What You Write, Tells a Lot About You.

Of course you knew that didn't you? If I follow a blog for a while, I can get a good picture of the person behind the blog. Sometimes its a simple, down to earth lady, at home with a child or two or maybe more, content happily going on about life, finding happiness in the small pleasures of life, sometimes its a boy in the body of a man, looking forward to some fun and laughs, leading a life full of passion and enthusiasm, then there is that confused woman, who is still not sure of what she wants, or has not yet priorities-ed her life. Of course this works only for personal blogs, people who write about themselves, their lives, or if they write about ideas, or thoughts. The style of writing, the choice of topics, the frequency, the line of thought, it shows me so much about the person. I don't always consciously do it, but I often gain insight into the writers of the blogs I regularly follow. That may also be because I love observing people, understanding their thinking, looking into their lives and that just comes to me naturally.

It is so much fun unraveling the persona behind the writers. The first thing I usually percieve from the blog is whether the blogger is genuinely happy person or not. There can be many many states of being in between, being happy and sad of course and there are no generalisations, or putting into categories, because each person is so unique. I am sure I am not always 100% right, but most of the time I have hit bulls eye. Especially in cases, where the readership leads into familiarity with the blogger, a kind of bonding, I see that the person is exactly the image I had formed of them, based on their blog.

Having never done this consciously, it just led me down a line of thought yesterday, which made me wonder, how exactly do I form the image of the person beneath the blog. I put in some conscious thought into the process and I found somethings which I could piece concretely. Wondering if any of the readers might be interested in it, I thought of putting some general pointers to understanding the mind behind the posts you read.

Let me start with the blog of the reticent or the overwhelming. There are blogs which come up with amazingly powerful posts, rarely and occasionally. The posts may belong to a select group of topics or vary vastly in their theme, but there is no doubt about the fact that each post is a masterpiece. These people are generally perfectionists, and do not believe in giving anything but their best. They hoard appreciation, and perfection is a way of life for them. They will only post when they have something brilliant and exceptional to post, else they will not. Even if that means blog breaks of weeks at a stretch, there will not be any post unless it is brilliant. But in the same category, of rare blogging, there are also those who are shy and reserved by nature. The posts come few and far between, because though they enjoy the experience of blogging, they are not sure about how much of themselves they wish to share, and hence they come with posts only when they really really want to share something.

Many people blog to give vent to their thoughts or emotions which they cannot in real life, atleast not completely and openly. It may even be a case where, people prefer to express through writing than speaking. If you see someone regularly posting on one particular topic, posts which are like rants, or hints of rants, even if they don't have a personal touch to it, in all likelihood they have a personal experience of it, which is why the topic is close to their heart and often appears in their writing. It is like people choosing a cause. If one has lost a loved one to Cancer, they are likely to donate to Cancer research. No, this does not mean, if a person writes about the cause of human trafficking, they have been sold themselves, but if someone does write a lot about animal cruelty, they are likely to be great animal lovers themselves. As an example, if I keep talking about how the world is unfair to people who carry extra weight, or how the world is forever judgmental to the female body, it is likely that I have an issue with my own body image and the way it is perceived.

Some people hide, yes they try hard to hide what is truly them. I am not talking about bloggers who don't talk about their personal life on their blogs, or maintain blogs dedicated more to social issues/non-personal blogs. But those who work consciously towards keeping the personal posts impersonal. These bloggers, don't want to tell all, and keep their personal life, well, personal. The Internet is indeed not as nice as we would like to believe it to be, it has all kinds of lunatics lurking around, and these bloggers know that well and don't want to take any chances. They are likely to be cautious,level headed,confident and practical people in real life. Most of their posts are usually well thought, neatly formatted, well written, and unlikely to have any mistakes.

And then there are also the exact opposites. There are quite a few posts, not all mind you, which are ill-formatted, lose track of what it was all about somewhere along the way, often untidy and with a done-on-the-go feel, feelings are poured out as is, without editing or refrain. These bloggers to say the least are not practical or cautious. Most of the times their posts are quite personal and relate to them directly.Their posts give a feel of being in a conversation with the blogger than just reading a post. They don't write for the sake of writing, but more to have their say, express what they think and feel. Their posts usually pour out directly from their heart.

There are ofcourse the favourites of all, the charmers. These are bloggers, who are universally liked. Unless someone knows them personally, and has some issue with them(which will again be very rare), no one has a harsh or negative thought about them. They have views, which are clear and precise, their posts usually leave you with a smile or a happy thought. When they write about a cause, you can see that they genuinely feel for it, and are really keen on changing that in this big bad world, and this is not done to generate traffic or to gain publicity. Their personal posts, are usually happy and sweet, because that is their attitude towards life, and even if the post is about something that has bothered them or something gone wrong, reading it leaves you loving the blogger even more for their honesty, and attitude. If you write in to them or comment on their blog, they are likely to welcome you with open arms, and treat you as an equal, with no sign of snobbery. May I please add here, they are my absolute favourites, because, I believe these kinds are genuinely nice people, with a sense of humour about life, and a generally friendly and happy attitude.

Some bloggers, blog about just about whatever they feel like. They get loads of comments at times, and none at others. They go on to write about what pleases them. There are quite a few posts, which seem to mean nothing at all, and yet are fun enough for the writer to write about. These bloggers are usually chilled out people in really life, with a devil-may-care attitude. They usually do what they think is good/fun/right/appropriate, and do so without social approval. They do enjoy appreciation, and people liking what they do, but would not change their opinion/view/way of living, even if faced with censure.

There are ofcourse many other characteristics that can be seen, but jotting them all down would just make this post too to lengthy and then the other small nuances, which help form the whole picture, like a bloggers reply to comments, and their comments on other blogs, also gives us a peek into their mind, but that is just another long topic. And then there are some which I cannot really put into words, but can just understand through perception. So, when I join the dots, the posts, the comments, the replies, it forms such a clear whole picture of the person for me, that after a while, I just know what to expect from the blogger, and usually I get just that.

For each thing that I wrote in this post, I had one or more bloggers in mind, and as soon as I thought of a particular blog, I could easily formulate my words for this one. So do you also read the blog and the person beneath it? What do you see?