To Blog or Not to Blog.

Today is a happy day for me as with this, my first blog, I now enter into a foreign, yet easily reached, online universe—a Blogiverse if you will. I write now as a citizen of this Blogdom, a contributing blogger poised and ready to type and contribute both the excessive and interesting. My goal? To pass J201 and maybe become a competent, and somewhat compelling, blog-writer in the process.

The process of writing a blog is more difficult than I thought it would be. “What should I write about?” is currently going through my head. There are a ton of people out there surfing the web, what would they want to read? Should I appeal to a certain audience? To people like me? Even with a prompt, it’s a challenge to write something others will want to read. Do bloggers really care about what I have to say? Why should they? What are the characteristics of a good blog? Does a good blog discuss topics others have not touched? There are millions of blogs out there on topics ranging from sleeping habits to foreign policies, so how can mine stand out? Should it? Blogging is an excellent way to share opinions, and I guess that’s just what I’ll do.

So, how do I feel about blogging two paragraphs in? I like it.

But that won’t suffice in the way of an answer. I enjoy Blogging, (and I think others do too) because it gives the individual (me) a method in which they (I) can contribute to chat and express opinions on certain issues. I think there is more comfort in using the internet than other sources because it gives one the ability to distance oneself from a discussion. People feel more at ease contributing in such a setting, and more participate. As a result, a debate becomes multifaceted with many viewpoints and ideas, and a reader might be able to discover something that was previously unseen. I’m a big supporter of opening minds to new things.

Another reason I like blogging? Well, an entire site devoted to my thoughts is pretty dang awesome—it’s like being in a conversation and talking the whole time. Everyone likes to hear themself talk, and we all like to think our opinions are relevant and important. A site devoted to just that brings out the blogger in all of us. In a sense, Blogging allows us all to be opinion writers, reporters, and contributors. The question now is, is that a good or a bad thing?

True, there are those out there in Blogistan that write about trimming nose hairs and drooling in their sleep. True, there are those out there that blog in such a biased and prejudiced manor that reading their opinions make you want to either cry, scream, or puke, but most of the time, people do have something interesting to say and listening to them just might bring insight into a topic previously unknown to you. As mentioned before, there’s an informality to blogging that lends itself to freedom of thought and encourages uninhibited communication. Overall, I think it a great catalyst of deeper thought and conducive to establishing an environment of free and uninhibited speech. For stay-at-home moms, hippies, college students like me, and all other bloggers out there, blogging is an outlet of expression, creativity, and purpose, and I’m all for that!