Why do I blog?

At the beginning of this last Summer I thought blogs were stupid.  The only exposure I had to blogs was a friend of mine in Seminary who had a blog.  It was just a live journal, a way for him to keep his family and friends updated on what he was doing.  He would add pictures, videos, journal updates, etc.  It seemed fairly narcissistic at the time and I could not envision myself doing such a project.

Then, when I met my wife, she also had a blog, but did not encourage me to read it.  It seemed also to be of a more personal nature.  Then, early this last Summer, Brooke started to show some frustration that I had not really paid much attention to her blog.  So, I started reading her blog, as well as looking for other blogs that I might be interested in.  Little did I know that there was a whole world out there of interesting reading and conversation going on, especially in my field of biblical studies.  I had no idea there was a whole biblioblogging community (see the top 50 biblioblog list here).  I found several blogs that were continually grabbing my attention (see my blog roll for blogs that I read on a regular basis). I thought to myself, wow, I could do that, in fact, it could be quite interesting.  So, I decided to start a blog.

I have three main reasons that I blog. 

1) Writing practice:  In my field of biblical studies, writing is a necessity.  Writing well is even better.  Writing well about your topic is the best.  Therefore, I use this blog as writing practice.  I try and write a bit each day, forcing myself to do so, just to make sure that I am constantly working on my writing.

2) Interaction with students: I wanted there to be a place where my students could go to interact with me outside of the classroom.  I also wanted a place where conversations about class material could be discussed in more detail than is possible in class.  So far, this goal has worked fairly well, although, giving the carrot of a little extra credit for blog comments is a help, I am sure.

3) Self promotion in my field: blogging, as I mentioned before, is becoming an important medium through which ideas travel, especially in the biblioblogging community.  I use this blog to throw out some of my ideas and research in an attempt to get my name out there in my field.  As someone like myself, looking for a teaching job, everything I can do to get my ideas and research out there is a plus.

So, that is why I blog.  How about you?