Contact avoidance

I think blogging is an even more extreme form of self-abasing contact avoidance than e-mail.

My theory goes like this. E-mail is a good way to contact someone when you don't want to call them. (Of course it is also good for contacting people living in other time zones, such that they're sleeping at the time you want to call them, or other continents, such that it costs a lot to call them (although even so you could Skype them which is free), but what I am talking about here is people living in your very same city but still you don't call.) This can be driven by, for example, the feeling that "I don't want to bother him/her," "it may not be a good time to call," "I don't want to interrupt or impose," etc.

But sending an e-mail does have the impact of a message showing up in the person's inbox. So you are still imposing yourself on the recipient's consciousness. He/she will still see a new message with your name on it when logging in. Whereas with a blog, you wait for them to come to you. You are assured that your message will never, never interrupt or create guilt or forcibly call attention to itself. You are assured that your audience is always in attendance by an act of its own free will, that it's come to listen to (or read) your ranting and raving because it chose to, that it doesn't feel obligated or imposed upon or in any way compelled (at least, not by you). You broadcast, but the receiver is completely at liberty to tune in, or to not, as he/she feels inclined.

In conclusion, behavior driven by excessive modesty / self-deprecation is actually a manifestation of narcissism. But you knew that.