Re: Blogging
The blog has the potential to be as great a breakthrough as the printing press. However, the outcome of the blog depends on how it is used. Currently, there are many uses: a personal online journal, a news commentary, everything I mentioned in my previous post. Blogs have the potential to attract people from all over the world, thus, inviting a diverse range of expertise and opinion into a conversation. While this is a good thing, because it exposes a person to other viewpoints, it replaces the development of face to face communication skills. It is easier to hide behind your computer and say what you think than it is to say what you think in person.
Most blogs have their own agenda. Each reader must decide if it is credible or not. Similarly, each reader of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, or Washington Post must decide if he or she thinks the newspaper is a good source of information. The same can be applied to television news, both network and cable, and again with online news.
You, the blogger, are being given the opportunity to change the way we see the world. The question is: will blogs be used for good, or evil? ... I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Most blogs have their own agenda. Each reader must decide if it is credible or not. Similarly, each reader of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, or Washington Post must decide if he or she thinks the newspaper is a good source of information. The same can be applied to television news, both network and cable, and again with online news.
You, the blogger, are being given the opportunity to change the way we see the world. The question is: will blogs be used for good, or evil? ... I guess we'll have to wait and see.
2 Comments:
Okay -- I'll get things started by suggesting some provocative topics that are still appropriate for a family-friendly blog:
Topic "A":
Pope Benedict XVI has recently been spotted wearing brand-name accessories, such as Serengheti sunglasses. It's common knowledge that He also owns an I-Pod. Prada will not deny rumors that his Holiness wears its red loafers, although no one's saying for sure.
Mercedes has donated Popemobiles to the Vatican in the past. BMW recently donated an SUV to the Vatican as well.
Should corporations exploit the Pope's use of their products for profit? Is it appropriate for the pope to implicitly endorse products by using them in public?
The Pope can do whatever he wants to for all I care. What clothes he wears or car he drives is his business (and God's). It isn't an issue that effects me.
I still want to ponder about this blog business a little more. I think you bring up some good points about blogging. If this blog ends up being about things like what name is Angelina Jolie's baby, then you just lost a reader.
However, I will choose to read your blog regularly if you talk about things that really effect me. If you stick to analyzing articles from The Economist as you stated in your prior blog you will gain an audience. If you talk about what sunglasses the Pope is reading, you are using your blog for evil, not good.
I leave it up to you to make the right decision.
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