On blogging

Apr 25, 2006

I know a lot has been written about blogging but I found an interesting article that talks about the evolution of blogging and its emerging social implications.

According to Technorati a new blog is being created every second, every day. It means 10 new blogs were created while I wrote this sentence. That’s quite fascinating. Although many commentators prefer to term blogs as a form of online journals, the article rightly states:

What, then, is a blog? A “personal online journal” is the definition that most newspapers, including The Economist, offer when they need to be brief. That analogy is not wrong, but nor is it entirely right (conventional journals usually come in chronological order, whereas blogs are displayed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent entry on top). More importantly, this definition misses the main point about blogs. Traditionally, journals were private or even secret affairs, and were never linked to other journals. Peeking into the diary of one’s big sister typically led to a skirmish. Blogs, by contrast, are social by nature, whether they are open to the public as a whole or only to a small select group.

A few weeks ago I read someone deploring the lack of authenticated and verified information rampant on various blogs. It’s true that anybody who has a computer and a decent net connection can publish a blog and voice his or her opinions, and it’s understandable that not everybody can be an expert. The biggest detractors of blogging are people from the mainstream media, but I think, half-formed opinions are far better than no opinions. Blogging is a two-way interaction — most of the time — and it encourages open communication. People who cannot reach or cannot afford publishing avenues can easily publish their thoughts on the Internet through their blogs and even get instant feedback. For me, this is the most interesting aspect of blogging.