Why The Why?

The other day I was having a conversation with Maya on twitter about, well, tweeting. And she wrote (I Actually went to twitter to find the exact words) “Tweeting is like standing on a street saying random things hoping someone passing by will hear you.” To which I replied “ No. Tweeting is like standing at the corner of a street knowing someone will hear you but hoping they don’t think you are mad.” The conversation ended that way, and the next time I saw Maya on twitter I wanted to continue but curse me and my weak follow through right? Anyway, that conversation got ye younge (well they aren’t olde yet) cogs turning and I began to think. What is the point of all this? Tweeting, updating on facebook, blogging and the like, that is. Why?

See

Now this could be misunderstood and it could be said to completely boil down to the basic question why? But this isn’t leading there. We have almost a thousand bloggers (at least according to these guys) in Kenya. Some of them have matured and have thousand upon thousands of hits piling up while some are still suffering the Peter and syndrome and just refuse to grow up. Some have proper English while some can barely spell (see  here as well). But they all have a common ground. They keep doing it. Not 24 hours go by without me getting a tweet or facebook message about someone’s blog and what they wrote (I am not complaining, don’t get me wrong… I LOOOVE reading). However, I keep asking myself, what keeps us going?

I mean, it can’t be money because this hardly pays anyone. Only the big bloggers for newspapers and columnists get money off it. Maybe it is the fame, getting known all over as the best of writers. But then again I doubt it. Maybe it is the release. The thoughts that were clammed up in ones mind finally put out there. Found a home on a word document and a wordpress database. Well, whatever it is, it works. Writers in Kenya constantly push each other forward and when reading some of them the only question one can ask themselves is what have I done to be considered one of them(see that whole concept here).

So maybe my point today is, is the why that important? Can’t we just say we blog, tweet, update because we can’t stop? Because the bowels that hold the vowels need relief. Do we need to have a reason? We do what we do and that is it. Because when it comes down to it the concept is simple. We write, they read. Things happen, they just do. Seeking to bring every single thing down to reason will dilute the ultimate effect. So, go do it stand on the corner of the street and scream, trust me they won’t think you are mad.