The Tendo View

Blogging can be an intimidating word, especially when you’re not a writer or editor by profession. I’m the office manager at Tendo, so when my colleagues here ask me to contribute to the Tendo blog, my answer is either, “sorry, I don’t blog” or “I’m too old to join a new fad.” But am I really too old to blog?? I always get anxious when faced with new technology, but I gave up my beloved IBM Selectric for a word processor and then a computer, so I decided to find out what blogs, blogging, and bloggers were all about.

I started with the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, which defines blogging as a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.

Wait a minute! By this definition, I’ve been a blogger all my life! In grammar school, I kept a journal, using an alias, for a girls’ club that was posted on a bulletin board (closet blogger). In high school, I contributed events commentary to the school newspaper (social blogger). For visiting family and friends, I kept an activity journal with great information and useful contacts (travel blogger). At work, I took meeting notes, transcribed minutes, and added commentary about improving business practices (business blogger). I wrote a yearly holiday letter chronicling the latest family events (family blogger). All of this material was either publically posted or made available to a group of people, and every “posting” required style, tone, and etiquette guidelines.

Blogging may seem intimidating, but it’s really just a different medium for distributing information—information that you’ve probably been sharing your whole life, in one form or another. And while it’s true that a blog is available to a larger audience, I’ve found Web audiences to be more forgiving about my writing style and grammar than former teachers and ex-bosses. So if you have something to say, just figure out who you’re talking to and start blogging. It may not be as hard as you think.

My next blog topic: Texting? Wait a minute…