Blogs Are a Popular and Effective Way to Communicate
In a few weeks, blogs will be 18 years old. Blogs began as a log of a person’s day, thoughts, interests, etc. published on the web. The name “web log” was shortened to “blogs” in 1999 and five years later Merriam-Webster declared it their word of the year.
In his post: A Brief History of Blogging, Cameron Chapman writes:
“It’s generally recognized that the first blog was Links.net, created by Justin Hall, while he was a Swarthmore College student in 1994. Of course, at that time they weren’t called blogs, and he just referred to it as his personal homepage.”
With the advent of blog platforms such as Blogger and WordPress, blogging became easier. More and more people started self-publishing on blogs. Today, there are at least 178 million active blogs as tracked by BlogPulse. This is impressive growth in less than 20 years.
Some people still think of blogs as diaries or journals and you can find many blogs of this type—for instance the well-written Breaking the Habit by Casey Cole “Reflections of a Franciscan in Training” and the blogs that were published by young people at last summer’s World Youth Day. However, there are many other kinds of blogs as well.
People blog to share their hobbies, passions, causes, expertise, opinions, and content that used to be published in print or not at all. Many celebrities, media personalities and reporters in all fields, i.e. finance, education, sports, health, politics, religion, technology, etc. are blogging. Businesses and organizations are blogging about their services, products and mission. Even some of the hierarchy blog, including Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Sean Cardinal O’Malley . There is a lot of information and entertainment to be found in blogs.
The blogs that I follow generally fall into three categories social media, faith and culture, church and ministry. I list of few example below.
Expertise in social media such as:
Faith-based reflections on life, culture, and current events:
Dating God by Dan Horan, OFM
In All Things (America Magazine)
Church and ministry based blogs:
Evangelizing Catechesis by Marc Cardaronella
Whispers in the Loggia by Rocco Palmo
A Cyber Pilgrim’s Blog by Sr. Caroline Cerveny, SSJ-TOSF
I follow a few more blogs, but you get my point with these.
Now it’s your turn. If you have a blog, please tell us about it.
Do you read any blogs besides Catholic Web Solutions? What are they?
Thanks for sharing your comments with us and for sharing this article with others through the social media links below.
Comments (5)
Jonathan F. Sullivan
December 5, 2011 at 9:24 am
I’ve been blogging for close to 15 years, but only consistently for about 10 years or so. Most of that time has been personal blogging, with some academic reflections thrown in during my graduate studies. For the past 3 years I’ve been blogging almost exclusively on catechetical topics.
I enjoy blogging because it allows me to share information and insights, bounce ideas off of other people interested in catechesis, and gives me an outlet for writing. I’ve also been blessed by the incredible community of catechetical bloggers and social media users that has sprung up over the past few years.
I currently follow 116 different blogs; the list of catechetical blogs I follow can be found in the sidebar of my blog: http://www.JonathanFSullivan.com/blog
cathi d
December 5, 2011 at 9:55 am
Hi. I’m rather new to the world of blogging. I write about faith, prayer, poetry, family and Church. I have really enjoyed reading thoughts and ideas of others that help strengthen my Catholic faith. Happy 20th Anniversary Bloggers!
Lisa Hendey
December 5, 2011 at 10:23 am
We welcome everyone to http://www.catholicmom.com where you’ll find over 100 bloggers sharing their work every day to uplift, educate and inspire! As the editor, I’m blessed to have a front row seat for some of the best blogging on the web…
Maureen Spillane SND
December 6, 2011 at 8:23 am
Thank you Susan. A most interesting and informative writing. I am really new at hearing about blogging so I appreciate also hearing about what others have done and are doing.
Marc Cardaronella
December 8, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Thanks for the mention Sr. Susan! I love the little lesson on blog history.
I have quite a few blogs that I follow in Google Reader (not as many as Jonathan…but his blog and Lisa’s are definitely on my list!). Sometimes I’m methodical about it. Most of the time I end up reading what my friends post on Twitter or Facebook.
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