Monday, April 27, 2009

Blogging: Monkey Business?

"We feel so smart when we are talking to ourselves!"
- Hillary Clinton at the Kos Convention 2007


Is blogging a solitary act? Can it be a solitary act? Does it have to be a solitary act? As in, is it monk-ey business? Monks go solo. Well, not entirely true. Sangham Sharanam Gachhami is, to the community I go. But I am talking about the stereotypically stereotypical monk.


It can look like it. A guy/gal sitting in front of a computer in pajamas typing it away. It can look like it at first sight.


But think about it. The best bloggers are those who have something to say. And you can not have something to say if all you do is sit in front of a computer screen and type it away.


You must already know from before you started typing it away, through training, a prior job, career, life experiences, education. You must be willing to learn. You must be alive. You must be living. The online consumption of content, or electronic but not really online in the case of Kindle, is the bedrock of ongoing education for many of us. That counts. Consuming content counts.

Learning and teaching happens. They help.


But my question was more to the social aspects. Is blogging a solitary activity? Is it meant to be solitary? Does it end up solitary despite all our intentions to the contrary? Don't confuse me with the facts! Don't disturb me with people!


Photoblogging is social. Videoblogging better be social. I tried to do the camera thing myself a few years back, and I look dead in the water in those video clips, not my proudest moments. My best video clip of me to date is one where someone else is doing the camera work.




Text blogging itself is meant to be social. And for someone with an active blog, that blog gives you a better feel for that person than anything else they might have online, more so than their Twitter and Facebook accounts, more so than their website.

And many friendships get forged in the comments sections of blogs.

Content Is Queen
Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining
Spamming Om Malik
Digg Button, Twitter Button For Your Blog Posts
Blogging Several Times A Day
Blogging Tips
A Blogger Is Also An Editor
Blog Daily
Where Have You Placed Your Ads?
Sites That Pay You To Blog




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