The Blog Fog (2015-04-02)
Long before I started posting online these (usually) daily scribblings as my “Writings On The Wall”, I’d started a weekly email newsletter and companion website where every Friday I shared three links to interesting, thematically related ideas accompanied by explanatory remarks. I called it “Your Man Friday’s Ideas”.
This was back in 2009, and only when people referred to it as a “blog” did I think of it as such. I wasn’t even clear exactly what a blog was. So, as is my wont, I did a little research.
A blog (or weblog) is a discussion or informational site published on the Internet. It had its origins in the beginning of this century. By 2011, there were over 156 million blogs, and by 2014, there were around 172 million. Its popularity is largely due to certain defining characteristics—although not all blogs have all these characteristics.
Backasswards. It consists of discrete entries (or posts) displayed in reverse chronological order.
Multimedia. It is a mixed media genre that combines text, images, and links to other websites.
Interactive. It is interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other.
Unguarded. It has no guardians of the gate to publication, no editors, and no censors determining what the blogger posts.
As a literary medium, it certainly has its pros and cons.
