Is blogging a waste of time?

I was thinking further on this issue. Bloggers do spend a lot of time in blogging, and in my opinion, (which as is clear from this thread, is a minority opinion; nevertheless) they don't get much output on the ground for all of it. This I am talking about the non-personal blogs; the personal blogs of course serve a very important personal purpose.

But those of us who blog with a purpose, things need to be augmented a bit on the ground. What I mean is blogging on its own will never achieve anything, it is only a catalyst. The real reactions will happen when the ingredients are brought together, the catalyst can only speed up the reaction. The ingredients are the people, their problems and the resources that can solve these problems. These three have to be brought together for real results.

So what bloggers need is a mechanism on the ground that can channel all the mental masturbations that take place on blogs to concrete action.

I don't know if any such mechanism exists currently, if it does, could you kindly post its contact details here so that we could network better.

If it does not, then we should consider forming such a network. As of now I don't know what contours such a mechanism will take, for there are great difficulties to overcome. Bloggers are global citizens and may be separated by physical distances of thousands of kilometres; they write on such a plethora of topics that we might need a whole government-like organisation with several departments, to translate into action all the ideas that come up on blogs; then there is the problem of languages - in India blogging happens in more than a dozen languages.

But these difficulties should not deter us.

We do have the blog meets, but they are merely flash in the pan kind of events, where bloggers come together, share a beer and retreat into their virtual cocoons.

We want something more durable.

Do think on these lines and if you have any bright ideas, post them here for thrashing them out further.

To bring change three elements should be inplace - A cause, leader who believes in cause with followers and communication between leader and followers and between change entity and outside world. Social media and bloggers can play an important role in third element i.e. communication.

Please go throught the link below. These guys are working for needy children in Africa and they have started this initiative sometime back and now it has become a movement. Nothing of this sort has happened in India so far but we all can play our small bit in it. It may not be a movement in the begining but we surely be playing a part in initiating such movement.

http://cdn2.tomsshoes.com/default12.htm

I am working closely with an NGO for fund raising and we will be soon launching digital marketing drive using social media to acheive our goals.We are using social media becuase it is free and has a reach which cannot be matched by any medium.

Will keep you posted about the same.

Thank you Adesh, for posting the Africa link here. It seems to be very relevant to us in India for taking blogging to its next level of development and relevance.

Is your digital marketing venture something like the echaupal of ITC where the internet is used to acquire and sell agricultural produces bypassing middlement altogether so that farmers get a better price?

Can we think of developing formal mechanism for channeling the energies of bloggers into nationally productive ventures?

What kind of an organisation can it be that can help bloggers see some of their ideas take non-virtual shape and benefit people and society.

May be the Delhi bloggers meet which I think is currently underway is the right forum where this issue should be discussed. I hope some of the organizers of the meet are reading this thread.

Many bloggers are passionate about what they write and would certainly like to see some of their ideas coming alive on the ground.

Your analysis, Adesh, is interesting. According to you, for anything to happen on the ground three things are needed:1. a cause, 2. a leader, and 3. communication.

Bloggers do have plenty of causes and the medium of blogging by its very nature is overflowing with communication.

So is the leader the missing link?

If you substitute leader with an organisation that coordinates the activities of bloggers (not control, mind you), then I think your analysis exactly concurs with my own views.

In Firaq's words :

wo poochte hain ki ishq se kya faayeda

unse poocho ke faayeda a kya faayeda

My dear friend ,you will be dead in the end

So why do you live,to get  and give

Just don't bother and keep punching

The way you wake up and keep munching.

On a serious note I have found it to be a cathartic excercise.You can read my post :

Blog as if it will never be seen at www.aahang.wordpress.com

Have good day !

रजनीश जी इस चर्चा में आपका स्वागत है।

आपका आहंग ब्लोग बहुत ही सुदर है। लेआउट आदि इतना सुरिचिपूर्ण है कि आंखें तरोताजा हो गईं! इसे मैंने बुकमार्क कर लिया है और फुरसत से बारबार आकर इस पढ़ूंगा।

मेरा भी एक ब्लोग है जयहिंदी (http://jaihindi.blogspot.com), जरूर पधारें।

अब चर्चा के विषय पर आते हैं।

फिराक की बातों से मैं सहमत नहीं हो सकता। मरने तो हम सब एक दिन वाले ही हैं, पर इसका मतलब यह नहीं कि हम पल-पल जीते जाएं या निठल्ले बैठे रहें।

और हमारा उत्तरदायित्व भी तो है उन लोगों के प्रति जो हमारे जितने खुशकिस्मत नहीं है। उन्हें सहारा-सांतवना देना, और उन्हें हमारे समकक्ष लाना यह भी तो हमारा कर्तव्य है।

आप हिंदी साहित्य से परिचित लगते हैं, इसलिए उसमें चले प्रगतिवादी साहित्यिक आंदोलन से भी परिचित होंगे, जिसमें प्रेमचंद आदि ने नेतृत्व की भूमिका निभाई थी।

प्रगतिवाद का मुख्य तर्क यह था कि साहित्य स्वांतः सुखाय न होकर सोद्देश्य होना चाहिए, उसे समाज की कुरीतियों, कमियों को उजागर करना चाहिए और उनका समाधान प्रस्तुत करना चाहिए।

ब्लोगिंग से भी मैं वैसी ही आशा रखता हूं, कि वह महज निजी मामला न बना रहकर, परिवर्तन का एजेंट बन जाए।

आपको मालूम होगा कि प्रगतिवाद किस तरह अज्ञेय, आदि के प्रभाव से कैसे प्रयोगवाद, नई कविता आदि अर्थगीन गलियों में बिखर गया। मैं नहीं चाहता कि ब्लोगिंग में यही दुहराया जाए।

पेहला कामेंट हिन्दी में न लिखने के लिये माफ कीजिये. मेरा मत है कि बात सबसे  पहले खुद को समझ आनी चाहिये,दिल में बैठ जानी चाहिये. हम अपने आप के लिये लिखें और अगर उससे क्रांती आ जाये तो क्या केहना !

आप के द्वारा वर्णित सभी साहित्यकारों का मैनें गहरायी से अध्धयन किया है और मेरी साहित्य में रुची के लिये मुंशी प्रेमचन्द बहुत हद तक जिम्मेदार हैं.मैं दुश्यंत कुमार और मजाज लख्ननवी की शायरी से भी बहुत प्रभावित हूं पर फिर भी मैं इसमें किसी तरह का फायदा देखने का कायल नहीं हूं.

मेरे विचार इसीलिये मायने रखते हैं क्योंकि वो मेरे हैं ,उन्हें किसी भी तरह के बंधन में बांधना मेरे लिये अकल्प्नीय हैं फिर कोई पढे या न पढे ,कोई प्रेरित हो या ना हो ये उसकी अपनी श्रध्धा है.

मेरे ब्लाग पर पधारने के लिये अनेक धन्यवाद ! शीघ्र ही मै आपकी रचनाएं पढ सकूं ,ये मेरा मन है .

I think almost everyone in India knows that the Indian press, and certainly not the intl press, has certain restrictions on their content in our country. With blogs, the reach of a common man to discuss problems in the world that matters to him are deep.  Arguing at length about certain stuff considered beyond the media's ability is what makes blog useful in India. 

Citizen journalism should definitely prevail in a country as big as ours.

Good point Varun, but the fact blogs don't reach that many people in India. 2% have access to Internet.

To make your argument work, we will have to extent the reach of blogs. There are several things that need to be done:-

- promote blogging in Indian languages, so that blogs can become the voice of the people.

- expand internet reach. Every village should have broadband internet. This coupled with blogging in Indian languages, will make blogs a force to reckon with.

- educate bloggers to write on topics that matter to the well-being of people. Half the blogs and forums here discuss whether pink would suit my blog template or blue.

- link blogs and bloggers to a ground-level mechanism that can translate good ideas into action. This way bloggers won't just be generating a lot of hot air, but getting things done on the ground.

In a nutshell, blog with a purpose, and with the vision of changing India, and not merely for self expression.

I would like to bring to your notice a blog which has succeeded in making the transition from idea to action. In this sense it is not merely a talking shop but has forged the links to action.

This blog is Mission India Foundation (MIF),  which is also listed here in IndiBlogger. Here is the link, do check it out:

http://www.mifindia.org/

It is a blog with a difference in many respects.

For one, it is a group blog which has more than a dozen members who actively write posts to the blog. Because of this the blog is very vibrant and a lot of exchange of ideas take place on its pages.

A second unique feature of this blog is that is a bilingual blog in Hindi and English. This has contributed to it a wide range of opinions and ideas. It is a pleasure to see people on this blog seemlessly switching from one language to the other without losing focus from the topic under discussion. This blog has done away with the language barrier to a larger extent. In a multi-lingual country like India, this is the way for blogs to go.

The third unique feature of this blog is that it has started out with a clearly stated mission statement, which essentially boiles down to work for the progress and development of India and what India stands for.

All the posts and discussions are clearly focused on this one idea. This has given the blog a level of seriousness that is hard to find in blogosphere. The amazing creativity of the members of this blog in discussing problems of India boggles the mind, and they have been able to come up with concrete steps and programmes for the betterment of India.

The fourth and most important feature of this blog has been that blogging for it has only been a means to ground action. MIF has used blogging to bringing together like-minded people (most of whom are Indians settled abroad), to thrash out workable programmes and then develop a vehicle to deliver these programmes.

MIF is in the process of implementing this fourth objective, which is the opening a ground unit in Haryana, which state it has chosen because most of its founding memebers are from Haryana, and Haryana affords a small, compact, reasonably well-administered state to implement pilot projects which can then be replicated throughout the country.

MIF is starting two ground programmes in July 2010 which have spun out of the discussions on its blog. These are:

Haryana Mobile Clinic

and

Health Centre

So this is a case study of a blog that has not stopped at merely airing views but has gone ahead and grasped the nettle of concrete action.

The blog is accepting new members, so if you are passionate about India, it is a great opportunity for you to join in. Visit the blog and register yourself as a member.

So this is the kind of intervention that I want blogs to make.

Some one on this post had mentioned that blogs are like newspapers and if journalists play a meaningful roles, then so do bloggers.

My answer to that is, even newspapers and journalists are perceiving the limitations of their roles and are breaking out of their moulds to foray into direct action.

Take the case of the Lead India Campaign launched by Times of India last year, which showcased the do-gooders of society, many of whom took advantage of the exposure they received through this campaign to enter politics or to start their own NGOs.

Times of India is currently enaged in another non-journalistic campaign, the Teach India campaign, to ensure hundred per cent literacy in the country.

So even newspapers and journalists, to whom blogs and bloggers have been compared, are entering the area of direct action.

It is my opinion that is the way blogs and bloggers should go and blogs like MIF can be an inspiring role model for us.

What do you think?

Bala, this certainly is encouraging, but i dont think every one has to follow this way. A Blogger contributes to the community some way or other. Hence, in my opinion a blog should be what a blogger feels like. And if a blogger thinks it will be a great idea to join community bloggin, then so be it. It is his choice.

Most Bloggers gain inspiration from Current Affairs which is supplied by these very News Papers and Channels.

You are right, Hemal. There are such a variety of blogs out there from the very personal, to the commercial, to the informative to mega blogs with multiple writers..., so one size can't fit all.

You are smack on target also when you say a blogger contributes to the community in some way or the other.

I was only seeking to find out whether this contribution can be made more focused and meaningful.

This same issue has come up in the case of all human endeavours, whether it be art or literature or architecture. People have repeatedly asked should these be utilitarian?, should they serve a purpose? And answers have been mixed.

In the case of arts, particularly painting, painting had degenerated to absurd levels, particularly in the Paris school of painting. Painters claimed freedom to paint what they pleased and came up with such absurd art like cubism and abstract paintings which allegedly depicted their thought processes, but were such that the lay person could make neither head or tails of these paintings unless they were provided lengthy and convulted explanations by art critics.

There have been several jokes about this sort of painting, the most recent one being the ad featuring Saif Ali Khan, who bring in a music band to his room and starts flinging paint on the walls to the beats of the music and, hey presto, there is a breathtaking painting on the wall.

Another version of this story is about a painter who is about to start a painting and spreads his canvas on the ground preparatory to mounting it on the stand and keep a few tins of painting near it. He then goes away for some errand. In the meantime, his five year old son comes riding his toy bicycle, upsets the tins of paint on the canvas and in mischief rides his cycle over the canvas and on the spilt paint several times and go away.

When the painter returns, he is first angry at the mess that has been created, but when he looks at the result on the canvas, a brainwave hits him and he frames the canvas as itis and put it up for sale.

The painting is picked up in no time for a million dollars!

The same thing happenend in poetry too, poets demanded freedom to write on any topic that they came to their mind and ended up writing absured and highly personal poetry that no one except themselves could understand.

In contract, the major literary critics of India, whether they be Abhinavgupt, Mammat, Jagannath, Dhananjay, Dandi, any of the other greats, laid a great emphasis on communicating the ideas of the poet to his sahrudaya group. That is why rasa dasa emerged as the highest form of enjoyment of poetry.

This was taken a step further by Hindi literary critics like Ramchandra Shukla, by declaring that the ultimate aim of literature is lok mangal, that is the good of people. He further illustrated this by critiquing Ramcharitmans by Tulsidas and showing how this great epic has fulfilled this goal.

Blogging is also a literary genre if you come to think of it, and there should be clear cut yardstick for evaluating how good or bad a blog is, just as there are clear cut yardsticks for assessing the worth of a literary work, a film, a painting or a building.

Unless such a yardstick is place, there is bound to be anarchy in blogosphere.

Bloggers need to think about this and come up with measures to evaluate a blog.

I think this is untrodden ground anywhere in the world, and we with our rich philosophical traditions and logical thinking abilities can come up with set criteria for evaluating blogs.

Recently indiblogger has started a scheme for celebrating one blog a day. For this too a kind of yardstick will be immensely relevant for properly implementing this scheme, otherwise, their decision about blogs will be highly subjective and open to dispute.

Thinking quickly on this issue, I put forward here some criteria that come to mind which could be used to judge blogs, but more thought will be required. Do join in:

- aesthetics - the colour scheme, font aesthetics - type of font, size, colour, letter spacing, clarity, etc., layout - line spacing, spacing between paras, white spaces, the use of visuals, widgets, etc., to break visual monotinity, the overall impression on the eye of the page.

- writing - crispness of writing, grammatical correctness, elegance in writing, spelling errors, etc.

- content - relevance, utility, beauty of the content (such as in poetry or essay), originality, purposefulness, possibility of translating it into real action, clarity in the mind of the blogger about the purpose of his blog, internal cohesiveness of the various posts in the blog, whether the blog is focussed on one topic, etc.

- technical  - navigational ease, page size, application of SEO techniques, smart or new technical features such as interesting widgets, code, etc.

- language - whether the language choice - Hindi, English, Tamil, Malayalam, etc., is appropriate to the target audience, whether it is a bilingual or multi-lingual blog etc.

- add more....

Is blogging a waste of time you ask. Waste of time for whom?? The writer or the reader??

If a blog gives knowledge to someone who was seeking, makes one single person think, makes someone smile, lightens somene's day.... isn't that enough?? It is not necessary that we do great and important things for our country or community to feel that we have done something. If what we do benefits a single person, sometimes that person maybe the writer of the blog for whom the writing may be thereuapetic, the purpose is achieved.

Even the squirrel that carried grains of sand to help build the bridge was appreciated. Blogs also have their roles, nothing is ever wasted. Everything has a purpose, even something that might bore you. How else will you appreciate what does not??!

Shail Mohan, well-argued. I can agree with most of what you have said.

When I asked this question, I had the blogger himself/herslef in mind.

The time spent in writing on one's blog is actually a minute per cent of the actual time a blogger spends on blogosphere. More time is spent in reading other people's blogs, participating in forums like these, in promoting one's blog, etc. Bloggers also spent a significant amout of time in preening their blogs.

I was interested to know whether this time is a national waste, and can be channelised to more productive areas.

Well buddy. Would not like to delve into the things like whether blogs help you solve problems or not. But the main point is that blogging is not at all wastage of time. People blog for reasons like, letting there thoughts out and thereby feeling easy. For others it is mean of earning, many do it for maintaing contacts and more such reasons. So saying that typing on keyboard is waste of time is not true. Looking from the point of view of recreation, one can even say that blogs let you ease out and thus make best use of remaining time with you. One can compare it with other activities like painting, listening to music and things and ya Gandhi of course did time pass in activities like these!

Yes, someone had already said that if there had been blogging and internet at the time of Gandhi, he would have won us our freedom much earlier, and many of his corresponders would have been spared the ordeal of deciphering his atrocious handwriting!

I have no quarrels with any of the other things you have said.

I blog because:

1) I like my friends to keep in touch with me, know more about my thoughts, and have some "food for thought"

2) To create awareness on socially important issues in India. Eventually there would be some ground-level action, but right now I'm just creating awareness.

3) To invite comments on what others think about my thoughts - I believe such thought-sharing is essential for understanding any issue deeply. The comments people post on my blog help me understand their points of view, thus adding some "wholeness" to my thoughts.

4) Sometimes, I blog just for fun.

However, I am against compulsive blogging, or "ठेलना" as it's popularly known as in Hindi. When I have a thought worth sharing, I blog about it. When I don't have anything worth sharing, I can go silent for months, without any problem.

I wish blogging gives a common platform for positive thinkers to come forward and start a massive movement to rebuild India - that would be the ultimate victory for blog as a tool.

Anil, the reasons you have listed for blogging are praiseworthy.

Your policy of not being a compulsive (no ठेलना) is also very sound.

I liked your final comment the most and do hope that the blogging community will veer round to yoking a powerful tool like blogging to the noble task of rebuilding India.

u r not watching news I guess...coz if u wach it u will find blogger response among the top responses after any situation..and it help u ease down ur pain in ur life too..so it ain't a waste of time .. and if u rsaying it a waste of time..u r comapring it with orkut..that's cliche...

That is an interesting comment Sourish, to which Vyas (below) has also connected.

Many personal blogs I have seen are junior versions of Orkut or Facebook, and that is an utter waste of time.

Also many bloggers use Orkut, Facebook, etc., to promote their blogs and so there is a close connection between blogs and these social networking sites.

Before 2004, nobody would have known what blogging is? In about 5 years there are now about million of blogger

Early starter and expert in the field have even started earning from blogging. In fact I had even posted a discussion on blogging as profession in future? Take a look http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/topic.php?id=864.

I believe, if you are creative and if you can provide good content to your target readers. You can soon become your own boss

Guha

http://indian-amps.blogspot.com

Thank Guha, this is another plus for blogging - it can earn you a livelihood. But that is extremely difficult. The reason is income-generating features like adsense do not support Indian languages, so a majority of blogs by Indians will continue to be for personal fulfillment and cannot become a profession.

We can, of course, turn this around if some of the IT warriors in Bangalore take up the challenge of developing a desi version of the adsense-adword combine that accepts ads in Hindi, etc., and shows them on blogs on a PPC (paisa per click) basis.

This will mean taking on the giant Google. But if this can be done quickly enough, before Google itself thinks of doing it, the business can later be sold to Google for a neat profit.

Any takers for this challenge?

No.

I guess we are making up for the social life we lack, bridging communication gaps and taking stands on issues.

I  also believe that it helps you relive your stress by putting everything into words!!!!

http://moseymind.blogspot.com/

Thank you Guha, this is another plus for blogging - it can earn you a livelihood. But that is extremely difficult. The reason is income-generating features like adsense do not support Indian languages, so a majority of blogs by Indians will continue to be for personal fulfillment and cannot become a profession.

We can of course turn this around if the IT warriors in Bangalore can team up and develop a clone of adsense-adword combine which accepts ads in Indian languages and displays them on blogs.

This will mean taking on the giant Google. Any takers for this challenge?

Thank Guha, this is another plus for blogging - it can earn you a livelihood. However, that is extremely difficult. The reason is, income-generating features like adsense do not support Indian languages, so a majority of blogs by Indians will continue to be for personal fulfillment and cannot become a profession.

We can of course turn this around if some of the IT warriors in Bangalore take up the challenge of doing a desi version of adsense-adword combine that accepts ads in Hindi, etc., and displays them on blogs.

This will mean taking on the giant Google.

Any takers for this challenge?

Thank Guha, this is another plus for blogging - it can earn you a livelihood. But that is extremely difficult. The reason is income-generating features like adsense do not support Indian languages, so a majority of blogs by Indians will continue to be for personal fulfillment and cannot become a profession.

We can, of course, turn this around if some of the IT warriors in Bangalore take up the challenge of developing a desi version of the adsense-adword combine that accepts ads in Hindi, etc., and shows them on blogs on a PPC (paisa per click) basis.

This will mean taking on the giant Google. But if this can be done quickly enough, before Google itself thinks of doing it, the business can later be sold to Google for a neat profit.

Any takers for this challenge?