Why do we blog?

[DISCLAIMER: This post is in NO WAY an effort to get sympathy traffic or posts or comments or anything... just some of my own introspections....LOL]

I was asking some friends the other day about blogging, and if any of them still did it. I was trying to get updated on all my friend's blog feeds. Well, one said, and I quote:

"I have been kicking it around again, then I realize that I don't really care enough to...."

At first I thought it was just a funny quip in an effort to be the elitist humorist of the group (sorry, Rammy, had to slam you... you know I love you man! LOL), but then I started to think about it, and sure enough, it started to make me question and wonder this whole blogging thing.

As I sit here and think about it, there are several different categories of bloggers/blogs:

1. Those blogs written to disseminate information to the masses of people who are interested in that particular subject
2. Those blogs written in order to disseminate information in order to advance their agenda, influence opinion, or create doubt and mistrust in other organizations, etc....(i.e., whacked out conspiracy theory type stuff)
   
3. Those blogs written to disseminate news data on a timely, to-the-minute basis, to be more personalized and consistent with our "immediate gratification" culture
4. Those personal blogs written as an easy way for family and friends to stay in touch with one another
5. Those blogs written in order to have a good repository of information and stories to be stored "indefinitely" and having an easy location to recall events (i.e., stories about family, journaling, type stuff)
   
6. Those blogs written by people simply due to the "it's all about me" nature of our culture, written not to provide anyone with any information, but rather to simply say "Hey! Look at me! I exist! And I am worth looking at! Even to the point of doing and saying stupid things to get people to notice me!"
   

Though my goals when I started the blog (or so I thought) were #4 and #5, I am seriously beginning to doubt my motives. As you'll see from the site, very few comments are made by others. This seems to tell me that I am blowing smoke out my butt - kind of like the "tree falling in the woods but no one is around to hear" syndrome. If I am blogging posts and no one is around to comment, am I really communicating with others? I would say no. Which brings my blog, unfortunately and embarrassingly, to #6. Am I so shallow that I keep posting knowing it rarely gets looked at, just so than I can say, "Hey! Look at me! I exist! And am worth looking at!"

Sad, really.

Made even more sad by the fact that, even though this realization is slowly creeping up on me....

I still keep posting.

So in the end, what is worse? Having a friend who doesn't blog because he sees it as unimportant even though you'd like to hear from them on a regular basis, or continuing to blog yourself when it seems no one else cares or is interested?