Subscribe via RSS feedThe bliss of shouting into the void
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To say I do not know how many hits I get on my site would be a lie. It is hosted on neocities and there is a hit counter, so I can know. When occasionally I have a look at it, it confuses me more than anything else though. However, I'm not interested in discussing what is confusing me and why. Because I do not care about these numbers. Like, at all.
So while I can find out how many hits my site gets, I do not know at all how many people actually read what I'm writing, or how many are subscribed to my RSS feed, or how many come to see the rest of my site regularly or at all. - And that is a very good thing.
It is good because if I knew the exact numbers, I could either be very disappointed (by low numbers) or very frightened (by high numbers). So shouting into the pitch black void, not knowing how many others are listening, is pretty nice.
Why people want to have more and more subscribers, followers, fans, likes, boosts/ reblogs, etc. I do not understand. Don't get me wrong: I do understand that we as humans like to be liked. I like to be liked. I like knowing that people like what I do, that they like my site and read my blog. (So please keep telling me. 😇) But with a big audience comes big anxiety. Speaking to 5 people is different than speaking to 15, and it is definitely different than speaking to 100 people or even more. So the more people I know of that read and like what I do, the more uncomfortable I get. What if I change anything on my site? What if I say something wrong? Will these nice people be disappointed in me? Will they unsubscribe? Will they write angry e-mails?
So it's best for me and my sanity to not know the numbers. I am not here for them anyway, or for any kind of fame. I am here for the fun of it. I come here to relax and get away from stress, not to find new one. After all, this is my hobby. I want to do it for myself. I blog because I have thoughts in my head that need out and I've got no-where else to put them. (Ok, hat's obviously not true given the amount of journals I own. Anyway...) I make my website because web coding is one of the ways I like to creatively express myself.
Why not do it offline then, on my computer for no-one to see, if all this has the potential to stress me out, you ask? Well, imagine a web where everyone would only have their websites on their own computers and never publish them. - Yeah, not exactly the void I'd like to shout into.
The web lives from us sharing what we make. I like to share what I make. And I love seeing what others make. Do you want to share your work with me? Feel free to reply to the fedi post or use the e-mail address below and write in.
In the end it's all a question of the right balance, I guess: I don't want to be ignored completely, but too much attention is not what I want either. 🤷♀️ How about you?
- Elena.
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