The Cream and Scum of Blogging

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 1, the first edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Blogging is my new passion!
Webster’s defines “passion” as “powerful feeling” and “great enthusiasm.” Further definitions include “emotions as distinguished from reason,” “suffering,” and “anger and rage.”

In other words, the road to passion or “great enthusiasm” may require some “suffering.” So, my new passion ie blogging has some great enthusiastic moments (The Cream) and some sufferings (The Scum) too!!

So, on a positive and happy note, lets have the Cream first….

  • Blogging for me has been a wonderful creative vent to whet my writing skills. I guess, I am not bad..eh! It allows me to write on anything with my own special ‘chutney’. In fact, blogs have started a revolution…they are a great platform for personal publishing and self expression, which was not possible some time back. An average person can create his blog and share his thoughts, which could be read around the world!
  • Its a cool way to share my experiences, thoughts on my mind, even the silly and mundane things of the daily grind! I am kind of liking the idea that this could be my legacy for my son, Aaryan and his kids in the future! (Too farsighted I am!)
  • The immediate feedback and reactions are a big high too. In fact , many a times, the feedback/comments add a new dimension to your own thought! So, I’d like to thank all guys who stopped by and left their imprints on my blog, thereby making my blogging experience more FABULOUS than I could have ever imagined it could be!!
  • Finally, its a great place to meet up some really talented, creative, wonderful people. It’s a great place to get acquainted with such diverse thoughts, views even on some mundane concerns!
  • Blogging is good for health!! YES, says a press release titled the “Brain of a Blogger” from two doctors, Fernette Eide M.D. and Brock Eide M.D. M.A. of Eide Neurolearning Blog. They say, blogging can promote critical and analytical thinking!! That’s a great news! So guess, one should blog more often!! Also, the doctors say, Blogging can be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking. To remain popular with readers, blogs must be updated frequently. This constant demand for output promotes a kind of spontaneity and ‘raw thinking’–the fleeting associations and the occasional outlandish ideas–seldom found in more formal media.
  • Blogging is a good combination of solitaryexpression and social interface. While one can blog his ideas, thoughts in isolation, but one can get feedback, response via the comments from the readers on the web immediately! In fact, recently I have been a witness to a great interaction between the fellow bloggers on a post “Lessons from a dead body” at A Naked Opinion. I mean, the comments are truly intellectual, thought provoking and debatable.
  • Blogging can also be a great platform for quality information in an interesting manner. For instance, recently, the death of Michael Jackson led to a great number of bloggers paying tribute to the legend. And the variety of information shared was immense…from his best songs to his life, his achievements to conspiracy theories, all was there in the blogs!

And like there is a flip side to everything, Blogging has its share of Scum too…

  • It can be time consuming, and it certainly keeps me on my toes! There is a constant rush to finish up all the tasks at hand and then get back to the blog, may be write, look at the comments if any, respond to them and of course soak up whatever possible in the blogosphere!
  • Blogging can get you arrested or jailed or have criminal charges slapped on you! Bloggers may no longer express their uninhibited views on everything under the sun, for the Supreme Court said they may face libel and even prosecution for the blog content. It will no longer be safe to start a blog and invite others to register their raunchy, caustic and even abusive comments on an issue while seeking protection behind the disclaimer “views expressed on the blog are that of the writers”. This chilling warning emerged as a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam refused to protect a 19-year-old Kerala boy, who had started a community on Orkut against Shiv Sena, from protection against summons received from a Maharashtra court on a criminal case filed against him!
  • Blogging can get you in legal trouble, in case you infringe on issues related to Copyright, Defamation (libel), Privacy, Trademark, Trade Secrets.
  • And yes, you can get stalked (via emails, chats or even comments in the comment box at the blog!) by some ‘Followers’ too!

As it is with everything else in this world, there are pros and cons to everything one runs across and blogging is no exception. But for me the Cream outweighs the Scum!! 🙂

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton are Arjuna,Saimanohar, Dhiman, Avdi, Daisy Blue, Sid ‘Ravan’ Kabe, Shankar, Vipul Grover,Bharathi, Ranee, Ranee again and Pawan.
Click on their respective names to read their posts on The Cream and Scum of Blogging.
To be part of the next edition of this online marathon, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

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