Blogging Part-4
Blogging in the 21st Century: Introduction to Online Journaling
Blogging and social networking are inextricably linked in the sense that both contain certain features and certain properties of one another. Both are aimed at creating a wide movement as far as multimedia interaction is concerned. Though it is true that blogs can be regulated and kept very private, the main purpose of them is to reach out to a number of people, to have a medium to voice your opinion.
Another similarity is that both these concepts have existed in cyberspace for almost a decade now, but in the initial stages, both were rather exclusive of one another. Only in recent times have they been merged, and their similarity in motives truly recognized. Blogging is essentially done to channel your thoughts out onto an online journal. You also want other people to read what you have written.
This way, you go about coming in touch with people from all over the world who you would not have otherwise known. Similar is the function of social networking. It is a hub where the young and the hearty flock. The chances of getting an audience at such a platform are high.
The origination of the term ‘blog’ is interesting. It was initially called a ‘weblog’ meaning a log or a diary or a journal that helps you to record your thoughts on a day-to-day basis. In that sense, it was rather in its primitive stages and did not turn into an instrument for propaganda immediately. This term was later shortened to blog and this is when free blogging services like Blogger became extremely popular.
As mentioned earlier, blogging today is not restricted to only maintaining a journal. It has truly become a platform where various kinds of people from all walks of life, whether they have the same ideologies or not, conflate, and discuss the matters they think are important to them. Blogging in the twenty-first century has come to become an important tool for advertising for people who wish to market their products online, for politicians who wish to sell their ideologies, and reach out, to the masses.
Moreover, creating a blog and maintaining it does not require a fortune. Everybody now has a personal blog and it is all free of cost. Also, one does not need to be a computer engineer or a graphic or web designer in order to embellish their blog.
Unlike a website that operates on a different domain, and for which every single template and tab needs to be designed and created from the scratch, blog sites do not need such knowledge. The blogging service providers have their own inbuilt templates and fonts which have to be chosen by the bloggers as per their own tastes and preferences.
Blogging is an ideal way to make new friends and come in contact with more people than you can do in the actual world, from all quarters of the world. Such diverse people will obviously have differing viewpoints. Therefore, this gives scope for a good deal of discussion and debate with all points of view being taken on board.
Blogs can also be for the sole purpose of making new friends and socializing. That is why social networking sites have picked up the clue and in these times social networking and blogging have, to some extent, been combined, and almost become indistinguishable.
It would be interesting to note that the word ‘blog’ is both a noun and a verb. This leads us to the fact that blogging in some sense also helps get rid of the hassles of publishing. Though your work will not come out in print, you know that you can publish your work – your articles, pictures, videos, etc – yourself through your blog.
Therefore, it may be your own personal journal that you wish others to read or your works of art in terms of the stories or articles that you write, or the movies that you make. You can share almost any content with the world at large.
It must also be noted that just like you do not have to be a web designer to create your own blog, you need not be a professional writer, a filmmaker, or a photographer to publish content on your blog. It is just space for you to indulge in your own small artistic pursuits and share those moments with others. Blogging must therefore be exploited to its full potential.
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