I’ve been searching to find out who might be the oldest continuing personal blogger in the U.S. Not a blogger who hawks services or products or is any kind of influencer. Rather, a female blogger who posts about her life and times. My search has yielded no information. I have been blogging since 2001, starting at kalilily.blogspot.com. Is there any woman out there older than I (84) doing the same thing?
Back in December of 2001, I blogged about why I started to blog. It’s worth reprising here:
So, there are some discussions going these days on about the purpose and value of weblogs. Oddly enough, the other night at my bi-monthly group meeting, I mentioned that I had begun a weblog, and I was asked to explain what that was and why I was doing it, and why I just wasn’t keeping a journal. As I’ve said, I’ve unsuccessfully tried keeping journals before and I write so much slower than I think that I got frustrated and quit. I can type almost as fast as I think (I got used to doing that at the job from which I retired last year, which involved mostly whipping out quick documents for others to share and claim as their own.) So, it’s easier to do it on the computer. And why don’t I just keep a journal on disk, I was asked. The truth is, I admitted, is that I’m used to writing for an audience. And I like having an audience. Even my poems are usually written with an audience (sometimes of one) in mind. It’s why I ballroom dance. I’m a performer at heart. I need ways to say to the world: this is who I am. Look at me. Pay attention. It seems to me that that’s at the heart of why everyone else who keeps a blog does so. In a world where we all have to live up to expectations and assume roles for survival purposes (our own and others) — caregiver, mother, employee, citizen — it’s so satisfying to have a place where one can BE who one is. Or in some cases, where one can BE who one wants to BE. It really doesn’t matter. We can create who we want to be or be creative with who we are. Either way, one has an identity, a voice. In a way, it’s kind of a new art form — or at least it can evolve in some cases into such. How cool is that!
You’re certainly senior to me, both in age (I’m going on 67 now) and blogging (started September 2002). So you even win the Battle of the Elaines/Elaynes!
You have me beat by just a couple of years. I think I started around 2004 and continued on and off. I do it mostly to alleviate the boredom.
You were certainly way ahead of me. I started my blog in November 2007. I had discussed with someone my desire, when I left teaching, to work in non-profit marketing. The person pointed out that I had not online presence. No one would know who I was. So, I started the blog.
What a great question! As far as age is concerned, I may very well be the oldest. (I just turned 75 this past September 11.)
As far as blogging is concerned, I’ve had either 2 or 4 blogs, depending on whether the first two technically count as blogs.
I’m still blogging at Mad Kane’s Humor blog and at Mad Kane’s Political Madness blog, which I started in August 2006 and September 2006, respectively.
But I started my first (sort of) blog on January 20, 2001. I hand-coded it, knowing nothing about blog software. (That was certainly a bitch to do!) And it was actually a parody diary, which I called Dubya’s Dayly Diary. (I launched it the day George W. Bush took office and kept it going for about 2.5 years.)
Then I got sick of trying to get inside Bush’s head and switched to writing my Notables Blog, still foolishly and laboriously coding by hand. My Notables Blog was a political humor blog which I continued for a couple of years, until I found out about WordPress software and moved my political humor blogging to Mad Kane’s Political Madness.
Okay, that’s probably much more than you wanted to know, so I’ll stop now.
Well, I am almost a decade older than you and I beat you starting blogging by one month. I began in November, 2001 on Blogspot. We are both still here and that counts for a lot.