The internet is a graveyard of sorts with tons of dead domains and buried blogs. I call them ‘internet skeletons.’
The website from where I first shopped online is dead. The site on which I created my first email is dead. Many blogs that I admired are long gone.
Persisting on the internet is a tricky thing
Each year, people create websites for fame or money but quit when they find themselves lacking. They give up when what they do seems pointless – only to be found nowhere in an infinite world of pixels.
My blog could have been an internet skeleton
This blog could have been one of those sites that start with a whim and fade into oblivion.
But eight years later, I still write these posts here. To be honest, I love it as much as I did earlier. There’s something about pressing these keyboard keys – it keeps me happy. It keeps me sane.
Now that I think about why I kept blogging (and didn’t delete my site), I can list the following reasons:
- A prior commitment
Weirdly, even before typing my first post, I had decided that I won’t start a blog unless I was committed to writing at least 999 blog posts. I stepped in for the long run. - Work before outcomes
I used to check numbers such as page views, visitors, and followers at some point. Then I quit social media and turned a blind eye to numbers. That rekindled my love for writing and made it easier for me to prioritize work over the outcomes. - An investment, not an expense
Occasionally I’ve been asked whether I make money with my blog (answer: nope), why I have it, and why the heck I pay to keep it running. But in a way, my blog has also been an investment that has helped me hone my writing skills and remained my home on the internet.
And it seems worth it
After all these years, it feels great to have created a blog that has evolved with me. I can see my life documented on these pages.
I also feel proud about simply having shown up and having lasted, more than anything. I am glad that I didn’t become an internet skeleton.