Are Blogs better than Books

Katarina Meo
BEED – 1
Science, Technology, Society

St. Mary’s College of Quezon City

  Introduction

Blog posts tend to be sharper and a bit more opinionated or controversial

than business books. When you're trying to sell your product to millions of
people you sort of have to find a middle ground that most people will like.
Bloggers generally don't do this – blog post are shorter and sharper. Blogs are
quick and informal, hold personal–short or long–reflections and often try to
keep up with the rapid pace of the web. Books are well thought and take months
or years to be published, and are based on a framework of hypothesis. Books
were for centuries the ultimate way to share and acquire knowledge, but this has
changed with the Internet fundamentally. In the early days, the Internet was
great as a book searching tool, yet the overall knowledge offered was rather
weak. Books may not be timeless, but they are not driven by today’s news.
Their pages hold arguments and reflections that should stand the test of time.
Blog post are by design ephemeral, often written in response to current events.
And even those blog posts with timeless content disappear under the constantly
scrolling screen of words. No matter how beautiful, no matter how carefully
crafted, most blog posts will be read once by most readers, and then for all
intents and purposes, thrown away.

Are Blogs better than Books

 Nowadays, people still read blogs today (in record numbers) and will
almost certainly continue reading blogs for many years to come. In fact, an
overwhelming 77% of Internet users report regularly reading blog posts
according to the latest blogging statistics. However, despite a consistent
increase in the number of people reading blogs, how we read them is changing
quite a lot. The average reader only spends 37 seconds reading a blog post
today, which makes clear that most people are unlikely to read an entire blog
post from start to finish—and instead scan for the information they’re looking
for. While the evidence is clear that people do still read blogs in record numbers
today, it’s never been more important to create a great scannable content
experience for your readers—so that they can quickly locate the answers they’re
seeking and move on with their busy lives.

Here are the reasons that business blogs are better than business books:
 Blogs allow you to read about an idea every day or every week in short
bursts, instead of in one, single commitment, so it continues to be top of
mind. A much better way to learn.
 Because blogs enable real-time communities you can see the challenges
with the idea and see it continuously evolve and improve.
 You can participate in conversations about the idea with people that care
about it. Again, a better way to learn.
 Blog posts tend to be sharper and a bit more opinionated or controversial
than business books. When you’re trying to sell your product to millions
of people you sort of have to find a middle ground that most people will
like. Bloggers generally don’t do this – blog post are shorter and sharper.
 Most people don’t read blogs – and they certainly don’t participate in the
communities. You have an advantage over most people who just
consume the initial idea and don’t iterate or engage.
THE HISTORY OF BLOGGING

Here’s a brief timeline and overview of the journey blogging has gone on
since it began in 1993:

 1993: Blogging officially begins as web browsers are still young

 1994: Justin Hall begins personal blogging
 1997: The term “Weblog” is coined and soon shortened to “blog”
 1998: The first blogging platform (Open Diary) launches
 1999: Blogger and LiveJournal launch (with Xanga soon following)
 2003: WordPress and TypePad are created
 2003: Google buys Blogger and launches AdSense
 2004: “Blog” becomes the dictionary word of the year
 2005: Vlogging (video blogging) emerges as YouTube launches
 2006: HuffPo and Buzzfeed combine news and blogging
 2007: Microblogging becomes a trend (short-form content)
 2012: Medium is founded (as a free blogging site)
 2016: WordPress launches the. blog domain extension
 2021: There are now over 31.7 million bloggers in the U.S. alone
The reasons why people read blogs have been varied throughout the entire
history of blogging. Ultimately though, at the end of the day, people read
blogs because they’re looking for solutions to the problems, they have
and a blog is often one of the best formats to provide those kinds of
solutions to people online whether through written content, video or audio.
A blog can accommodate any content format, and it can be used to
educate, inform, advocate (for your own point of view), sell a product or
service, provide support and so much more

Here are just a few of the reasons why people still read blogs today:

 To find the answers to quick questions they have

 To learn a new skill by following along with an in-depth guide
 To watch a video tutorial that walks through completing a particular
task
 To follow along with the teachings of an expert or influencer within
a particular niche
 To solicit advice on a forum or in the comments section of a relevant
blog
 To get relevant news, information or updates on local happenings
 To connect with other like-minded individuals and participate in an
online community
 To decide whether or not they should buy a product or service
they’re considering
 To better understand how a new product or service they recently
purchased works

Both have equal merits and demerits.

Blogs:
• Can be read anywhere.
• Easy to search for reference.
• best for reading short content and quick reads.
• Portable and mobile.
• Will give instant information.
• Can help to find information on the go.
• Almost free to read.
Books:
• Deep information on one particular topic.
• sometimes you still have to rely on blogs for reference.
• Best for reading novels, long and detailed content.
• As they are physical and hard bounded you have to carry them with you
all the time.
• Can be best friends if you are alone.

Instead of read the blogs posts, we also should read the books. Books can act as
a means of entertainment, increase one's abilities, and add to the aspect of
knowledge. Reading books is a positive habit and can be done at any time.

 Books are, generally, created to last.

 Books may not be timeless, but they are not driven by today’s news.
Their pages hold arguments and reflections that should stand the test of
time. Blog post are—by design—ephemeral, often written in response to
current events. And even those blog posts with timeless content
disappear under the constantly scrolling screen of words. No matter how
beautiful, no matter how carefully crafted, most blog posts will be read
once by most readers, and then for all intents and purposes, thrown
away. Moreover, books are supposed to serve a bigger purpose than blog
posts, as Marla Popova wrote about recently for brainpickings.org.
Popova identifies four psychological functions of great literature: it
saves times, decreases loneliness, makes us nicer and prepares us for
failure. The irony, of course, is that Popova offers us these functions of
literature in the form of a blog post, and that they play to our
contemporary fixation with efficiency and self-satisfaction. Still, books
serve a psychological purpose that blog posts never will because their
authors intend for them to stick around.
 Books involve a long editing process.
I’ve been working on Small Talk: Learning from My Children About
What Matters Most for the better part of the past 18 months. Almost
every chapter contains a story that showed up in a blog post somewhere
along the way, but now those stories have been placed inside a larger
narrative framework. Now they have been woven together to form a
narrative. And now they have been edited for word choice and idea
progression and all the nitty gritty details like punctuation.
 Books cost money.
Although some bloggers apparently make a living by blogging, for most
of us, blogs serve three purposes. One, blogs provide a way to comment
on current events. Two, blogs offer us a way to try out ideas. Three,
blogs offer a way to build an audience. But it doesn’t cost much to put
content on the internet, and it doesn’t cost anything for most of us to
read content online. Books, on the other hand, cost money, which means
that readers and publishers have invested in this product. Hopefully, this
investment translates to a better product—careful writing, better design,
and so forth. And hopefully the return on the investment is worth it.
MY REFLECTION