Blogging as conversation

"A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

I began blogging because I needed a way to document what I was doing, thinking and studying. My professional life is pretty hectic much of the time, and I needed a space to write down my ideas and record my thoughts before I forgot them. I might simply have used a paper based diary, but I decided when I first heard of blogging that it might fulfil the role of an e-diary for me.

But this was a limited view.

I quickly began to understand that writing down my ideas in blog format could also help me to organise them, hyperlink to other ideas, and encourage me to think more deeply about those ideas. In essence, blogging crystallised my thinking, and extended the scope of my knowledge. But the best was yet to come. I was quite aware that blogging is a public writing format. Once you click the Publish button, your work is online for the entire world to read. Although this took a little time for me to get my head around, I eventually came to understand that blogging is ultimately a conversation.

Ultimately, blogging is discursive, promoting discussions and arguments. In that sense, it is like no other form of writing before it. Granted, published texts in the past have provoked debate, fighting, and even in some cases, full blown revolutions. But blogging is different, because it is immediate. You don't need to wait for your publisher to run the presses, or for the postman to deliver your first edition. You don't have to wait for your proofs to be accepted, and you don't need to respond to reviewer comments or amend your text in any way. You simply need to click that Publish button, and then wait for the responses. Depending on the size and reach of your personal learning network, and the level of contentiousness your blog contains, your readership will react. Practice writing, and you will develop your own blogging voice you can use to put across your points clearly and convincingly.

Inevitably, if your post is controversial, compelling or raises new and previously unconsidered points, there will be disagreements and arguments over points that have been raised, and responses that have been made in the comments boxes. Discussion should be polite and all contributors should respect the views of others.  And yet that is the entire point of the conversation of blogging because, as Michel de Montaigne once declared "There is no conversation more boring than when everyone agrees." How is anyone to learn anything from anyone else, if we all agree on every single point? The fact that people argue and don't agree over points means that each has to defend his or her own perspective, whilst thinking more deeply about that which is opposed to their perspective.

Probably the best and most meaningful metric a blog can give you, is the number of comments you receive. Forget how many hits you get every day, or how many pingbacks you receive. When people take time to comment on your blog post, you know they have taken time to read, think and act on what you have said. If you choose to respond to their comments, the conversations starts. Many comments will be simple affirmations of your views, and some will simply ask questions to clarify what you have written. These are very welcome. A few comments may be abusive, off subject or destructive - often from sad, unhappy people who are trolling for a reaction from you. Don't respond - you can usually delete these if you are moderating your blog site (I advise bloggers to do just that - moderating enables you to filter out trolling comments and also eliminate spam messages). The comments you should really look out for are those that disagree with you, argue an alternative viewpoint, or challenge you to justify what you have written. Take for example the indignant and inflammatory comments on my Sugata Mitra - Charlatan or Genius? post. Not that edifying, but I allowed them to show that not everyone can argue their point without losing their composure and insulting someone with name calling. When that occurs, the argument is already lost. Other comments can be less emotive but just as challenging, provoking others to wade in and give a piece of their minds. Often this kind of dialogue can be quite productive in terms of personal learning, and as an added bonus, as you and others engage, you are together helping to educate your entire community of practice.

Over the years I have been blogging, I have enjoyed some great arguments and conversations with readers in the space. I'm grateful to all those who take time to read these posts, and I welcome continued dialogue with all those who are willing to engage with me. Thank you all.

Photo by Martin le Roy


Blogging as conversation by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.