It is nice to have an audience but sometimes there is a pressure inside to write, to get things down on paper. I used to forever have scraps of paper and a pencil in my pockets and frantically jot down ideas before I “lost” them, blogging is great for that, it gives you a window to let it all out, sometimes just to get it off your chest so you can breathe again. Initially you write for yourself but definitely something changes when you get an audience. You begin to feel responsible. A duty to ensure posts are up to par. Like you can’t throw out any old rubbish because you have an obligation to your readers to produce quality. And that does take time, it does take effort and it can mean you do it less frequently. I agree twitter provides an immediate escape valve in between.

In terms of the criticims levelled, there can be insularity on the blogosphere sometimes and I think there is inevitably a clique of sorts in place. Probably not unlike the mainstream media in fact, although perhaps as Una says, a little less fratricidal, for the time being anyhow. There can be an irrational fear of criticism – a “with us or against us” mentality. A reservation expressed about one platform choice or a comment on the limitations of another can be read as a complete disavowal of the medium. Example at one point in 08 or early 09 I remember questioning the usefulness of FaceBook as a campaign tool – was shot down by a few who felt I somehow ‘didnt get it’ – FaceBook rolled out changes to their apps addressing exactly the issues I had been highlighting only a few months later. If someone starts pointing at the emperor it needn’t always mean he’s naked – maybe he is just wearing odd socks – and isn’t it normally better to know?

On a tangenital note, I had a long train journey last Saturday morning and I ran to pick up a copy of the Irish Times before boarding. My mate and travelling companion looked at me aghast – “Its on your iPhone, what are you doing?”. Sure there are Sunday mornings when a web roundup will give me all I need and negate the need for a paper run. But in the main – though I blog, I tweet, I FB (etc .. ) – shock horror – I like the print stuff too. It’s not always a contest.