The splendour of blogging: why should we care?

The splendour of blogging: why should we care?  

Okay, here comes the 200th post!

It's rather surprising to see that this is my 200th post! I started blogging in 2010, but actively got into it in December, 2012. This has indeed been a long journey, and I guess I will have the opportunity of writing many other posts as well, steadily reaching the 300th, 400th and 500th marks gradually. And what's better than celebrating this occasion with a post on the very art of blogging itself?

Being a blogger myself, I have the advantage of looking into my own mind, and using myself as a reference. Blogging is a passion for many, including me, and it is indeed a great art. Informative articles not only make the internet a better place for gathering and collecting information, but additionally they bring people closer. This is the age of technology, and we have the advantage of utilizing the massive repository of information that is our internet. So, responsible posting is very important. 

Why do we blog? 

All our ideas are stored permanently
when we blog about them

Well, different people blog for different reasons. Some may want to use it as a medium for advertisement, while some prefer to refer to it as a front-end to their economic enterprise. NGOs and similar agencies also take to blogging, to make the world acquainted with their goals and methods. Some users also blog in order to earn a bit extra cash, through AdSense and related media. However, in my case it is more than just a passion. I don't earn any money through blogging, but that doesn't make this process any less useful for me. My blog serves as a repository of information that I've gathered over time, and in addition it can be considered to be an automated journal of my intellectual evolution, as I move in the future. An added benefit is that, thanks to the versatility of cloud computing, my writings are now saved more or less forever. 

Why should we blog? 

There are so many different reasons for which we should blog. Earning money through blogging is nothing special, and many are doing that already. However, I would prefer not to refer to it as a primary goal for bloggers. Instead, there are so many creative and glorious things that can be achieved through blogging. 

Let me elaborate. Blogging, firstly, is an actively intelligent exercise. It makes us familiar with the outside world, and does the reserve as well, i.e makes the world familiar with our thoughts and ideas. Often, we do encounter influential blogs which do have a cult following. In addition to sharing ideas over the web, blogging acts as a window through which others can have a look into our personalities. This may be an exaggeration, but in my opinion blogging, in a way, immortalizes us digitally. It keeps a permanent imprint of our presence online, where others can find our words. And artistically speaking, words often act as the secondary self, because they convey our thoughts and produce them in the minds of others. 

Another reason for blogging is, as I already wrote above in my case, tracking our own mental evolution. As we grow up, many ideas come to our minds. Blogging helps us store them online, digitally, such that they can be retrieved very easily. Other than providing them safe sanctuary, blogging also makes them more interesting. I have tried storing my ideas offline, using OneNote, Zim, GNote etc. However, that makes the entire process very sultry and boring, since I'm sure no one will look at them, possibly ever. However, digitally storing them gives others the opportunity to study, judge and think about them. Often I meet constructive criticism, at other times derogatory ones. However, ignoring the latter and benefiting from the former is one of the primary goals of every sincere blogger. 

Blogging makes the world more connected 

A third reason for blogging is that, it enriches the internet with information. Although there is no dedicated 'code' that we bloggers follow, with time blogging generates true and unbiased information. This is possible mostly because of what I call a modified version of Linus's law. So many people have access to the internet nowadays, and handheld devices such as Smartphones and tablets have only increased internet connectivity, bringing even more people online. As more and more people look at blogs and posts, a few of them are able to identify mistakes and misinformation, and some of them actually bother to comment on them. This makes internet research much more effective. 

An extension of the previous point can be applied in the case of our country, India. Although every sixth person is an Indian in the world, our online presence is still not significant. And since Indian users, on average, are rather 'young' and new to the internet, the availability of information on India is still limited. While nearly every American city has a Wikipedia article, the same is not the case when we consider India. Blogging can settle this problem to an extent as well. I often feel that the information I seek online, about my country, isn't available online. So, the best thing is to add it myself. That can be in the form of a Wikipedia edit, creating a new page there, or just posting an article here. The latter way can benefit others indirectly, since the information will help others in their online searches, and at least someone will bother to add it to Wikipedia. 

Should you blog? 

So? Let's start blogging! 

Why not? It doesn't take an expert to start blogging. If you don't have any specific topic to blog about, just add information about your surroundings. You can blog about anything, and as long as you stick to the true facts and originality, I guess 'Satyamev Jayate' can be applied to your cause as well. 

Blogging is a brilliant way of sharing our words and thoughts with the world, and in my opinion everyone should try to utilize this. Together, we can build a more connected world, a better world, a freer world. And that alone is the spirit of blogging.