One of my favorite terms, and things to identify, is known as the humble brag. If you aren’t familiar, a humble brag is a subtle statement that masks a boast, prideful achievement, or luxury under the guise of a complaint, self-criticism, or false modesty. A humble brag would be something like, “I get so tired of people telling me I could be a model, because I am way too short to be a model.”
I’m starting with this to out myself. This week my blog hit 100,000 views cumulatively. I know what you’re thinking, “Wow, 100,000 views in a week is pretty amazing” and you’re right — it would be amazing, but it didn’t. Perhaps I should clarify, this week it hit 100,000 total views for the duration of its existence. My first post was on January 14, 2009, so 17 years and 450 posts later, it has been viewed 100,000 times. By contemporary, social media, viral standards, 100,000 is comically insignificant (I mean, @daily_purr, an account showcasing "crude drawings of cats" that look like squiggly lines or potatoes, has 670,000 followers), and I am fully aware of that — no humble brag intended. But I’m proud of it and felt it was a milestone that warranted a mention.
I named the blog “Something For Nothing” for a reason -- I had something to say and it wouldn't cost you nothing, except a few minutes of your time. I’ve never written for money, and though I don’t fault or blame anyone who does, I feel like it would actually ruin it for me. To borrow from Jimmy Buffett, “I know that it may sound funny, but money don’t mean nothing to me. I don’t make my posts for money, I make my posts for me” (italics are my edits). Well, that’s not entirely true. Let me explain.
A long time ago, I decided to “promote” this blog with the intention of making something out of it professionally. My social media pages had a huge number of “friends”, so I knew that posting to my socials would give it a lot of visibility, and it did. The views began climbing and my writing began declining. I found myself writing with an audience in mind as I wrote. No longer was it just what I wanted to say, it was “what do people want to hear...what will garner attention...what will get a lot of clicks?” Fortunately, it didn’t take very long for me to grow bored — and a little cringe — with my own writing, so I made the decision to delete my social media and in the process stop promoting my page. Over the next few months I watched as the views slowly and steadily declined from the thousands, to the hundreds, all the way down to single digits. I can be honest and admit that it stung my ego a little, but I can also admit it was the best thing I ever did for my writing because after that an honesty began to come out that I previously kept on a leash due to concerns about how others would respond to that honesty.
The purpose of this blog has changed significantly since I started it 17 years ago. Back then I was a young father of teenage boys, and now I am a 50 year old grandfather of four. I still write for an audience, but now it is an audience of four: Rougaroux, Nola, Mardi, and Evangeline. This writing space is less and less about self expression and more and more a digital diary leaving breadcrumbs of my identity for my grandchildren to follow after I’m gone. I am painfully aware that I will most likely not be around for much of their journey in life, but I want them to have a map for mine that might prove useful to them on their way. That’s the goal, but if some of you find something useful along the way too, well, that’s lagniappe.
If you’re reading this, you’ve likely read this page before, and I want to say thank you for taking the time to read my mind, because that is what this is, a glimpse inside my mind and how I see the world. I hope you’ve been challenged, entertained, educated, and inspired, and I hope you'll stick around till we hit 250,000 views, somewhere around 2046.
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