Weblogs

Currently, one of the most popular forms of communication are blogs. Since coming into existence in 1998, scholars Dennis Wilcox and Bryan Reber estimate over 450 million English-speaking blogs have been started. (I hope "Why Communication Matters" is part of that count. I would hate to be left out and end up not being invited to the group's annual Christmas party.) Including blogs originating from countries where English is not the primary language, that total expands to over one billion, or approximately one for every six people on the planet. When they started 14 years ago, this form of communication was called a weblog.  Between then and now, it must have been decided that saying "weblog" was too time consuming, so all of us began referring to them as "blogs."


The reality of these communiques is that the great majority of them have very few, if any, active readers. For instance, as only two people have actually identified themselves as "followers of "Why Communication Matters,"  that is definitely the case here. Still, I and the great majority of my fellow bloggers continue to churn out entries simply because we no doubt enjoy it and, perhaps on some level, believe our perspectives make some sort of contribution to the overall public forum. There are, of course, blogs that have a great many followers. Generally, many of these are more news-oriented and have a reputation for breaking stories.


All of us, on some level, wish to be noticed as someone striving to make a positive difference in the world. For me, at least, that is one reason I have posted over 650 blog entries and have no plans to stop. Plus, creating a blog and then posting entries is relatively easy and relatively painless for people like me who are technically-challenged. Granted, there may be some who view blogging as a waste of time. "Why do it," they may ask, "if no one is reading what you write?' Possibly the best answer to that is while you never really know if someone "out there" is actually reading what you write, anything that might even contribute to helping encourage interaction between people is worth the effort.