Weblog or blog in short has different definitions for various people ranging from the highly technical to a simple layman definition.
Every Internet literate understands and sometimes even creates a blog.
However, when asked to define the word, a scratch in the head is the most common and easy reaction.
So how do we define blog?
Wikipedia defines a blog as a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. A blog, therefore, has different dimensions: first, the content is written in a personal manner like a diary; second, it is updated from time to time and arranged in a reverse chronological order.
Other definitions of blog have left us more confused.
So let us try to make a simplified definition of a blog side by side in its different uses:
- First, it can be a journal or a sort of diary where you put your private thoughts on a regular basis and bravely share them to the whole online world. If you get lucky, you will receive comments from people who empathise with your thoughts and leave comments and suggestions.If less lucky, your work is simply regarded as someone who is letting off some steam. Either way this is a good venue for self-expression and has therapeutic effects to the blogger.
- Second, it can be a marketing tool where the blogger can sell a product or service. This is an emerging tool for corporations and individuals who wanted to make advertisements on a personal level.It is a new means to campaign for a certain ideology or values and be able to convince more people.
- Third, it can also be learning or educational tool for every subject imaginable, may it be government, hobbies or politics.A good example is making financial plans and advises to clients or explaining a very complex strategy to target groups.
Lastly, it is a means to be a part of a community where the same interests are tackled and various minds mingle to form an internet community.
Understanding the meaning of blogs by explaining it through its different uses is much easier, right?
In the future, blogs will be used in different areas depending on new emerging needs and situations.
The current uses are always being redefined.
Blogs have several definitions on the Internet. However, the idea behind it is the most important aspect.
Blogs are more than an online diary of personal thoughts and feeling. It is not just a marketing tool for selling services and products and even more than an educational tool or a same interest / hobby website.
Blogs are about communication from one corner of the world to another, regardless of race, language and ideology.
It has made the world smaller by connecting people and allowing others to read personal thoughts and being allowed to comment about it.
This back and forth flow of information has made the blogging world much more interesting.
The future holds so many possibilities for blogs.