Ideas of March

Chris Shiflett, one of the bloggers over at Planet PHP, has been observing that many of the interesting conversations that used to take place on blogs, has been moving to more “quick hit” type outlets such as Twitter and the Stack Overflow. While these sites can offer participation at higher levels in conversations that happen much closer to real time, it's much harder to match the deepness of thought that can be expressed in a blog.

So where have all the bloggers gone!?

Ideas of March is the initiative started by Chris Schiflett, and supported by many of the other bloggers at Planet PHP, to revive blogging. The idea is simple. Create a blog post called Ideas of March that lists some of things you like about blogs. Pledge to blog more in 2011 than you did in 2010. Then spread the word!

There are two main reasons why I personally love blogs. I first became hooked on blogs when I discovered The Simple Dollar back in 2007. I instantly connected with Trent's personal message and conversational writing style. The intimate stories from his own personal experience drive home important lessons I would otherwise fail to take seriously. I also enjoying knowing that there are thousands of other readers out there sharing the same silly passions that I have. Since then I've discovered many more blogs covering my wide range of interests including personal growth, productivity, coding, gadgets, music, and of course sports.

The second reason I believe in the blog, I've only discovered very recently. I've often felt that I have a lot of interesting things to say about certain topics, but no way to express it. I've never been a very good public speaker, I could never capture an audience, In some cases I can barely speak off the top of my head in one on one situations. I'm the kind of person who has to focus so intensely on what to say next, that I can go through an entire conversation without remembering a single sentence that was said. Blogging gives me the perfect outlet for my ideas. The uninterrupted time, and stress free environment of blogging, allows me to formalize my thoughts and write it down in a semi-coherent form. Many times, writing a blog post can make me realize I don't understand a topic nearly as well as I thought I did, and force me to go out and refine my thoughts. Even though I've only been doing this for a few months, I really do enjoy being a content creator in addition to my main role as content consumer.

Now for the pledge, it wouldn't be very impressive to say that I'll blog more this year than last, so instead I will pledge to put in the time and effort to contribute to the revival of the blog cause. Your turn!