Benefits of Blogging

Why blog? What do we get out of this?
For me the exercises basic to my style of blogging - reading, writing and communicating - are all beneficial for many reasons. They range from expanding my knowledge of the Web to being able to spell beneficial without having to look it up. Writing organizes my thoughts and the entire archive of 3 years of surfing acts as a back up to my memory. We'll be exploring this question in a bit more depth on Saturday afternoon, but until then, here are some quotes from those who have put it more eloquently.

"The release of Blogger unleashed a flood of weblogs from people who had been waiting for an easy tool. Now, there are tens of thousands. Most aren't worth reading by anyone but the author's closest friends and family, but you know, despite what the scorners say ("99% of all online content is crrrrap!") there's nothing wrong with that. I've always thought that even if nobody reads your writings, even if you delete or throw away your words right after you've written them, that act of writing makes you a better person. It organizes your brain connections in such a way that helps you think critically and clearly. It turns the random impulses and emotions running around your head into something that is more organized and tangible, and that is always good."
Eric Wagoner in his post about doing Kestrel's Nest for 3 years

"Shortly after I began producing Rebecca's Pocket I noticed two side effects I had not expected. First, I discovered my own interests. I thought I knew what I was interested in, but after linking stories for a few months I could see that I was much more interested in science, archaeology, and issues of injustice than I had realized. More importantly, I began to value more highly my own point of view. In composing my link text every day I carefully considered my own opinions and ideas, and I began to feel that my perspective was unique and important."
Rebecca Blood, Rebecca's Pocket in Weblogs: a History and Perspective

"I can safely say that a year plus of doing this has excited me intellectually as nearly no other undertaking has done. (Well, perhaps the year I discovered poststructuralism.)
...
I see these potshots and I'm flabbergasted. We're to bury ourselves? We're to wait until we have something Important(tm) to say before speaking? Until our design is an award-winner?

I say, Go to hell. I mean it. Maybe this form means nothing to you. Well, fine, because I am not writing for you. I am writing for me. I am writing for what I get out of the process of thinking about a political issue or a scientific discovery and explaining it to my readers. I am writing for the responses I get from my readers. I am writing for the interplay with the larger community of webloggers. "
Dan Hartung, Lake Effect, In his Manifestito

Posted by kiplog at October 03, 2002 03:22 PM