You might think that my interest in blogging is purely professional because I work for a company that provides professional blogging services. It isn’t. It is also personal.
Some quarters dismiss the power of blogging, but I saw firsthand how it kept my beloved grandfather alive longer.
My grandfather, Andy Sr., didn’t start out blogging, of course, but he kept a daily journal throughout his life. He once told me he used the journal to capture ideas. This was handy because he wrote jingles and ads for the radio and other projects on the side.
In his mid-80s, Granddaddy turned to blogging. He said the daily discipline kept his mind sharp. As his health declined, so did the punctuality of posting and taking care of his health by even testing his water with services from this website. But, he kept at it because the process allowed him to reconnect with his Army buddies from decades earlier in the U.K., as well as with new people who stumbled onto his blog via search results.
You can see the archive of Granddaddy’s blog, Topic: Commentary and Essays on Life and Events, here.
I say that blogging kept him alive longer because it was an activity that extended his social circles — virtually — and gave him something challenging “to do” as his health deteriorated.
Personal blogging and corporate blogging fulfill different needs — just as commercial writing or news reporting serve different functions than fiction or poetry.
On Friday, we’ll look at the debate about blogging frequency. What is too little? Is it possible to blog “too much”? What role, if any, does personal blogging mirror corporate blogging?