Blogging: Evangelism without the condescension

[This post is part of Bridgewater State University's Blogfest for Social Media Week. Today's theme: Why blog?]

This marks the first time I have ever posted a comic. My only photo idea was one of myself typing a blog post, but that seemed a little lame.

People often lament the massive amounts of time they spend wandering around the internet. This epidemic of people zoning out to the endless information available to them via their computers creates an opportunity for bloggers (writers, artists, thinkers, etc.) to reach a lot of people fairly easily. On blogger.com the blog writer (in this case, me) can see how many page views his/her blog gets, so even if no one comments on a post, I know dozens of people have read it. Think it's unethical to take advantage of others' internet addictions? Maybe a blog that encourages readers to go out and live life (exercise? nature? inspirational?) could be the first step in their internet rehab.

If internet addiction isn't your battle, blog about what you are passionate about -- your contributions can make more of the time people spend on the internet worthwhile. Blogging is a simple way to educate people on issues that are important to you. It's sort of like evangelizing without the condescension and feeling of ambush, because readers subject themselves to your do-goody (or otherwise) rants on their own free will.

Also, I find that blogging is incentive for me to educate myself. Oftentimes once I become interested in something and decide to blog about it, I then do a lot of research that I wouldn't otherwise do in order to put together a quality, accurate post. I generally learn a lot in the process.

Considering starting your own blog? Here is my advice: Just keep writing posts! You don't necessarily need to worry about choosing a consistent theme, having the perfect name, getting tons of comments, etc. Just don't go an entire month without posting anything (though I have done this a few times and the blog lives on). Keep posting and the blog will come into its own.

[I participated in BSU's Blogfest last year, too. Click here for my post from last year.]