The Benefits of Blogs to Communities

Today, man kind has reached a level whereby communication technologies present are at levels unimaginable to people 20 years back. Such has occured with the introduction of the world wide web (WWW); a virtual domain whereby people could use to communicate and share information. Within the past 10 years, a popular notion called blog has become a trend. A blog could be summarized as a virtual diary, and potentially even a public domain for sharing information; is available easily as it is free-or-cheap to maintain.

The following are the benefits a blog can bring to a society:-

1) Blogs allow the freedom of information of different perspectives on the world wide web - assuming the country that it is hosted in allows for freedom of information.

I.e. Political blogs are able to express their opinions, general people are able to express their views on current issues.

2) Blogs are a new avenue for people to pursue their interests and share it to the world.

I.e. Blogs such as kennysia.com, xiaxue.blogspot.com are examples of very successful South East Asian blogs that has a very big following, this allowed the blogger to start their own unique career.

The following are the drawbacks a blog can bring to a society:-

1) Freedom of information can be a double-edged sword. With the overload of information available on the internet, blogs (which may be bias in opinions) may cause misinformation to the readers whom are unable to view other perspectives - this is apparent in political blogs.

2) Uninformed or unaware bloggers may over-share their personal life - as blogs are popularly deemed as online diaries, there are tendencies for bloggers to overly express themselves which may cause problems within their personal privacy.

Citations

Lai, Chih-Hui 2011, ‘A multifaceted perspective on blogs and society: examples of blogospheres in Southeast and East Asia’, Journal of International Communication,  Vol 17, Issue 1, 51-72.

http://kennysia.com

http://xiaxue.blogspot.com