Blog on Blogging

Well, this is new to me. Blogging is one of those things I never thought I’d be doing real soon, since I’m one of those really traditional persons. I’d rather have a diary on my (secret) life than let the whole world see and examine what I think, what I feel, and what I do every day. If there is anything I do to make an account of my life, it’s probably keeping updated and as detailed as possible my planner – the contents of which currently show how a day could be stretched into longer hours than time and space permit.

Probably the closest thing to blogging that I’ve done is posting status messages in my Facebook account. There’s really something addictive about Facebook I cannot point a finger at. During the long bus ride from Philippine Christian University to Philcoa I had a few hours ago, I was theorizing that Facebook gives you a momentary high. When status messages, or any post for that matter, are “liked” by other people, whether or not they’re friends, it sends a shot of endorphins through the originator. It makes you want to post more thought- provoking, profound, philosophical or poetic ones so you could gain the acknowledgment through the “like” button. Notice how comments in Facebook usually end with the author of the thread being the last author of the comment.

In any case, blogging is probably the new “in” thing even with writers. I was a member of the UP Writers Club during my stay as a Political Science major in UP, during those years of college life when one explores his creative side and claims to be a “poet”. I was Vice President for Externals then, but the only thing I really did was to clean the tambayan of the organization. My poetic memory is currently making me nostalgic, as the smell old papers and the texture of dust-covered literary books are still poignant. In any case, I visited the tambayan a few months ago and found it really clean, aside from some books here and there. A member I was able to chat with told me that the current medium for writings include blogging, and that had an effect on the previous problem of clutter in the tambayan. Such could be proved by typing the word ‘poetry’ in any web browser. I was fascinated that artistic output is proliferating in the internet, and such shows that there is a newer and more spacious place for those who have the urge to write literature, whether such is as normal as the next person may make, or as profound or philosophical that would put self-acclaimed poets to shame.

But contextualizing, I do realize that there are many things that blogging may aid, and the range for explanation varies on the level of analysis. For example, connecting blogging with environmental law, the deteriorating environment of the Earth may be aided because if many people use blogging rather than writing on papers, lesser trees would be cut down and processed to stationery. Blogging could also be claimed as a mode of expression, and could even be therapeutic for some persons. Blogging could also be a mode of creative output, and this has an effect of spreading the artistic inspiration to anyone who has a decent internet connection. The exercise could also have an educational effect, as blogging will teach people how to touch type and with such add more words per minute in their blogging, practice whatever language they write their blogs with, or even in compel to read various stuff in the internet so that they could have something to talk about. Finally, blogging could also be used as a mode of communication, or a mode of advanced notice. For example, the blogger may state that “Sirs, I will be competing tomorrow as part of the UP Team for the IHL Moot Competition, and I really regret that I cannot attend our ICT class tomorrow. I gave Mr. Balisi my excuse letter, and I promise to attend next week.”

Hahaha.