Here goes…
Strangely, in my line of work, I’m rather cynical of certain technological advances and their social impact, but figure I’ve got to give this a go… Personally I’m not sure I will be able to sustain blogging. Is it just another fad, or will we all have moved on in a few year’s time? I’m also trying to get my head around facebook at the moment, the problem is that I, and most of my closest buddies, are not into using the web for anything other than shopping….which we embrace with all our hearts.. 
Instant messaging is good, I can see the value in that… and Carl gave me a fine example of where blogging would be really useful… Teachers blogging what they did in their class that day, so parents can find out what the children have been learning… I thought that was a cool idea… if anyone can give me any other “real” useful examples.. (not some “day in the life of MP” nonsense!) In my line of work I go out and talk to non-technical people and they need convincing that if they are going to change the way they work/communicate/live, it needs to be better than what they already do! i.e. tangible efficiencies -saves them time, saves their colleagues/customers time, easy to use… etc etc.. I know that the people who I engage with would see this as time consuming, and another thing they need to read…they’ve lived without it up until now.. so they can continue to live without it…
Great first post, well i would say that….if you don’t mind i will promote your blog via mine so that your questions can be answered.
Carl
Welcome to the blogosphere Sarah!
Real-life uses for a blog:
1) when you are travelling and need to put some thoughts down and don’t want to aim them at anyone in particular
2) if you have a community of different subject matter experts and want to solicit some different views about something
3) to give a website a more personal touch
4) to announce stuff to your peer group.
It’s basically thinking out loud. I’m sure Carl will be along in a minute to give you a load of proper examples
Martin
hmmm…
thankyou for your comments…in response…I’m purposely being difficult and playing devil’s advocate here, because I want to be convinced by “real benefits”…
1) but when I’m travelling I’ve normally got both hands on the wheel…so can’t blog then…
also,
I’ve got loads of thoughts I want to get down on.. but rarely do I want others to read them.. I could start sending dangerous meanderings and get distracted from work issues…
2&4) valid point – but you’ve got to get the subject matter experts and peer group to read your blog in the first place…
3) being very cynical now… so who cares about a website having a personal touch – blogs and widgets can just confuse the basic user and muddy the waters… some of us find technology very difficult to get to grips with, even if the benefits are very real….
my other concern is.. are we going to lose the art of handwriting.. personally, I love to write on paper… are we going to lose our existing social skills.. I love to speak face to face with people, gauge their responses by their reactions and body language… how do we make sure those valuable communication skills are not lost?
nothing will stop me drawing, and i think if you write on paper then you can scan it in and add it to your blog to share the visual aspect of writing with the world. there is no better thing as martin states as the personal touch.
but that is exactly the point I’m making… by blogging you maybe meeting a wider audience, but you are losing the personal touch, you are rarely getting feedback, and when you do, it is not via bodylanguage and eye contact – it is toneless.. and as for writing and scanning it in… very few people are going to do that… I will need real examples from daily life to convince me that this adds value to my life…
i’m on the case and will hope to have some very soon, i put a request out via my blog today and via twitter, so will keep you posted
Check out this post be Ewan Mcintosh on blogging
http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/08/six-points-for-.html