The Weblog

The weblog a.k.a blog concept has been around for a while. It has not taken off like the social networking sites viz Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Orkut, etc but has held it's own against all of them. From real writers like Paulo Coelho & Chetan Bhagat, celebrities like Gul Panag to aspiring writers, lesser known or unknown/wannabes, there are bloggers everywhere, thanks to the abundance of blogger space available.

A blog I read this morning suggested that one must participate in various networking sites, as part of being up-to-date with technology, to improve one's career prospects. I found the thought fascinating because I've met many people who, even though they are on these websites, condemn the existence of these and proudly declare that they are "not so much into it", as if that increases their status in the community. One of the reviewers of my resume once told me that blogging (listed under 'interests') might be looked at in poor light. I guess I am better off without my prospective employer knowing what my crazy life looked like (ability to fix sewing machine treadle belts, my love for chocolates, the books I read or restaurants I frequent or movies I like). 

My blog site is over a year old now but I have learnt more about the blogging culture in the last couple of months than ever. Blogger meet-ups, following blogs, blogger etiquettes, guest bloggers, use of pictures, size of blogs, are concepts I have grasped through reading a number of random bloggers and encouraging readers to visit my blog. 

Today, I learnt the idea behind adding links to words in a blog-post. I used to think those links were added automatically by some of the blog sites but later warmed up to the fact that they were added by the bloggers themselves. I only understood why, when one of the bloggers I was reading this morning explained. If you are merely a reader or a novice blogger like me and do not already know, I'll let you find out for yourself. 

I've also found that there are different categories to a blog. Technical blogs, advertisement blogs (the kind companies use to promote their products or update their consumers), information blogs, help-yourself blogs (something like the self-help books), review blogs (book/restaurant/product etc reviews), random blogs (this is where I belong) and so on. Of course, the blogs are not really called such. These are nomenclature I have attached to the categories.

Random blogs are generally rants of the blogger. From serving as an outlet for thoughts to being a platform to harness one's creativity or love for writing to acting as a forum to voice one's opinions, these blogs cover all aspects of life. There is variety in such blogs as also a risk of it being boring log of the life of an unknown face.  I am a random blogger. It adds no value to my resume but it sure helps me clear my mind of clutter.

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