Blogging

Everyone has a journalistic impulse. The impulse to tell a story. To speak at least. Families sit around the dinner table, and tell each other how the day went. Co-workers go out for lunch and chat. Lovers cuddle up tell each other how they feel.

We all like to talk.

Rarely do we like to write.

I've blogged before about the pen and the keyboard. The effects of email versus the handwritten note.

I grew up during a time when there were no computers. Everything was manual. Which means that we laboured for the simplest tasks. Writing was indeed a chore. It took a long time and we didn't have backspace, cut-and-paste, or the Internet.

Everything had to be carefully pre-planned. Everything was very carefully done. Words were not wasted. And each and every thing written was crafted. Designed.

In this age of technology, of the Internet. We ramble on, like I'm doing. Knowing that words are cheap. Knowing that we can cobble up a story from a variety of sources in very little time.

It's the fast-food mentality. Things are being done very quickly, almost without thought. If I need to write something on the devastation of the white rhino in Africa, I can have an acceptable story in a hour. It may not be passionate, but I can cobble it up. Because of the Internet.

But a pen in the hand is slow. Words don't rush out the way they do on a keyboard. And your brain is ahead of your hand. And you are, in my impression, a little bit more thoughtful.

Expression, and self- expression in print was limited to a chosen few. Some had talent. Some only had money. We read a handful of writers in newspapers. Some good authors, but they were the same ones. You had to go to school. Earn a degree in journalism, or writing. Get a job. And then you could tell your story.

The new media is the Internet. And on the Internet, everyone is a journalist. Everyone is an artist. Blogging is the new media. The traditional newspapers are struggling. Print subscriptions are limited to those who grew up with print media. The new generation is focussed on getting their information from digital media. The Internet. And not only from professionals. From anyone who cares to write. Even me.

That said, I encourage everyone to blog. Since camping and face-to-face socialising is on the decline. This is an acceptable substitute. Blogging will allow you as a professional, or expert, in your field, to share your knowledge in ways that you were not able to before. How was the engineer who discovered an amazing way to design a helpful product able to share it in the past? It was so difficult, and cumbersome, as to make sharing not worth it. However, that same engineer can now go online, write, draw and publish their work. For the world to see and learn from.

Blog often. Blog every day if you can. Sometimes, you'll hit on a good idea. A good theme. Often you may not. But the media is here. And the opportunity to inform is greater than it ever was before. But the more you blog, the better you'll get.

A last thing about blogging and sharing. Wikipedia.

I heard somewhere, that there are doctors who consult Wikipedia for medical information. This is extreme. We all know by now that the Internet is a great platform for sharing information, but the trustworthiness of the information depends greatly on the source. Wikipedia isn't a trustworthy source. There's a lot of good information there. But there's also a lot of garbage. Anyone can edit pages in Wikipedia making it an excellent target for misinformation. As a layman, getting superficial medical information from Wikipedia is acceptable. If we take it for what it is. Information from an unknown, potentially incorrect, source. But medical professionals must have better references. Like the PDR (Physicians Desktop Reference). Shame on them.

I have a Wikipedia account, and from time-to-time, go online and edit some of the pages. I've never created a page from scratch, but I've logged into my account on an editing binge. To correct misinformation. It's a difficult task. To its credit, Wikipedia is an amazing platform and shows how collaboration can work. I don't know what the percentage would be, but wouldn't be surprised if I heard that more than 30% of the information on Wikipedia was garbage.

That said, its a better world with Wikipedia than without it. Just as it's a better world with blogs than without it. At the end of the day, with over seven billion people on this planet, your words, pictures, thoughts are bound to inspire someone out there. And that's worth the effort.