Are you a social media user? Do you love to share your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram? Then you must have heard about the term blog. So, what is a blog? If you search the term blog, Google can give you 6,93,00,00,000 answers in mere 0.41 seconds. But let me spare your patience and time before you go through half of them. Blog or weblog is like online journals where you can write about anything or everything under the sun (or in universe, to be precise!). Blogs are like diaries except they are open for readers to read, discuss and comment. It is a place to share your thoughts and passions about anything. You can also generalize it as your own website where you have the freedom to speech, babble, rant or simply write.
Before going to details of a blog, let us know the terms associated with it. Blog (noun) is an online journal to share your thoughts, blogging/blog (verb) is the action of creating a blog and blogger (noun) is the person who blogs.
Why do people blog? I mean what is the need of the blogging when we have Facebook to give status update every minute or Twitter to share our opinions or Instagram to share our pictures? The answer is though blogging is a relatively new concept in Assam, its history goes back to the last century’s last decade. When the internet was slowly rising to reach the popularity it has now, people started to think about online diaries that can be used to share personal thoughts and major events.
At that time, the term blog was not even born and the journals were called threads, online diaries, zines etc and the people behind them were often called as diarists or journalers. It is after some pioneer works by some of the earliest bloggers like Justin Hall (http://www.links.net/ since 1994 and still active), Dave Winner (http://scripting.com/ since 1997 and still active), Bruce Abelson (http://www.opendiary.com/ since 1998 and still active), the concept of the blog came into existence. The earlier blogs were often dedicated to the discussion of their personal lives and programming. Their start was slow but the blogs were gaining popularity among the media when bloggers started to write about than political scenario of the USA. Gradually, bloggers started to get recognition form media when the Fortune magazine recognized eight bloggers who played.
Gradually, bloggers started to get recognition form media when the Fortune magazine recognized eight bloggers who played a major role in analyzing everything ranging from politics to culture, from technology to entertainment. Gradually people started creating more blogs and looking for definitions regarding the work. The term online diary was replaced by the weblog, a term coined by John Barger in 1997. The more popular term blog came into fashion in 1999 when Peter Merholz accidentally shortened it. It followed by the terms blogger who writes the blog or simply ‘blogs’.
As the new millennium came the popularity of the blogs saw new heights with every passing year. As the bloggers started to give an honest opinion regarding any issue, it gave the medium credibility and introduced a new era in public opinion. For the blogs are often written by common people voicing their opinions about any particular topic. Blogs established prominent personalities to raise their voice and make blogging a new career. Now here, a question can be raised.
People blog to give their voices a better platform and to reach a better audience. There are numerous niche of blogging and you can choose any one of it to write your thoughts or share your tips. You can share your thoughts on current political affiliation, discuss an IT gadget, review a book or movie, share travel stories, give DIY tips or your own recipe or discuss how your life changed after being a parent in a blog. These are only a few examples. There is no hard and fast rule about what to blog or not. (You can also write about your cat, trust me!)
The reason behind why people love blogs is very simple. People like to take opinions about anything before trying it themselves. Bloggers are common people like you and me who just sat with a mug coffee and penned down their experiences so that hundreds of readers get an insight of a particular thing or idea. The blogs document honest opinions and that is the reason that it has survived through time and trail. The Internet has become an unparalleled medium in its reach. It has given the common people like you and me to reach the global audience with little or no trouble. Bloggers have the opportunity of reaching hundreds or even thousands of people every day through their writing. They can make a news viral, an idea instant hit and a brand acceptable to everyone.
As the second decade of 21st century rolled on, blogs began to play a new role. It is now one of the most popular and effective media of public relations and advertising. Because of their reach, everyday top brands are recruiting services of bloggers to reach bigger audiences. Blogs have shifted their focus from just voicing opinions to market particular products or brands or personalities. Gradually money is getting involved when some the bloggers are earning in five figures just writing a simple blog post.
Blogs are here to stay. You can choose to read them or not but you cannot ignore them. They can be good for any brand, product’s PR or they can be a nightmare to a false product. As a strong medium of expressing your thoughts, blogs can take you a long way if you use it properly. The journey that was started in 1990s is now gaining all momentum.
The post Do You Know History of Blogging? appeared first on My Writing, My World.
