duminică, 14 iunie 2009

Eseu castigator premiul I- categoria 14-25 ani


Blogs- a contemporary milestone


Big things are those remembered by history. Their grandeur is firstly spread with words and then measured up with numbers. This is the common path followed by every event that leaves a print upon people’s lives, be it good or bad, be it the invention of the Internet or a world war. Blogs don’t make an exception. From a mere activity, often referred to as something fashionable, taking place in the web space, blogs have now achieved the status of a mass phenomenon and statistics indicate millions of blog users all over the world.


History's scene is filled with millions of actors as well. However, only some of them become famous and they represent prototypes for the others. But can a successful blogger be framed in a certain pattern? One might be surprised to know that in some cases it might be easier to climb Mount Everest than to recognize a blogger after only a few talks. This is because blogger's qualities are more of an inner nature, than an outer one. So if one should like to get a glimpse of these qualities, one should search in people's eyes, for eyes bond the inside with the outside. Blogger's eyes have a pupil similar with a pencil's point, because a blogger is, above all, a writer. In fact, this is the major advantage of keeping a blog. It allows you to communicate, though you may not be the best public speaker.


Nonetheless, things are far more complex for a successful blogger. Apart from the essential writing skills, he must also know how to maneuver some other tools. He must be able to select from the myriad of ideas running down his brain those only which deliver effectively the wanted message. Otherwise, the chaos in the writer's words will convey chaos in the reader's mind. Chaos causes discomfort and frustrations, which will determine the blog visitors not to come back to your site again. In order to avoid chaos, the blog themes should be pigeonholed into categories. Pigeonholing is also a technique of the SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) and it will add relevance to the blog and place it nearer to the reader's eye. Another issue a blogger should take into account is the blog's aesthetics, as the blog is a form of art itself and should offer a fusion of feelings to the one who reads it. Pictures, photography, drawings, multimedia are the basic means of sculpting a blogs' beauty. Talking of aesthetics, who is to be considered an expert if not Oscar Wilde, who was the nineteenth century's paragon of aesthetics? He used to say: 'To get into the best society nowadays, one has either to feed people, amuse people, or shock people'. This advice stays available nowadays as well, because, after all, blogs and bloggers have formed their own society.


As far as the blogs' content is concerned, there are no confinements. Freedom of expression feels at home here, along with freedom of identity, as you might sign the blog with your real or made-up name. Though the latter approach might add an aura of mystery to the blog and therefore increase the curiosity of visitors to continue reading it, the effect is beneficial only when it comes to individual blogs. Oppositely, for a business blog, a false or hidden identity might lower the credibility. Business blogs ought to be objective for the very same reason, while in individual cases, loose imagination goes hand in hand with subjectivity.


Where are blogs heading towards? I believe their place in history is that of a faster substitute for the habit of storytelling near a camp fire. It's about networking, about the neeed to express and share, about the art of listening, about comments and feedbacks, about the power of people gathering, about vanished distance and about the beauty of thought.


Having read all this, I name thee knight and reader of my blog. Please feel free to comment. :)



Irina Mihaela Ciortan
Age: 19
Faculty of Economic Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics