The World of Blogging

[Online Image]. Retrieved October 29, 2014
from www.edudemic.com

The term “weblog” first emerged in 1997 when individuals began to create online journals to express their passions, political views, and everyday livings.3 Now more commonly known as a blog, this term is at least recognizable to the majority of our society. Blogging has become mainstream enough to be major themes in the movie Julie & Julia and the television show Dog with a Blog. But what exactly are blogs, why do people do it, and are there any benefits?

The process of blogging involves an individual or small group of people who write an informal, frequently updated webpage. Blogs are similar to online personal journals where people can express their thoughts in a conversation style writing that is shared with others. There are many different websites to begin blogging and are typically free to set up and easy to create and manage.

As a blogger himself, Jeff Bullas conducted a poll of 492 individuals on one simple question, “Why do you blog?” The votes varied greatly. The top five most popular reasons for blogging, in order from most to least popular, are: passion, to share with others, business, self expression, and to put forward new ideas. The most reported reason for blogging, passion, only received approximately 17% of the votes.2 Clearly, the act of blogging stems from a variety of reasons because there was such diversity within the responses.

A blogger for Forbes published nine reasons you should blog yourself. Highlighted was how blogging can serve as a resume, grow your network, organize your ideas, reflection, and improve writing skills.4 The reasons given by this particular blogger were more business driven.

Reasons for blogging from Joshua Becker are more of self improvement. He believes that blogging will make you become a better writer and thinker, develop an eye for meaningful things, live a more intentional life with healthier habits, meet new people and inspire others, become well rounded and confident, and it is all free.1

The benefits of blogging are widespread and depend on the purpose for writing. However, the most common benefit between all bloggers is “...how blogging helps build your knowledge and understanding—in the same way teaching helps you learn the topic you are discussing in a deeper way.”5 Bloggers typically develop a clearer, more concise knowledge of the topic because they think, organize, and publish their ideas for their viewers.

There are numerous reasons that bloggers suggest people begin the adventure of publishing their own blog and there are even some benefits of writing blogs. So if you are ready for the challenge, dive in and experience the joy that so many individuals receive by expressing themselves through blogging.

References

1Becker, J. (2014). 15 reasons I think you should blog. Retrieved from becomingminimalist: http://www.becomingminimalist.com/15-reasons-i-think-you-should-blog/

2Bullas, J. (2011). 12 reasons why people blog. Retrieved from jeffbullas.com: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/07/23/12-reasons-why-people-blog/

3Ojala, M. (2005). Blogging for knowledge sharing, management and dissemination. Business Information Review, 22(4), 269-276.

4Reich, D. (2011, October 15). 9 reasons you should blog. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danreich/2011/10/15/9-reasons-you-should-blog/

5The benefits of Blogging. (2014). Quality Progress, 47(7), 18-21.