, is that I think it can be both “useless chatter” (not that there’s anything wrong with that, as I’ll explain in a minute) as well as a way to share information. I love that blogging can be BOTH of these … and more!

Many times my posts may NOT seem all that useful – but I think they still are. They may not get picked up by the search engines, but that doesn’t mean they’re worthless or just useless chatter.

As I write them, it helps me to get more in touch with my own thoughts and feelings.

These are the posts where you really get to know ME, the person behind the blog.

It’s as I share my deepest thoughts (for example, in Crisis of Faith or Non-Morbid Thoughts of Death and Dying) and everyday happenings (Who Does the Washing up? or The Joy of Old Home Movies), that you get some idea of what life is like for this middle aged woman.

And maybe, you feel reassured. You are not alone.

blogging is not useless chatter

You may see echoes of yourself (future, present or past) which make you feel that somebody else understands; that you have a friend.

Somebody you can chat to (via the blog comments, or Facebook, Instagram or Twitter), even if it is just online.

Personally? I reckon you can’t get much more useful than that!

So tell me, what sort of posts do you prefer here on Middle Aged Mama – helpful information, or useless chatter (like this post)?!

* Yes, I made this figure up.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I love this, Janet, for obvious reasons. Queen of ‘useless’ blogging here! But I’m so quiet in person that I think it gives people a chance to get to know me, if they wish to, just like you say.

    • Thank you so much Sammy! Even as I was writing this post, I knew I wasn’t saying anything that hadn’t been said before … but I still loved being able to express my words and feelings about blogging 🙂

  3. I’ve tried to write useful posts Janet but to me they always sound preachy and I’m not comfortable with being preachy. I feel much more at home just being me, writing like I would talk to a friend because ultimately that is my goal – I want to connect with like-minded people. And if those people glean something useful from what I have to say then that makes me happy. But it’s not the key to successful blogging. Well, not in my book anyway….humble as it is. I guess it depends on why each of us blog.

    Whether it’s useful or chatty, it makes no difference to me Janet. It’s your authenticity that reels me in. x

    • I’m a big believer in authenticity, integrity and transparency so I’m glad it shines through x

  4. I can so relate to this… I know I reviewed books, but that’s more about me than readers I think… and in reality my more popular blogs were just the blithery ones (ie. useless chatter) about stuff I wanted to get out of my head. In reality I that they’re like conversations and others can usually relate to them so it instigates something that is useful after all…

    • Yes, I love how a blog can become a conversation with others!

  6. I have “ueslessly” written online for maybe 12 years now, sure doesn’t seem like I’m stopping anytime soon 🙂

  7. I am coming to love blogging. It’s like a colossal playground filled with other writers, artists, people sharing ideas and experiences that I would never otherwise hear about. So, I play there. I post things that are not polished and not complete as well as things I’ve labored over. I’ve actually had some great ideas lobbed back for continuing stories or about books that I’ve read. So heartily glad that you blog, Janet!

  8. I like a mixture of both… even though my own main site is pretty factual and not so chatty.

    Can’t believe there are so many blogs! I got fed up with so many blogs teaching people to make money so have been writing Blog For Fun Not Profit, a site that’s about having a laugh and blogging as a hobby. http://www.blogforfunnotprofit.com is just about up and running – and guess what? It’s been a laugh setting it up!

    • LOL I’ve come across it previously Seana and had a bit of a chuckle to myself. Go for it girl!

  9. Hi Janet I was nodding as I was reading your post. Sometimes I wonder why I keep going with the blog and then someone will leave a lovely comment and I that is so encouraging. Blogging for me was a way to get my feelings out when I retired and found after 6 months it wasn’t going as planned. I love reading other bloggers’ thoughts and also the connections we make with other bloggers and of course our readers. My blog doesn’t take the world by storm but I’m happy with it and hopefully that shows through. Have a great week!

    • I love your second last sentence: “My blog doesn’t take the world by storm but I’m happy with it and hopefully that shows through.” Ditto!

  10. I don’t think there is such thing as useless chatter because everything is useful to someone! I am fond of a how to, but for me the best thing about blogging isn’t the information gathering, it’s about the connections we make and the sneak peeks we take into one another’s worlds. And that for me is very useful, and totally value added!

  11. I blog to share and connect with the very occasional attempt at a how-to or top tips. I think listicles and bullet point blogging for the sake of it isn’t very interesting but that’s just my view!