There's this meme doing the rounds

Yes, I know; there's always a meme doing the rounds.

(I wonder how that word would be pronounced?  Could it be just one syllable, to rhyme with beam, or are there two as in Mimi?  Answers on the back of a £20 note, please, to ...)

Anyway, someone who shall be nameless (she lives somewhere to the west of here) wrote a piece about her blogging, opening with the reason why she blogs.  That got me thinking.  Why do I do it?  Come to that, why do any of us do it?

There are, of course, people for whom blogging is just part of their job.  People working in marketing departments come to mind.  They are expected to tell the world about their company's fantastic new soap powder or whatever.  To them, blogging is about on a par with writing a press release.  These are blogs of no interest to anyone.

Then there are "celebrities", actors and singers and so on who do it to keep their names in front of the hoi polloi on whom they depend.  These are people who crave publicity.  Indeed, their celebrity status depends on continual publicity.  Followers of their blogs are probably the people who buy those magazines devoted to what she wore, who she was seen with, where and what they ate.  These are blogs of no interest to anyone except the few.

Political thinkers and writers also blog.  Their reasons are something of a mix of the first two types; the need for publicity and the fact that blogging is all part and parcel of the day's work.  There, no doubt, some cerebral blog readers who are interested.

But if we discount all those professional bloggers, why do the likes of you and I inflict this task upon ourselves?  Well, after much cointemplation (or even contemplation) and navel gazing (when I should probably have been doing something useful - like sweeping the kitchen floor or cleaning the shower) I have decided that there are several reasons why people write blogs.  Granted, not everybody falls into any particular one of these classifications, and the lines between them can get a little blurred after a couple of glasses, but I have identified the following types.

• There are those people who aspire to be professional writers and are hoping that somebody somewhere will stumble across their efforts and offer them a huge sum of money to write a novel, a film, a newspaper column - anything!
• Then there are those who use blogging as a way of keeping friends and family up to date with what is happening in their lives.
• Some like to make contributions to the world at large, contributions of recipes, kitting patterns, arty crafty ideas and so on.
• Others are keen photographers and just like to show off their work.
• Some people use blogging to tell others about places to visit or trips to make.

As I said, and as with any attempt at classification, not everybody falls neatly into any one category - and there are plenty more categories and/or sub-categories I could have listed.

But why do I blog?  To tell the truth (and that's not necessarily the case every day) - I haven't the bloggiest idea!