Is blogging a waste of time?

Absolutely not my friend .. Blogging is only a few years old but today it forms a huge part of social conversations.. for example how many blogs do you subscibe to on your blog reader? Communities that fight for human causes are few in the legacy world and its a similar percentage to that of the internet .. but a lot of blogs have made a difference like Blank noise (http://blog.blanknoise.org/), who have been fighting for womens rights online ..

So bloging has its power.. its up to the users to harness it .. It takes dedication in making a good blog work and for all those of you who are serving a higher purpose through your blogs .. I salute you!

Vow, Anoop, you seem to be an absolute convert.

But I stick to my guns.

Blogging is a kind of escapism. We can't solve real problems, so we cry ourselves hoarse on our blogs.

Had we spent even a fraction of the energy and time we spent on blogs in solving actual problems on the ground, we would have done god knows how much good.

Do you subscribe to this view?

some voices have to be heard and blogging is a good means to do it.. and on the lighter side .. you are using a blogging forum for your thoughts to be heard .. isnt that a good testament to its power :)

@ "Blogging is a kind of escapism"

Well that depends on what kind of stuff you blog about. If all you do is rant and rave about politics and poverty and how government isn't taking sufficient measures to fight terrorism and the sinking world economy (blah blah blah)... then yes, I agree with you. It is escapism, for you aren't really doing any constructive work to solve the issue.

But there are other kinds of blogs, where people share information. I sort out most of my computer problems with the help of such information given in blogs. I'm getting exam dumps for SCJP on blogs. I found some really cool recipes for my new microwave on someon'e blog. And my sister is a beauty freak... she often checks out blogs giving tips for hair care, skin care etc.

So you see, it varies from case to case. Besides, some people are not able to give vent to their emotions verbally. For them, a personal blog is a good way of self expression.

http://mysterious-kaddu.blogspot.com/

No Sir I do not subscribe to your views as well. It is like saying all newspaper journalist should give up reporting news and work on ground because newspapers are not adding value.

Everybody has to start somewhere and in today's world it is social media which kicks up the things for change and this social media includes blogs as well.

Famous pink chaddi campaign to halt ambitions of Muthalik from hurting more girls was a success because of social media. Now people had a choice of fighting with those goons on ground or choose a way which is more effective.

World is full of such example where bloggers have brought changes but in India it is picking up. Blogging is a medium which helps everyone to express his opinions. In India bandhs, hartals and rallies are used to express opinions by netas and which cause lot of inconveninece to people who work on ground. At least bloggers do not do that. They prefer to block bandwidht :)

Bloggers are force to reckon and you love them or hate them but cannot ignore them. If you decide to ignore them than do it at your own risk.

By the way there is no way to prove that bloggers do not work on ground. Knowledge that is on display in blogs could not have come without ground knowledge.

Universal saying is Pen is mightier than sword and these days pen is replaced by keyboards. Now the power of printing is also in everyone hands rather than a select few. Earlier only few journalist can use the might of pens but these days a common man can also use this.

Actually Balasubramaniam, there are people out there who get to the road and work on the problems. But how do you spread the word and make every citizen responsible for his act. Blogging is essential.

Just like how every domain has its ratio of useless people, blogging world as well has a few blogs thats of no use to anyone. But a good blog for a social cause is always respected and as Anoop said, there are lots of blogs that has made a huge difference in the society.

What gets people to get down and solve the problem is an inspiration, and blogs are a tremendous source of inspiration, if you know the right blogs to read. There are blogs that fight for Animal rights, human rights, poitical issues and ways of addresing them. 

Forget all that, even a blog on technology serves its purpose of helping readers know what they want. "Knowledge is power" and blogs are the source. When the need for knowledge becomes obselete, I'll certainly agree blogging is a waste of time :-)

I agree with Adesh and Anoop. It's unfair to think of blogging as escapism. Plus, there's so much more to it than to act solely as a mouthpiece to bring about social change. 

For someone with such strong views against blogging, you seem to spend an awful lot of time on it yourself, sir. =)

Sorry Sahil, I didn't reply to your post earlier, some how I missed it, although I had read it.

Actually I am rather new to blogging. My oldest blog, jaihindi is only two months old. The other blogs printf-scanf and keralpuran are just a few days old.

I spent a lot of time on the internet, though, for I earn my living online. I am a freelance Hindi translator.

The question of blogging being  a waste of time came to my mind when I realized that I am spending a considerable amount of time on my blogs, and began to wonder whether this was the best way to spend my time, and whether it was really worthwhile, and I thought that the best way to find this out was to pose the question before older and more experienced bloggers. Hence this forum thread.

Blogging spends time. Expenditure is not synonymous with wastage.

It gives 'poor' people a place to publish their work. All my original research work on history and science in scriptures is published on a blog.. because that is what I can afford.

Blogs make friends. I found at least 2 ladies whose work and thoughts I really like and we are now on gmail and facebook as well!

Blogs give information and spread it too, when I wanted information on Naimisaranyam or how to delete data in fb, I found blogs giving me detailed and useful information.

Blogging is therapeutic. Many people express their personal feelings on blogs when no one in their vicinity wants to hear them out. As a result they feel better and are better citizens. They connect with others ofthe same temperament and feel happy.

Blogging is a creative outlet for many who draw and write and photograph and create new recipies.

But perhaps you are saying Nahi Nahi rakshati dukrung karane... then I have no argument. 

Sorry folks, I was away on bread and butter issues for a while.

I back now to play devil's advocate.

Gandhi had no blogs, yet he won us freedom and inspired millions to action.

If Gandhi had been wasting time on blogging, I am sure he would not have been able to connect with the millions.

But here is my killing argument. Internet penetration in India is less than 2 per cent of the population.

Even places like Delhi and the much touted Silicon Valley of India (Bangalore) groans under five hours of power cut a day. So blogs don't have all of that reach after all.

Bloggers form a highly incestuous (pardon the use of this word, no offence meant, just using it to convey a closed group interacting solely with its members) group thatwhips itself to frenzy over trivial issues.

If you look at the issues that bloggers on this platform are raising (including me) they are not even tangentially related to real problems like hunger, unemployment, illitracy, joblessness, etc.

To bloggers the mother of all issues is the pink jaddi campaign to an obscurantist medievalist in Mangalore.

So how do you justify the hours and hours you spent on blogging?

Expressing one's thoughts is a basic instinct, and it's required for maturation and maintenance of man's social abilities. Expression of thoughts is what made Gandhi or Buddha, separate from the rest of humans. I'm sure if Gandhi was born in current times, he would surely have a blog, to expand his outreach in the public. Let's think of blogging as just a "tool", the ultimate aim is "expressing one's thoughts". It's not a waste of time in my opinion, as long as we maintain "quality control".

Blogging on pink chaddi campaign is like voting. People blogged about it to express whether they approve or disapprove Muthalik's acts. Unfortuantely, there is no official voting on such issues in India so far, so people resort to "voting" by other means, that includes blogging.

Gandhi never blogged but he was way ahead of others in accepting new and radical ideas. He never believed in untouchability whereas whole India was under its grip.

Sir, lot of NGOs are taking of help of bloggers so that they can have a web presence as it increases their funding chances. It is not necessary that everyone should go and open school to teach needy people, there are many others ways and means by which one can contribute.

Let us also take small example of this IndiBlogger site where bloggers bang their heads on all trivial issues.

This site is launched by few friends and they are getting bigger by each passing day. Hopefully, they will grew where it cannot be managed by friends alone and will hire some people and thus generate some employment. No matter how small and how late it is but it will be a positive step taken by few bloggers. Not everyone is capable of opening factories to provide employment. And mind you most of the bloggers are young and lot of them aspire to take entreprenuerial route which in long run will make difference.

Till then you have to give us a benefit of doubt and be patient. Gandhi did not free India in few years.

you are using blogging to share your ideas... while cursing (or at least doubting) blogging... it is interesting.

Adesh, hats off to your ferverant defence of blogging.

But I am not convinced. Here is why.

You see a child starving on the road side, or a graduate begging on the streets, or an accident victim on the road, whom no one is helping, or any such real life situation.

You do nothing either in these cases, but you write about it extensively on your blog. That gives you a reprieve from a sense of guilt that you would have otherwise felt and which would have impelled you to do something more concrete, something more effective.

That is my point. Blogging robs you of the incentive to do real work. It lulls you in a false sense of heroism, and extinguishes your motivation to do things on the ground. You end up barking the wrong tree. Instead of getting your hands dirty, you punch the keyboard in the airconditioned comfort of your home.

There are other dammening indictment of blogging, too.

It keeps you in a virtual world, and you starting avoding real humans. The screen personages substitute for you real people.

This disconnect with real people makes you a recluse and a society hating personality.

That is not good is it?

aativas, exactly.

I am one of you a blogging addict, but like Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshtra, I am smitten with doubt about its usefulness.

Are there any Krishnas out there who can dispel my doubts?

For a Devil's advocate, you are argueing pretty well, but still I find it baseless. When Gandhi was fighting for freedom, there was no internet for one thing. However, he was hell bount on getting the message to the entire nation, and he certainly spend enough amount of time doing that through Media like papers, magazines etc.

If we had internet then, Gandhi might have had a much easier job (And would probably be an indiblogger as well ;-).

And Pink Chaddi campaign was just a small spark that bloggers wrote about to speak against such stupid moral police.

Today, from a news like, "Tara Reid won't do next 'American Pie'" to "Why we need to study GeoHacking" I get all the information I want from Blogs. And Blogs have been programmer's heaven for year now.

Zeon: "However, he was hell bount on getting the message to the entire nation".

That is what I meant. You can't reach the entire nation through blogging. Only the 1 per cent that can afford computers, and even of those, only for the limited duration for which your electricity supply board supplies you with power.

Hi Zeon, but that doesn't answer my argument that blogging insulates people from the outer world about which bloggers care two hoots and to this extent makes them withdraw from society.

Were we more involved with society, were we more in touch with people, we would have had a different perspective on things, and it wouldn't make us so cock sure of ourselves, which kind of keeps us from delving to the roots of problems, for we think, rightly or wrongly, that everything can be solved on the arena of blogs.

Clearly the problems of the middle class Indan citizens are not problems that are of interest to this thread.

Yet, one must be at least middle class english educated to contribute to this thread.

I think Bala is trying to make a decision as to whether he can better serve the 'politically more cohesive' but economically weaker Indians by joining say an NGO group than joining a blogger forum.

That's his own call.

The others are trying to bring in the merits that debate and discussion across distributed locations, will bring in to informed decision making and collective action.

 I am out of here.... I don't belong on this thread. 

Hi Satyask, your choice.

I didn't understand the point you are making, though. I never said anything about NGOs.

I am only trying to explore to what extend you think blogging is socially responsible in our society and if there are other aveneus where if we spend our energies, the returns can be more commisserature with our efforts and the requirements of the situations faced by our society.

To answer your question - Is blogging a waste of time? No.

I do it because I enjoy it; blog that is.

In doing so, I encounter people. More like me. Blogs dont necassarily serve a purpose, which in your question is resolving at least one of the innumerable number of problems plaguing the world we live in. To diversify further, India, the country we belong to.

I know of many people who blog because it widens their view on life and facilitates interaction with the mob. Then there are others who try (to their best and more) to bring about a change. And yes, blogging might not be the most effective method, but it helps and I'm sure it does.

Awareness is the name of the game these days and keeping in touch with aware minds always help.

-Anup

A fair analysis, Anup.

Most people blog because they want to, not necessarily to solve anything.

So the conclusion of this discussion is, attributing a purpose to blogging is not the right way to look at blogging. It may achieve some purpose, but that is immaterial.

The real purpose of blogging is the purpose it serves for the blogger. It that sense it is a highly personal thing.

Would you like to add anything to this?

Helloo Balasubramanium

There are Many Bloggers like me who Blog to solve problems of People......

I have a Blog about Computer Tips, Tricks, programming, Viruses & their Problems...

i have given several posts about problems which most of us face due to viruses... & also Their Solutions & Many people are Learning a lot from mine Blog...

Blogging is also a way of Sharing of Knowledge & new ideas.....

if Many people are learning from your blog..... you can't call it as waste of Time...

 I Hope You Got the Answer....

Regards

Kunal

Hi Kunal, when I was talking about problems, I had a different kind of problems in mind altogether than computer viruses. People in India are afflicted by more virulent viruses than the virtual ones...

I will look up your blog for useful tips to solve my computer problems, though.

Thanks for participating in this discussion.