A Question of Non-Ethics

How much of blogging is actually egotistical?

I was thinking about this today for no particular reason, wondering how you can even tell this in the first place.  I imagine there's someone out there who's created a macro to go through a web page and count all the times a person begins their post with "I..." or even uses it in a post.  It's hard not to use it though, so maybe it's more along the lines of "I think..." or "I am..."  Is this crazy talk?

At any rate, it really dawns on me (yes, it finally has) how much the blog itself has changed how many people interact with each other.  No doubt, it's useful for those across great distances to keep up with each other by having a daily/weekly/monthly journal, but it's become known for so much more. Artists use it as an online portfolio, writers use it as an easy publishing tool, and many places are using it as an online magazine of sorts.  The largest percentage of all these though, has to be the personal "day in the life of..." variety.

So what makes it an egotistical practice?  For instance, is my review of Snow Crash a practice in ego-stroking?  Does it really matter what I think of a piece of science-fiction?  There's no way I can pass judgment on myself and be fair, so perhaps it is.  Perhaps egotistical blogging is in the eye of the beholder.  I wrote a while back about the "woe is me" post and the "fabulous life of..." post, somewhere in there is a little bit of ego trying to pop out. 

While I suppose there's a shred of ego inherent in having a blog in the first place, there must also be some humility to reign it in.  It makes me wonder though, when one receives many hits, subscribers, trackbacks, comments, or whatever self-validating cookie you search for, is it just enabling the ego to rear its ugly head in the first place.

Please, I hope I never get to that level.  Ugh.