133 Million

133 million. I read an article the other day about the movie Julie & Julia. In the article, they were talking about Julie Powell’s blog, which is what the book Julie wrote and subsequently what the movie by the same name was based. The writer of the article mentioned that there are 133 million bloggers in the world. 133,000,000. Kind of puts things in a different perspective.

It was interesting to me that this article came out right after that shooting in Pennsylvania. Why? Because the shooter had a blog and described what he was going to do in the blog. The police want to know if anyone had read it and said it was obvious that the shooter was going to commit this mayhem and they feel like someone should have reported it. Great theory but really, why would anyone have taken him seriously? Would anyone, who wasn’t in law enforcement, have recognized the signs and would have been able to stop him? It was an absolute tragedy that this happened and it would have been wonderful if someone could have stopped him. But, if someone had read it and reported it, the police would have contacted him and he could have just said he was rambling and wasn’t serious. After all, unless he actually commits a crime, I don’t believe the police can arrest someone for thinking bad thoughts. If that were the case, anyone who makes a film or writes a book that leads someone to commit a crime would be arrested.

What does the shooter’s blog have to do with Julie Powell’s blog? I think that the fact that Julie got her book published and a movie made about it gives people the false impression that their blogs will go somewhere too. And, what the shooter’s blog points out is that, in reality, not every blog is read. Its like Julie’s success can really inflate the ego but the shooter’s obscure blog will bring you back to earth pretty quickly.

I’m pretty realistic about this blog of mine. I know some people may read it but I think it is pretty sporadic. I don’t think anyone wakes up in the morning and their first thought is “I have to read Thoughts Like Grapes!!!”. I don’t even wake up in the morning and think, “I have to post to Thoughts Like Grapes!!!”. I was discussing this with my brother, Ted, last night. He is the person who set up my blog and named it. He admitted to me that he rarely reads it. It just isn’t on his list of things he checks on a daily basis. He reads Blue Girl’s blog and now he reads the two blogs from Ghana (see posting on Ghana Experienced). So if my own brother who gave me the blog doesn’t read it, I don’t have an inflated ego about anyone else reading it.

Of course, other people reading it isn’t my main concern. I just like writing. I like the whole process of it. It’s like cooking and baking. I like the process. My only problem is that, especially with baking, what do I do with it once it is done? I certainly don’t want to eat all that I bake (that would be soooo bad) so I end up giving it to people at church or bring it to work. The eating isn’t the objective. The process is the objective. Same with the blog. The writing is the objective. Not to have a huge following of readers who hang on my every word.

133 million bloggers. Pretty high number. But, then again, the world population is estimated to be 6.7 billion. That means that it is only 2% of the world’s population that blogs. That’s a pretty low number. Hmmm…..

Ok…reality is no one probably reads my blog on a regular basis. Or an irregular basis. That’s ok. If you are reading this, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for visiting!!