Having blogged for the last couple of months has been very fruitful, at the least for me. I have enjoyed it very much. It has given me lots of exposure to the many facets of internet life which I may not be able to experience if I were else where. Of course the same saying is true for others who will say that their exposure to other areas of life were more beneficial to them as compared to mine.
Just through blogging using the free blogging facility provided by Blogger, I had the opportunity and enjoyment to learn what blogging is all about. At my age, I thought I would be quite slow in picking up the internet skills and computer knowledge needed to put life into words. To my amazement, it was quite a breeze though I still have so many things to learn from the world of blogs and bloggers.
The list of benefits is definitely inexhaustive but I have listed the following so as to remind myself to push forward to learn more, practice more and enjoy more out of blogging. The process of learning never stops. The day I stopped probably is the day I die. So I hope the list also serves to remind others like me to press on to learn and practice blogging. This will become words for life for others.
10 Awesome Benefits of Blogging (To Me)
1. Putting my life into words.
For me, life has been like a roller coaster. A couple of ups and in most times, downs. Like being in an amusement park, nobody enjoys the ride when it keeps going down and down and down. But to the stock broker, this trend means good news as they can buy and buy and buy because, when the stock price goes up and up and up, they will be laughing to the bank. So blogging life details like these allows me to put my thoughts and perspectives down so that it serves like a journal for me to look back and reflect and find out the missing gaps. Some problems in life really need to be laid out in front for a clearer look and then withdraw back into life. It is like taking out the battery that has lost its energy, let it charged and then putting it back into our bodies and we feel the rejuvenation again.
2. Learn something new.
I have heard so much about blogging that I did not take any action or interest in it. I have heard previously that it was something that is not good. It was a platform for young teens to note down their thoughts on life and issues they faced in life, so much so that their parents have to spot check what they wrote in their blogs. In such situations, the parents discovered more about their children and realized how they have failed as parents to their kids' growing pains. Other than these issues, blogging allowed me to try out how to set up a blog, try out new features, give suggestions and also take the bloggers' programming skills to the next level of improving features in Blogger.com.
3. Convert life words into a book.
Though it may not be the latest feature, but to me, it seems like a new feature in Blogger. The blogs that were written can be converted into a book. I am waiting for the day where I have the courage to put and compile all my blogs into a book. But with this thought, it helps to rethink the quality of my postings in my blogs. Having said that, it should not stop me from blogging. The correction and editing can be done later when really the publishing becomes a reality. So for those of you who wants to publish your very own book, start blogging.
4. Learn from others' blogs.
Not only can I learn features available in Blogger itself, I can also get to explore blogs created by others in the Blogger community. Since I was new to this phenomenon, there were already many experienced bloggers in the whole wide world. I could tap on their page settings, their background displays and their many knowledge put on display in their websites. Therefore the learning gets even more exciting each day.
5. All in one reference blog.
Thanks to the feature of putting links into the blog, I, being not very young already, could copy the links of those websites and interesting useful blog sites into my blog. With this, I could easily go back to these websites and refresh my memory and even learn new updates from their blogs. Of course, another alternative is to add these links to my favorites on my computer. But having these links all into one blog really saves me when one day my computer fails me. It can become my all in one savior.
6. Connect with people through comments.
As I learn from the blogs and websites of other bloggers, I also tried out putting comments into their blogs. Lo and behold, I did not realize I would get a response. And there we go, we've got a connection and we begin to share and learn even more as comments get built upon. Though there were some not-so-good comments posted by others sometimes, I am not going to allow these to stop me from learning from the world around me, do I?
7. Offer hope and life to others.
As I read comments and even from my own postings, they have given me some comfort that the blog came in useful for them and it offered some form of life to them. Especially during trying times in life, some words of encouragement are so needed to give others a spirit lifter so that we can move on in life. Depressed. Failure. Tired. Totally wiped out. Drained out. Worried. These situations can so easily and totally emptied so quickly our emotional tank that we become walking zombies. For me, I too drew a lot of refills from the blogs of others.
8. Share life stories.
One of the joys of having kids is to be able to share with them our life stories. Life stories become a part of us which need to be passed down to the next generation. They become stories to strengthen our future generation and move them to the next level. Even when we have passed on, they can become foundations for them to hold on and stand strong in times of adversity. I had also the opportunity to read lots of books I borrowed from the library just for the kids exposure. I too was intrigued by the new old stories depicted in pictures and simple words. Some I have re-produced in my blog for my memory.
9. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Yes. Life stories are also made up of images and photos. And so thanks to Blogger and others like it, it offered me to upload pictures and images into my blog as well. Don't you think this is awesome? Indeed a picture speaks more than words. And I have so many images and photos that they can be used to bring out the stories within. It is like watching a movie where the old man shuffles through the attics and finds a box of treasures. These treasures were albums of photos, scrapbooks and letters. Each contains photos and snapshots pasted together and each tells the events and memorable moments to share with others.
10. Life is more than just blogging.
This is not an anti-climax, though it seems so. So much can be blogged about, but somehow there are just certain things in life that cannot be blogged. There are certain emotions that words cannot be expressed and so cannot be blogged. There are certain images in life that sometimes can be once missed, forever missed. These images cannot be captured even by the most powerful cameras, but only by the images etched into our memories by what we saw and experienced. I can take a picture of the hug between a mother and child parting ways at the airport maybe for oversea studies. But I somehow simply cannot blog about the thoughts and feelings beneath both of them there.
For moments you and I can blog about, let us continue to blog, share and enjoy the benefits of blogging and live life to the fullest.
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