Issues about LJ and BloggingMy friends were trying to convince me to put up my blog, but I was always reluctant, and I even tried to ignore the idea.
It’s different with LJ though; and I have my reasons why I went into LJ, but STILL haven’t put up my blog.
Of course, my LJ would count as a Blog, and Mongster’s Nest already endorsed lengua et pluma to his co-bloggers.
Like what I said in my first entry in LJ, I haven’t done it (the blog) yet. Though, technically speaking, live journaling is no different from blogging. Some of the first Filipino bloggers started with Live Journal years ago. They are now either in Blogspot or Wordpress.
If we move back earlier, digital communities existed with CompuServe and BBS. Before HTTP, journalists could post their comments in newsgroups. Modern blogging however started with online diaries and live journals. Though blogs by function could be more formal (and even rigid) compared to LJ, they are still websites where personal journals are logged. Now you could log on the web anything digital -document, photo, art, MP3, audio (pod casting), and video (vlog). The space on the web where you could do this could be infinite.
A group of young bloggers organized themselves into a BK Crew (Bloggers Kapihan), and they have started a series of forum about blogging ---student blogging, blogging as a tool for education, blogging and politics, etc. They believe that blogging is a very useful tool in propagating ideas, that it is the latest medium of journalism, and that it should be, most of all, maximized. There is also PinoyBlog --“a portal aggregator for the Philippine Blogosphere.”
There are also those who oppose the idea of promoting blogging (if not blogging itself). Teo Marasigan writes about this as he wishes to tackle issues of security, the ideology behind blogging, and the impractical implications of blogging and internet on the youth.
I am not opposed to blogging; and in fact I have my favorite blogs: (1) Mongster’s Nest is really a good blog, very professional, and of course progressive. It is the blog of my good friend and batch mate; (2) Bikoy.Net is simply fun, blogging at its purest; full of youthful idealism; and (3) Kapirasong Kritika is really bold and intelligent. Never thought the site could be that colorful. Whether I choose to setup my blog apart from LJ is another issue.
I’ve been apprehensive about blogging because it is too public. It proves to be true for one of the more popular young bloggers in the Philippines; as he writes in one of his postscripts: Dear blog, you have betrayed me. For years, you were always there when I needed to rant and to let off some steam. Now that you’re older, and more popular, you’re role as my venue for various intimate personal expressions is no more.
It’s been a while since my last post…maybe because I lack the time or the inspiration, or both. I once thought about what to do with LJ. I guess I’ll keep it. The blogspot is always another option.

Brad Fitzpatrick, one of the early bloggers, creator of livejournal.com