It seems like a periodic ritual that more than a couple of articles come out on blogging. Not the ones with advices, but which look at the phenomenon of blogging, as good or bad. I cannot help but submit to the temptation of talking about them, probably repeating some things along with these periodic rituals. It is in fact one of the best ways for me to reconsider blogging and its importance, sometimes I get vindicated, sometimes challenged and sometimes confused. Here it goes.
Tony Hung writes about blogging ignorance, even within the tech community. He mentions an article by Mr. Binstock where he criticizes blogging because majority of the blogs are silly and personal. I think there are a couple of things to consider here. One is that there is no system to blogging. Blogging is one of the activities with least restrictions, so that anyone can start with it, including kids. Blogging is not about any subject, it is up to the blogger whether it is focused on any subject or not. I think this is touted as one of the evil things in blogging, which I think is the biggest advantage. Blogging is about self-expression whether you are doing it for yourself or others, whether it is on a personal matter or professional, whether it is about your kitchen or computer, whether you do it everyday or once a year. As a reader, it is quite easy to avoid blogs that you do not like, or the other way round, it is quite easy to find blogs of your interest. This is not the first time that bloggging and bloggers have been accused of being insincere. I think the biggest problem is that a lot of us consider blogging only within their context. There have been a lot of examples where journalists blame blogging because they see it as a competition. Blogging does not specify a purpose, it is like a tool that can be used for many works and can give many advantages.
One of the other ones that I enjoyed thoroughly was JP’s musings on learning and blogging. It is one of the crisp pieces that keeps on enhancing the point as you read on. Apart from that I have witnessed the marriage of learning and blogging. It has impacted what I know, it has led to thinking outside of my job and most importantly it has enabled self-expression, which is what I am doing while I am writing this. Self expression is a debate with yourself and hence the best way of learning. This is the biggest advantage to me, and I had been sorely missing this before I started blogging.
There have been many more benefits like connecting with people which would not have been possible otherwise, keeping an open mind without a preconceived notion, improving my reading habits, my vocabulary and some even opportunities for work. Like JP says, all these benefits are possible out of conversations, which is what blogging lets you do. Converse and interact with people and grow.
