All About Blogging

Journaling Versus Blogging

While journaling shares several characteristics with blogging in general, many bloggers still consider these to be two different activities. A journal, being regarded more like a personal diary, would have little functional resemblance to those blogs that publish gossip about movie stars and sports figures or follow the public record of politicians. Even though the journal is online and others can read it, it tends to be viewed as more private than a regular blog.

One difficulty with definitions stems from the blurring of lines between a personal blog and one obviously geared toward public consumption. Some personal blogs that clearly wouldn't count as journals would be those dealing with books, recipes or pets. There's no denying that personal details of one's life appear in such web-logs, but those simply augment the main topic. Even posts about one's children might be less about family life than about sharing helpful experiences with other parents. One thinks of journaling as something done primarily for one's personal growth. Others might be able to read the entry, but the emphasis is on the writer's self-expression and reflection on their own life.

This means that if they are journaling, they will need slightly different tools than those used by others when blogging. They may want to consult one of the websites that have now sprung up to offer daily prompts to get journal writers thinking and writing. On their own blog, they might need to lock some entries from public view. This feature makes sites like www.livejournal or www.wordpress attractive, since they allow private posts while a host like www.blogger.com does not. On the other hand, the writer probably won't want to make monetary gains from the blog, so a hosting site that doesn't allow advertising won't inconvenience them. They might want a blog that allows photographs as well. Those won't necessarily be public photos, but the writer may want them there, to associate with personal experiences.

Someone who wants to do journaling will have different requirements and make different types of entries than someone who is blogging for public purposes. They may post on a system that allows their journal to be quite elaborate, like WordPress, or might be content with something that allows them to establish less complicated personal blogs, like Diaryland. In one sense, such journals are set up exactly the same as a Hollywood gossip site or a political investigation blog. But in function and purpose, these web-logs are at the complete opposite end of the blogging spectrum.

Related Topics About Journaling

What Is The Use
All of these things can encompass what is the use of blogging. Whether you need a more solitary online venue for recording your thoughts and reflections, or look to a gossip site for news about the rich and famous, or want to become active in a blog community, the avenues are all open. Private or more public, every blog is much more than merely a place to save text, graphics, videos and photos.

Video Blogging
The possibilities for blogging keep expanding, with the latest stage of development being video blogging. This takes blog entries to a whole new level, beyond the static text-based type, or even posts with some photos and other graphics, into a much more dynamic and immediate realm. Blog posts come alive in a whole new way, and establish the blogger as an intermediary between the formerly divided spheres of text and video.

A Business
Blogs are the elder sibling in the social networking world, and are still better at providing information and feedback in a more permanent form. Once blogging software made it possible for a business and its customers to interact in this way, the lines of communication opened widely. The company can provide up-to-date information about products and services, and customers can respond, thus both sides of the relationship benefit.