Blogging Rocks 2010 - Checking in, Assignment 1

According to blog-tracking website Technorati, 175,000 new blogs are created worldwide daily. This means that in every second, 2 new blogs are born. (Read more here.)

Why do people blog?

Netizens blog for a variety of reasons. Bloggers typically view blogging as a testimony of the important events that have occurred in their lives. Some write about the things they do for a living, such as the Island Caretaker's Blog. Some write about the places that they have been to. Some blog about what they eat. Many others simply write about what happened in their daily lives, no matter how trivial it may be. What is important to bloggers is the fact that the event or experience is deemed worthy to be shared with the rest of the world.

When one is blogging, it is important to realise that one is adding to the large corpus of shared knowledge on the internet. What you post online can be viewed by many others. Hence, while blogging can be a pleasurable experience, it is necessary for one to exercise responsibility and respect in the course of one's blogging journey.

Moving on, you may have realised from the news article "Should people post photographs of bad behaviour on the Internet?" (Straits Times, 2 Jan 2007) that there is an increasing number of netizens who put up snapshots and video clips of people in embarrassing situations. The proliferation of photo sharing portals like Stomp, Flickr and Youtube serves to encourage more of such behaviour.

Should we encourage such a behaviour? Do we really need such information? Where do we draw the line between content that should be shared with the public and what ought to be reserved for private viewing? Are we growing a culture of surveillance on the internet? That brings us to our first topic of discussion.

Assignment 1
Should we post photographs and videos of bad behaviour on the internet?

What you need to do:
1. State your stand clearly with a main argument whether you are in favour of the above statement. Convince the readers of your blog entry why they should agree with you. Remember to include a topic sentence and give supporting details (examples and explanation).

2. Choose an opposing argument. Provide a counter-argument as to why this opposing argument is invalid. Likewise, you will need to provide supporting details for your counter-argument.

Your entry should contain 2 paragraphs: 1 main argument and 1 counter-argument. The expected word length should be at least 100 words.

Make use of the editing function to write and re-write your entry. Do not be easily satisfied with your first draft. There is no perfect writing, but your writing will definitely get better with more editing.

Remember to leave a comment to this entry when you're done. The deadline for your first assignment is on 9 March 2010.

Have a pleasant blogging journey!

--MT