To blog or not to blog?

Well it's not a new question I know but it does still seem to be a relevant one. During a duscussion with a good friend of mine over dinner, I once again found myself wondering whether blogs were the egotistical rantings of people with too much time on their hands and an unnatural desire for fame, or a genuine means of sharing thoughts and ideas within a valuable and otherwise unreachable wider community. There are certainly arguments for both, and indeed sites showing examples of both, but I'm starting to believe that blogging may have a valid place in our social structure; a new Speaker's Corner if you like, where inner thoughts can be externalised and hung out in full view for free comment by all and any who find them. My previous dabble in this media (that can be seen in my travel blog www.GetJealous.com/teacup) certainly served to bring my friends back home an instant view of the far off world I was experiencing as well as bringing them closer to me through cheerful comments and cheers of encouragement. However, it also served a greater and deeper purpose as a personal Pepys style diarised record of my thoughts and experiences for my own repeated entertainment and perusal and perhaps even as a curious record of the social phenomenon our generation has perfected - turning every day folk into adventurers and explorers of the world.

So is the key to blogging just achieving a level of sophistication where the subject is appealing and crafted with passion but also delivered with the style relevant to the audience whose opinion and engagement you seek and who may stumble across it? The art of effective distribution and word of mouth obviously plays a part too but how much would be a topic worthy of debate another day.

All this just served to remind me that I needed a more sophisticate blog of my own blog .....