According to my family, I’m wasting my time on the Internet. I can’t seem to make it clear to them that blogging isn’t really wasting time, or that blogging is much better than ogling people’s statuses on Facebook. To them, there’s no difference. Net is Net is Net is Net. But I digress.
Blogging is healthy and productive. And this is why:
1) You have a sense of achievement. There’s a little corner of the Internet that belongs to you, and you even have the web URL to prove it. It’s as if you have your own website, except that it’s free. When you post stuff on it, people can look at it and know that it’s yours. Years later, you (probably) still can look back upon it.
2) It helps you relieve stress and angst and anger. And a lot of other things too. Blogging is therapeutic, in a way. Why do people go to psychologists when they have problems? Psychologists listen and give support. Posting on a blog is like talking to a person, so it pretty much achieves the same effect as going to a psychologist. Moreover, it’s cost-free. I’ve seen anger blogs before, and I’m sure there are many others of similar nature that I haven’t yet seen. Writing enables people to express their emotions in healthy, non-violent and non-destructive ways.
3) And it’s also pretty much anonymous if you want it to be. Admittedly, that won’t do wonders for the pageviews, but if you’re trying to rant and rage about the people around you in everyday life, anonymity should sound pretty good.
4) You get to meet like-minded people/strangers on the Internet. I personally have a thing for talking to strangers, because it’s a) interesting, and b) it doesn’t matter what you tell them. (Not that I tell lies, though, but Omegle and services like that come in useful when you just want to bitch and don’t care who you’re bitching to). You get to meet bloggers in your niche and hopefully make friends with them. This is great, especially if you’re surrounded by assholes in daily life.
5) Writing practice. Or even typing practice. Writing is an important social tool, and sadly people today are writing less and less. It seems that the ability to write coherently and appropriately (also: without emoticons or “haha”s or “lol”s) is becoming increasingly rare. Posting on your blog does count as writing. I find myself being self-conscious about my own because I hate the idea of having others reading my blog when it’s all incoherent and valueless and whatnot.
6) You think more. Your blog gives you something to brainstorm for–especially if you set yourself a target of writing x posts in n days. It could either be the topic, or the argument…or even the makeup of the post.
7) If you stumble across blogs you like, it also means that you read more. Yes, reading. Another thing I dislike about today’s youth (pfft, as if I’m not part of it…) is that THEY/WE WATCH TOO MUCH TELEVISION. TV, to me, is a terrible thing. Roald Dahl pretty much drives this point home in his book Matilda, which I read a few years ago and rather liked. TV does nothing to encourage thought or imagination and merely acts as a pacifier. Reading, on the other hand, can help you with your command of [English] language.
8) Lastly–blogging takes away time that may otherwise be spent on useless activities, such as computer games. Or, you know, Facebook.
These are the eight points off the top of my head. I’ll probably try and come up with more, but there’s the feeling that the rest will sound forced. So tell me if any of these don’t make sense (or if they do), because they do to me. For the last time, I just want to make it clear that in no way does blogging equal to time-wasting.
Tags: blog, blogging, facebook, internet, musing, television, thoughts, wasting time, why
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