This is the second post of 3 on blogging. I discussed the original argument, “Blogging is a worthwhile activity” yesterday. If you’re confused about why I would write against blogging on a blog, see my explanation on the top of the last post.

Counterpoint: Blogging is not a worthwhile activity.

The act of blogging has risen to popularity in recent years, turning the art of journaling into a public affair. Like all technology, it has the capacity to be harmful and unhelpful.

As an addicting hobby, blogging can draw people away from real-life relationships. Activities such as blogging are particularly susceptable to this as they are inherently social, allowing the writers and readers of the blog to feel connected when they are in fact connected merely by the flimsy lines of Internet communication.

Further, real-life relationships can be damaged by blogging when the author takes the opportunity of writing for an audience to list all the faults of his loved ones or to detail their latest argument. He may use blogging to say the things that he really should be saying and processing with those around him.

There are millions if not billions of webpages out there, and blogging is adding to that noise. Today’s culture is obsessed with information, but not necessarily with actually learning knowledge and wisdom. There is little purpose to adding one more page to the already chaotic web.

Because the author of a blog writes what he wants, when he wants, there can be a tendency to be quite self-absorbed and prideful. Though many bloggers open their posts for comments, even then they can choose to delete comments they don’t want. The blogger has complete control of what is said on his blog, offering him an amount of power that is rarely found in everyday conversations among average people. This can lead to pride and arrogance as well, especially when the author sees a growing number of people reading his blog. It is easy to become emotionally attached to the results of one’s blog, feeling depressed when numbers are down and prideful when numbers are up.

Blogging takes time away from other worthwhile activities. If one is writing and reading blog posts frequently, there may be a lesser tendency to read literature and newspapers.

Overall, these concerns show that blogging is not worth the time it takes to write a post.

Conclusion: Blogging is a worthwhile activity, within reason.