Defining Blogging's Finer Points Through Our Kids

Defining Blogging's Finer Points Through Our Kids?

New technologies that are growing in leaps and bounds daily redefine what a blog is, what a blog is capable of doing, and what a blog should and can do.

For the longest time blogs were defined as text-based websites that were used as daily diaries, not unlike the ones kept by children outlining their day-to-day activities.

Well, of course it didn't last very long. Things started changing almost immediately as people who were into blogging began to change and diversify.

The movement had begun.

Suddenly you were nobody if you weren't into blogging, it was everywhere and everyone was into it. Talk about getting left behind in a hurry.

And can you remember how foolish you felt the day you asked, "What's a blog?" and your kid answered, "Aw, c'mon dad stop kidding around."

Talk about blogging taking on a whole new life of it's own. Wow.

Stranger yet was the fact that the whole world suddenly seemed open to blogging, and would account for why it quickly became the new in-thing to do.

It didn't matter if you were a grade school student or a long in the tooth grandparent, like myself, there seemed to be no shortage of blog sites and people to fill them.

We love to join things. People love to belong to clubs, groups, and civic organizations. If we asked, someone would tell us it has something to do with our cavemen days, I bet.

Blogging filled that void even more so than most other things out there, because it was like you were joining something incognito, you didn't have to use your real name. You even had to choose an alias for your blog. This was getting better by the minute, adults never had so much fun.

But do you know what really helped this monster take off so swiftly and suddenly - Free!

Yep, it was the best deal in town, bar none. It was the cheapest date going, it required no gas money, you didn't have to go out and hire a babysitter, heck, at times you even forgot about the damn TV, you were so hooked. And gosh darn, it was freeeeee.

And the sky was the limit, because there were no apparent boundaries, strict rules, or loads of regulations that had to be adhered to.

Even better, blogging didn't care about the color of your skin, your religion, your politics, your age, your marital status, whether you were fat or skinny, male or female, or even where in the world you lived, unless of course you wanted the whole world to know. Many did, it would seem.

But blogging did cut through so many of the barriers we were confronted with on a daily basis.

Of course something that wide open is not always a good thing, either. The extremists were always there at their worst, but on the whole it's been a damn nice ride that still doesn't seem to be letting up.

Kids took to it much faster than their parents, and the fact it was free to begin with gave it that extra added impetus to live on. They took to it like flies to honey, and they couldn't seem to get enough of it.

Most of us have our own kids to thank for blogging. It caught on with them first, but it made us collectively get off our rumps to learn what we could about blogging if we wanted to stop that growing wall between our kids.

And that was good too, it forced us parents to find out what was going on, what all the fuss was about, but more importantly we were suddenly not as computer illiterate anymore.

To our great surprise, we found out that computers really weren't something to be afraid of, and that they couldn't blow up when being used by complete neophytes. And, we discovered too that blogging was not the most evil thing in the world we had anticipated it would be, at least not enough to purge and destroy.

Sure we had to preach caution and give some guidance on who to blog with, what kind of information was not all right to give out, and how to be weary of everyone, and don't make arrangements to meet unknown kids unless we went along lurking in the shadows of that first meeting.

As a result of our kids, we as parents, and grandparents fast-as-you-can became bloggers and to this day the kids still can't live that down.

Today there are blogs of every size, description, topic, language, throughout virtually every country in the world.

There are photo blogs, commercial blogs, video blogs, audio blogs, singing blogs, political and religious blogs, tech blogs, food blogs, car blogs, blogs on how to beat tickets, blogs on how to get rid of lawn moles, blogs on other blogs, and, frankly, too many blogging blogs to ever mention here on this tidy space without getting a brain cramp.

But through it all, there is no denying that almost everyone has one.

And some of you are wondering, "What's the big deal, huh, it's only a blog"?

It might be only a blog to you, but we remember all to well when everyone was screaming that the end of the world was coming because our kids no longer knew how to read or write, with all those computer video games taking over the world?

Well, wasn't that just so much smoke blowing through their noses.

No one knew how important blogs, emailing, and text messaging would become with this smarter computer-savvy younger generation growing up with all these gizmos and techie things with names we couldn't even pronounce, never mind trying to use them.

When you see six and seven year old's text messaging and getting on to chat lines, you wonder what the heck they can text about, I mean, their written vocabulary must surely be limited at that age, you think?

Well, suddenly reading and writing has become very important again, it's the new in thingy that's out and about, because if you can't get on a computer and chat, or text message on your phone you're just not up to speed on what's going on around your immediate world.

Suddenly more emphasis is put on reading and writing skills again. Okay, okay, so math, algebra, history, geography, and the sciences are all going to heck in a bread basket. You can't win them all.

I recently read that kids are now reading and writing more than history has ever witnessed before, and we owe most of it to blogging. Can you believe that?

I characterize it as another Big Bang that went off around the world, unheard.

The phenomenon has stifled those naysayers who so often were out there beating their drums that the sky was falling, the sky was falling and the computer was to blame for it.

The opposite is true today, the problem parents are faced with is they can't keep up on the latest and greatest add-on's, recent releases, upgrades, new toys as well as the kids can, and the smart parents are not discouraging them from it either.

As a result of their parents encouragement more kids are reading and writing on blogs, emails, phones, text messaging, using blackberry's, and are far more accomplished at it than we could ever be, and you know what, we couldn't be happier. Go figure.

There is another aspect starting to redefine and reshape the blogging community, and that is the inevitable corporate blog. The more popular blogging becomes, the more writers these companies are hiring (our children) to keep a positive spin about their products and services.

And it's all good for the kids, so who's complaining?

What they are learning from blogs will prepare them for tomorrow. They are reshaping their destiny, ideas, thinking, their approach to communications, their attitudes on the importance of computers and how the only limitations on learning are the ones they set for themselves.

So many of them already view this world as one small global village where every voice is united in blog-speak.

The kids are doing what the parents, the politicians, and most religious leaders have been unable to accomplish throughout the time of man; chopping down the barriers, proving it doesn't matter where you live, who you are, what language you speak, what nationality you carry, or what you look like. More importantly, if you want to blog with me, go for it, we'll have a ball learning from each other.

Good on them, and maybe they will be the ones to save our planet after all.

About the Author:

Shayne Genoway is a infoMarketer, ePublisher, Webpreneur, and Webmaster interested in teaching others the rewards and benefits of owning a successful Internet Home Based Business. Comments? Questions? Let's talk - email me now through my website, click here: http://www.CyberAdz.biz

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