Why am I blogging? Playing with myself?

Blogging is playing with yourself... in public... in a good way.

Now that is not what I had planned to write. I had planned to explore why I am having trouble eking out a particular set of posts that have been in draft for more than four weeks. Becoming bored with my blathering about that I edited and edited until that (the above) slipped out. Maybe I will still get to my problem, but first...

Blogging is playing with yourself?

Its not a new notion, nor is it particularly accurate, but I do want to play with it. :-D

Quickly and briefly garnering others' thoughts via google:

• Tim Bull asked in the title of a post of Digital Narcissism: Is blogging playing with yourself? He did not actually go on to answer at all, unless you count his excusing "the best of bloggers" who he says are referred to as "citizen journalists".
• Sara Dickerson's teacher friend said "blogging is like playing with yourself in public". But Sara still went on to do so, and quite attractively too.
• Drew Richardson encourages playing with yourself in the nature of self-competition to develop creative problem solving.
  
• Of course aside from a few results relating specifically or euphemistically to masturbation there are also many results relating to computer/video games one plays solo.

So is it (blogging) playing with oneself?

[please do give your opinion, or share a link to an interesting opinion on that question]

Well... in a way it is self-pleasuring: Exploring one's ideas, stroking them, usually or occasionally getting to the point, massaging one's words until finally perhaps reaching a satisfying conclusion.

Undeniably it is public. And by that very fact it means bloggers are not (just) playing with ourselves. Even those of us who do not aim for a large audience are still sharing our thoughts, offering them for others to discover, observe and possibly comment on.

I still don't know why I dally so over the posts I have in draft, but I clearly remember why I am blogging:

• to play
  
• to gather some of my independent learning
• to ask others to contribute to my learning
• to participate in global communication and sharing
  
• to share a little of myself with friends I cannot see very often