Brapuccino
Traveler
I agree with the sentiment here ^, @Collision . I often think about this type of thing, hanging around "creative" types. The idea of someone arguing in favor of doing things for the sake of it without wanting an audience often feels like cope to me. Why would you need anyone to agree with your view, if you just like doing a thing and don't care to show anyone then why even bring it up. You could ignore those goofy people wracking their heads about how they're going to have their voices heard and do your thing. But you speak up instead, because you also want your voice to be heard. And you also want the approval of a like-minded individual.Publishing thoughts was however exactly what I quoted. So if the site itself is already part of some artsy fartsy expression then my arguments ofc don't apply. The original words were "getting your thoughts out into the world" however which is most commonly understood as thoughts translated into spoken or written words.
I just dislike the one dimensional perspective of "big social media sites always bad in every way" and in the context of this discussion personal websites just aren't a universal solution or an always better alternative.
If you want to reach many people for whatever reason (show them you art, propagate your politics, ask for help, seek like minded people in a large group and many more) a personal website can't beat the big sites and it's not even a matter of convenience since it isn't a matter of effort to reach that many people online with your own site. Can't just amass the same amount of regular visitors as rëddit with just diligence.
Thinking also about all forms of "self expression" throughout history, whether it be literature, science, sculpture, music or the arts in general, every great piece or discovery is out there for us to appreciate and benefit from because it was shared. And you could try to argue that maybe there's something even greater that never was shared but then what is the point of that? It would be absolutely meaningless, because we don't know about it so it might as well not exist at all. Saying then, that audience is unimportant to "self expression" is a meaningless statement, I'd argue at that point "self expression" itself is a meaningless term.
Now I'm not saying at all that there's no people out there doing things for the hell of it that need no attention, or situations where it makes perfect sense. But wondering where the line dividing true passion/actions taken purely for the self and masturbation lies, I think it's right there where you feel the need to express to other people the idea that expressing yourself to other people is unimportant.
/rant