Blogging versus journaling
What puzzles me is that the articles we read about blogging insist on two things: that it’s very important, and that despite its value people don’t do it. I wonder how much of the benefit from blogging is actually the benefit of journaling.
Dear Diary by Philippa Willitts is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Take this paper for example. The students were trying out blogging just to see how it fit for their needs. Of the 15 people interviewed, two-thirds didn’t want a public audience:
- 2 did not blog, did not think it was useful
- 4 blogged only under duress because they thought it was mandatory, and did not seek an audience for their writing
- 4 used their blog to store their work and notes, and they also did not seek an audience
- 5 sought out an audience, community, and comments — 2 for academic reasons, 3 for emotional support as well as academic reasons
When left to their own devices, most of the people interviewed did not want to share publicly. Is blogging an important learning tool because of the audience, or because of the writing?
See also
For an argument that blogs are different than journals, see Mortensen, T., and Walker, J. (2002) ‘Blogging thoughts: personal publication as an online research tool’.