Why Blogging Is More Than What It Seems
By: Bean Jones
Blog it forward. Your thoughts may give great comfort to others.
Lately I've been worried over what to blog about. (Chalk it up to my brain going fuzzy from decongestants.) But then a friend gave me a link to an article discussing the results of a 2005 AOL survey done by Digital Marketing Services Inc. and I found myself energized.
Support Group
A total of 600 bloggers--men and women aged 18 and above--participated in the survey.
About 48 percent of the bloggers revealed that they kept a blog because "it serves as a form of therapy" while around 40 percent stated that blogging "helps them keep in touch with family and friends."
Bill Schreiner, Vice President and General Manager of Community Programming for America Online, observed: "In a way, blogs serve as oral history. When it comes to sharing blogs and reading other people's blogs, we like to connect with people, learn about their lives, and find common ground."
Empowering Trend
An inspiring CNN article affirms blogging's therapeutic benefits. In it, journalist Anna Jane Grossman cites the results of the polls done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in 2006. The results revealed that "roughly 12 million Americans have blogs...and many seem to use them as a form of group therapy."
Grossman goes on to highlight bloggers who have used blogging to help them come to terms with life-changing tragedies.
Indeed, many blogs have transformed into informal support groups. They range from the low-key Everyone Needs Therapy to the bold and busy TreeHugger.
Blogs like these serve to inspire others to come up with sites that have an impact and can also hopefully make a difference in other people's lives.
Yes, there's room for fun posts. But I think if there's an opportunity to do good through one's blog, one should use it.
Comments
I would agree with this. I am on a challenge site where you set a target and then you blog about your progress. Doing this has allowed me to bring up issues that have been blocking me, deal with them and move on. It also allows me to view others journey and in doing so it helps me become clearer or I can gain great ideas. I am now a happy blogger where as prior to this I thought it a total waste of time.
Amen! My blog says changing the world note by note. It's up to everyone to make the world a better place to live in each our own way. Linda
So therapeutic for me to see your post, Bean. I and my family love your name, btw. Almost named one of the kids Bean, actually. Got very, very close.
Doing good & paying it forward was one of the reasons we created our first, original site.
In a nutsehell, it's a blog where servicemen & women get to express their gratitude to the military in the sense that they became better people because of their experiences while serving.
They explain what the military did to make them better leaders, etc.
In exchange for their post, we promoted their current businesses.
Blogging is an outlet for me. I am definitely about to start blogging more.
To me, blogging serves as an outlet as well as a learning tool. When there is something cool I've just discovered, I blog about it. When I have a thought to express, I blog about it. I guess it really is self therapy!