Why do people start blogs?

Nothing could have been more appropriate for a first blog post.
I am a student, part time dreamer and full time procrastinator. And sometimes, when the universe works in my favour, I come up with something that people might call “poetry”.
Now, like everyone else, everyone around us LOVES giving advice. As if they’re a cat with nine lives saying “two down, seven to go.” Be it unsolicited or otherwise (it’s usually the former), we love talking to people with an air of already having ridden this roller coaster called life before.
And so, when I was encountered  by this kind of person who came up to me and said, “Your stuff is moderately good. You should start a blog. I’m telling you, it’ll help you, ” following which he walked away, it got me thinking.
“It’ll help you. ”
How?
I started a blog anyway, simply because I’m a very expressive person who lives alone most of the time. But it did get me thinking about something else.
Why do people start blogs?
Now, the question was right in front of me, and the answer seemed deceptively simple at first. A medium of expression.   But was that it?
Digging a little deeper, and after talking to a few people I discovered why various friends of mine had started blogs. One of them started writing because he had recently broken up with his long-time girlfriend and was looking for salvation, redemption, or whatever one might call it, on the internet. Another started a blog because she wanted to get her life in order, and keeping an online journal kept her in check. An acquaintance of  mine started it because she wanted the “world” to read what she had to say, while another just wanted to give the voices in her  head an outlet.
All of them completely different.
But, if you read closely, you’ll see an underlying factor.
Can you guess what it is?
That’s right, validation.
This incessant need for validation exists inside every one of us. Be it from friends, family, colleagues, or random strangers on the internet. As if whichever task we undertake is only as well performed as others say it is.

But don’t be fooled if you ever meet a person in whom this need for external validation doesn’t  seem to exist; because that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Nine out of ten times, that person would be a writer. Or a painter. Or an artist of some sort. Because their source of validation becomes themselves. By providing their thoughts with a tangible outlet, they convince themselves that they’re not totally crazy.
And they aren’t. Usually.

I’ll still be blogging, though.

I can’t think of  a clever way to end this post. Bye.