Blog, a simple word, from web and log: log – a journal, record of events, thoughts, inspirations, opinions, and since they happen to be on the internet, so a blog. Yes, an easy, simple word that reminds one of other simple words like fire, water, air; all simple yes, and all representative of immense power, primal force, the stuff of creation itself. Like a fire that begins slowly then blazes out of control, blogging began in 1983 with message boards that were used to convey simple information that changed from time to time – calendars, lists, agendas.
Blogging has diligently progressed to the forefront of digital communication in a historically expeditious rate of speed. As early as 1983, threads of message boards dotted the internet with newsworthy postings, including the infamous World Wide Web. By 1994, some were using the web as their daily diary or sounding board. People began to pay attention. By 1997, these personal homepages became sources of news. Who are we listening to out in cyberspace? It is true that most believe what they read or see on television. After all, these people have our best interest at heart! Don’t they? Or is there an agenda they serve of their own? The dangers of a world of information and socializing through blogging can leave a questionable impact that’s left to be decided.
The daily diaries of 1997 soon spread from journals of self-satisfying thoughts to a belief that people were actually interested in things they said. And many were. The web world grew from personal blogging to videos, thus the web-cam. Soon the legal and corporate world began to hire bloggers. The question remained in some of our eyes, what kind of person would post their life for all to see? Or was it their life they were posting?
In the 90’s blogging exploded, and in the words of one writer, “There is no end in sight.” Simple information turned into highly impact banks of information with the potential to create change. Truckloads of data, to borrow a term from the recently defunct Industrial Age, were loaded on the web followed by storefronts from every type of business everywhere. Desktop publishing, graphics, music, media all went through explosive growth and change. So imagine a web surfer back in the 90’s moving from one static storefront to another when suddenly confronted with many and cheap opportunities to express feelings, thoughts, and opinions with others who have similar interests.
Many have followed that opportunity to connect with others of similar tastes, and that, in and of it, are magnetic; the ability to find someone that shares interests no matter how outlandish, how rare, and even how evil those interests may be. Presidential candidates, Hollywood celebrities, neighbors, friends, co-workers, corporate America, dog lovers, pool players, heroes, leaders, charlatans and thieves have spoken, conned, shared, lied, maneuvered politically, exposed, gossiped, made bunches of money, lost bunches of money, triumphed, and fallen via blogs. The marketing and political potentials are limitless and those limits are being pushed. Dichotomies and ideological clashes occur in every area. For instance, one is horrified by the blogs the child predators use and daunted by the efforts at some of the crime blogs that are working to keep the children safe.
In short the blog and its effects are a type of re-living of human history. The relationships between humans, the sacred and the profane, the good and the evil have always been there, only now things are going quite a bit faster. What would take months to cross the country in the late 1800’s and went only to people of privilege is now there instantly for anybody who can access a computer. In a way the blog is even faster than nature. We usually know when a hurricane is coming or when a tornado is nearby. Since the blog is operating at mental speeds, you know a hurricane hits when you’re in it.
Consider that all the tools are present – creative, marketing, technological - at a very affordable price for anyone to say whatever they want about literally anything and anyone. Add to that the ability to find people that have an affinity with you no matter what you’re saying or why, and you have a mighty tool with which you can further a cause, make a name, make lots of money, destroy a reputation, build a reputation, and any number of options limited only by the human menu of possibilities. That’s powerful.
EFFECTS: The immediate fears of children and teens in the blogging world are an ongoing debate. In the eyes of the teen, cyberspace has become a text heaven, taking the place of baby boomers talking on the phone. In the eyes of the parent, the teen is foreboding prey of the parasites feeding on the innocent lying in wait on the end of a text from a “friend” accepted. The law seems to stay one step behind the predator in these cases and children stay one step in front of the parent in finding the scum. This social impact that has taken the younger generation into places their parents never thought of falling is all brought to us by the wonderful world of blogging. In the latest American Presidential race, blogging has given the voting public a progressive, new look at candidates they never considered in the past. Overnight, Ron Paul became a viable candidate, when most didn’t recognize his name the day before. Isn’t this a questionable way to choose a person we are to trust with our country? If enough people get on the web and blog an interest, I could become Prime minister. People are too busy to research candidates themselves, so they take the word of bloggers, who may also be the predators that are on your children’s bedroom computers.
In defense of the world we have created on the web, we have the opportunity to learn, prosper, and discover the world at our fingertips. Students have a wealth of knowledge, while we can stay at home and do everything from graduate from college to shop at our favorite stores. The positives are abundant and obvious, while the negatives hide and pop out at us while we enjoy the good.
We’ve grown full circle from allowing idiot box the right to tell us what to believe, where to shop, and what to buy. We now have any Tom, Dick, or Harry into our lives by means of the web, as we shop and educate ourselves and think we are minding our own business. Blogging is a distinct and valid social impact on the world and decidedly so. The positive aspect is there are signs of boredom in the blogging world; soon there will be another source for the intruder. Maybe one day we will have a mind of our own and use it.
When the primal force known as humanity makes use of a potential like this, as is happening now, even as we wonder about it, we certainly have the ingredients for a butterfly effect – a moth flapping its wings in Japan sets off a series of events that fuels a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Can we and our children use that power for the good? We hope so. And while we must use our technology wisely, is it our technology we need to sorry about, or is it how we plan to use it?
CONFUSION: With the confusion between the functions of a blog and web site persisting, it has proved more difficult for many online marketers and entrepreneurs to use the two very different online tools properly in their marketing plans. Yet it is extremely important for everybody to understand the key differences between a blog site and a web site so as to understand best the key strengths and weaknesses of the two and what marketing functions each will tend to accomplish best.
The key differences between a blog and a web site are that a blog’s main function is being a web log or online diary. As the term "online diary" suggests, this is where a blogger can generate a lot of interesting personal comment and intimate details and information about a particular niche subject or topic that they have chosen to cover. Blogs are quick and easy to set up. Blogs are a less expensive way of advertising your business to the online community. A web site on the other hand is the official address and location of a web-based business. Just the place you would expect to find ecommerce tools and landing pages where customers can make a purchase online. Blogs and websites can work hand in hand with one another.
The truth is that a blog is hardly the place where you would want to reach for your credit card. Yet a blog is not less important. Blogs are classified as being increasingly important to any web based entrepreneur because it is where all the action is. In actual fact traffic is generated in large quantities at blogs and then re-directed to web sites for the actual sales transaction to be consummated.
In conclusion none can really totally replace the other and both blogs and web sites have their individual very important key roles to play in the marketing success of any online enterprise.
