The first “spiritual peril” of blogging on which I want to focus is the temptation to self-aggrandizement. If we’re honest about it, many of us who blog will have to admit that we want readers and traffic not so much to win, influence or learn from other people as to be validated by them. Lots of traffic and links means I’m valued. It means there is a pseudo-community over which I command influence. It means — or at least I’m tempted to believe it means — I can think, argue and write better than lots of the “other guys.” A blog can become sort of a “Temple to Me” on the web.
The temptation toward self-aggrandizement manifests itself in a few key ways. A few influential Evangelical bloggers, for example, display gushingly laudatory blurbs received about their blogs from other bloggers or public figures. I mention this not to point fingers, but it seems to me that there’s no purpose for this other than naked self-promotion. This becomes particularly evident if you trace the sources of the blurbs — they often seem to lead in circles. Many Evangelical bloggers also display their ranking in the TLB Ecosystem. Again, to me there seems to be little purpose in this other than to display pride in a high ranking. Self-promotion can also become a factor in the choice to display information in sidebars about books we read or other personal activities. Are we listing those books to show how smart and well-read we are, or to promote conversation about the books?
Perhaps the most insidious form of self-aggrandizement in blogging, however, is “link love” abuse. It’s curious, and frustrating, to me that many of the “elite” Evangelical bloggers seem sometimes to engage in an incestuous link love cycle. They link to each other and then announce on their own sites how the other guy mentioned them in a post. There seems to be at least an implicit understanding that this cycle exists primarily for the purpose of mutual self-promotion. And the “little guy” bloggers, like me, aren’t exempt from this practice. How often do we troll on the “big guys'” blogs hoping to get a link back to our own sites?
Of course, promotion and publicity aren’t evil per se. If you do have something valuable to say, and you want to engage in a conversation with others about it, it’s appropriate and necessary to try your best to get the word out. The blogsphere’s social convention of link love can be a good thing if done in the spirit of sustaining a quality conversation. A nice looking, well designed site, even one with positive blurbs and book listings, lends credibility and can contribute to positive discussion.
My concern is more the spirit in which we practice our blogging. Do we approach our blog in a spirit of humility, of “speaking the truth in love” ( Eph. 4:15), or do we approach it like a wanna-be division of a commercial publishing house? Do we take time now and then to examine our motives for constructing and maintaining our sites?
As a follower of Christ I’m called to be part of a Kingdom in which the “last” are “first.” If my blog is to be an extension of my role in that Kingdom, I must recognize and fight this temptation toward using my blog for self-aggrandizement. As we Evangelicals weigh our role in the blogsphere, I hope we each individually and all collectively always “do it all for the glory of God.” ( I Cor. 10:31.)