Tommy Collison

As you may know, I was on TV yesterday, talking about blogging. I was on for a mere 3 minutes, which wasn’t as long as I would’ve liked, because I have a lot to say about blogging, and specifically why more people should be doing it.

The internet is, according to my history teacher, the biggest thing to be invented since Gutenburg’s printing press. He’s right.

The internet has opened innumerable doors and windows of opportunity to the world. OK, maybe not those behind the Great Firewall of China but most people, anyway.

If I decide to go and see Watchmen on Friday Night, I can find out the times that it’s showing in the cinema within 60 seconds. The introduction of Google, specifically of the ability to ask it simple questions, such as ‘what’s the capital of Namibia?’ or ‘what’s 24 multiplied by 224?’, has meant that we can get information razor fast.

I can see direct similarities between Gutenburg’s printing press and the internet, or rather, the changes it brought about.

- With the invention of the printing press, ideas that the Church or Kings didn’t like or approve of were very difficult to stifle and to stop getting around and becoming widespread.

The internet means that if I have an opinion on something (which I often do), I can send it out to thousands of people as quick as I can type it. OK, exposure is an issue but wouldn’t that have been a problem with the printing of books as well? Books weren’t just published and the ideas contained became widespread, they took time too.

- Because books became more widespread, (because they were cheap to produce now), people who weren’t monks or scholars began to learn how to read and write.

OK, I’m not going to say that the internet teaches us how to read or write, but you’d be mad if you said that you can’t learn anything from it! Need a recipe for casserole? Hop over to LookandTaste.com and you have the recipe in minutes. Trying to install a comment widget to WordPress? There are dozens of how-to videos out there on YouTube.

“But we know the internet is popular, important and useful, why should more people should be blogging?” I hear you cry! (If you didn’t cry this, I just have very good hearing :P)

More people should be blogging because the more you know, the less likely you are to be wrong.

Everyone has an opinion. Whether it’s on the recession, Halo 2 (video game) or the best way of cooking soufflé, everyone has one. It’s like a bellybutton in that sense