Sunday, October 01, 2006

TODAY'S TOPIC: Why do we blog?

I was reading the NY Times the other day and there was an editorial about 'what is the future of the paper newspaper'? Besides the obvious points (convenience of online news, etc.) a mention was made about blogs and how many people seem to be getting their information from blogs (note I didn't say 'news', but 'information').

This struck me as interesting. I don't read many blogs. I dip in now and again on a couple, but have always considered them a bit time-consuming and sort of silly. I mean, who cares what a total stranger thinks or says? And while I find Miss Snark and Evil Editor and their ilk interesting, I tend to not trust folks who don't sign their posts.

So why do this? I know, for me, it's a nice break from 'real' writing. I mean, I'm a professional technical writer and an aspiring fiction writer. So blogging is a change of pace. And it won't take up a lot of my time. And maybe it will help me as I aspire to published status.

Thoughts?

J L

So why blog? Why are we doing this?

2 comments:

Angela Jefferson said...

Blogging seems to be just the "hip" thing to do nowadays. It's in the tech evolution that includes emailing, IMing, and text messaging. The one thing I find problematic about all of them is how far our children are getting away from the rules of writing and grammar. Abbreviations, smiley faces, and misspelled words are the norms, and kids can't even begin to set up the formatting and write a standard business letter. Blogging is "a great distraction" but we can't get away from the tried and true.

Judi Fennell said...

Well, I'm blogging in an effort to reach people who may be interested in my writing. It's a great way to "6 degrees" the world - you can basically skip the other 5 degrees. A search on a name, an interest, a keyword and suddenly you can connect with others with interests similar to yours. When I was in middle school, my language teacher set us up with an international pen pal organization and, suddenly, the world became a much smaller place. At one point, I had taken it upon myself to act as the "outlet" for everyone who wanted pen pals (the more you ordered, the more free ones you got), and I ended up with 52 international pals. I had a notebook where I kept track of who lived where/liked what and what I had said to them. Those were the days before PCs so everything was hand-written and mailed with air mail envelopes. Pictures were not that easily sent, b/c you had to get copies made. I still keep in touch withe some of them and have met a few. It's nice to have friends in different countries. Blogging is an extension of that, I guess. -Judi