[Previous entry: "Marketing & Advertising News You Can Use."] [Next entry: "Jolly Clerks are a Pain in the Butt."]

12/17/2005: "Are Blogs Useless Dribble?"

There is a discussion over at Bob Bly's great blog about the usefulness or uselessness of blogs and blogging. Bob is of the opinion that most of the blog writing is bad and, in his opinion, blogs have little value.

Obviously when people have a blog, they've every right to write what they please and as they please. It is perhaps the one and only place where one is free to do this in safety, short of a journal.

Having said that, I am not one to search out the opinions of others in most matters. I don't read editorials much because they are not news but opinion. And there are few people whose opinion I'm that crazy about and don't consider their opinion any more or less valuable than my own.

I don't, however, think blogs are worthless tripe.

There are blogs that offer real news and valuable insight and ideas. In addition, there are a few like 43 folders and http://www.moleskineart.com/ and diy planner that offers the thoughts of people who, like myself, enjoy keeping a journal in the pages of a Moleskine, an impractical and overpriced possession yet one that many of us love dearly. Reading the thoughts and opinions of others withwhom you share a passion is fun and, I think, useful. For example, we share "hacks" or ways or using our journals.

Much of the writing on most blogs is bad to be sure. But then most people are bad writers. Most people are not careful writers. In fact, most people can't communicate with a good deal of effectiveness.

But I don't think blogs are useless. At the least, they are cathartic to the blogger and at most they have value to others as well as the blogger.

The defination of "blog" according to Dictionary.com is "to author an online diary or chronology of thoughts." That's the carthitic part I guess. But many take it further and introduce news and ideas in conjunction with the thoughts.

Our business Web sites leave little room for us to let our hair down. They are offices where we conduct business. The blog is the coffee room or water cooler where we gossip a bit. And who could find that useless?