At least, from your computer. Hear me out.
I’ve only recently gotten into reading people’s personal blogs. It’s very relaxing to read the personal thoughts of real people. Not just thoughts, sometimes there’s ideas, tips, tricks, ways to improve something for yourself or, and this is my favorite one, a link to a new blog to explore.
My list of blogs to keep track of is constantly growing. I discover new people weekly. The point here is, there’s a lot to read and reading takes time. And while I absolutely enjoy every minute I spend reading all these great posts, time is something I, well we all, only have a limited amount of.
When I am at my desk in front of my laptop, I usually have more important things to do. Work that needs to be finished; information that needs to be absorbed; deadlines that need to be met; blog posts that need to be written! Now when I am not doing any of that, but am instead reading blog posts, I feel guilty. Feeling this way totally ruins the experience for me. I don’t get the zen, happy feeling I usually get, just because something else demands my attention and it deserves it. It kinda kills the enjoyment.
The laptop has become my productivity zone, whether I like it or not. My brain has been trained to see this screen as work space. So when I try to read something personal and reflective here, there’s this constant background hum of “shouldn’t you be doing something more important right now?”
Compare that to when I am on my phone. I am not a social media person. I do not use Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, whatever. On my phone I talk to people I like through chat apps. I read some Wikipedia. I play a game. I read a blog. When I am on this thing, I have no work to do. I have no pressing other engagements I need to tend to. It’s my time and I choose to waste it on this little screen I hold in my palm.
This is when I get the most out of blogs. I just read and enjoy the posts. It’s guilt free and nice. There’s something intimate about reading someone’s personal thoughts on a small screen while I’m relaxed in a chair or, well, in the other location you’re in on your phone a lot. The serendipity works better too—I stumble across a new blog, follow a link, get lost in someone’s archive. It feels natural, not systematized.
That RSS reader on my computer? It was trying to turn blog reading into a task to complete, another inbox to clear. But these personal writings aren’t meant to be consumed like email or news. They’re meant to be savored and enjoyed!
