"Why should I be reading this?"

It has been a while since I had my first encounter with web logs, or rather blogs as I as a student of Online Journalism ought to say.

This was when one of my good friends suddenly decided that he had some things on his mind that he thought the rest of us could benefit from. Or so it seemed to me the first couple of times I forced myself to click on the link he emailed me every week.

In this blog he would express whatever he felt about a given situation, be it politics or soccer refs. Though I remember thinking "why should I be reading this?" more than once, there was something very appealing about this new phenomenon that kept me checking back for updates on his thought process. I started thinking about how liberating it must be to just let loose and tell the world, or at least a (very) limited part of it, what your perception of something is. It wasn't that I always agreed with him or even thought everything he would scribble about had any relevance. But the very idea that he could do it and that he didn't have to give a hoot about what I, or anyone else, thought about that was very refreshing.

I didn't start a blog myself at this point. The feeling that you shouldn't just write something just because you can was still prevalent in me...And it still is today.

However, in some instances blogs about everyday life offer a side to a story that isn't often heard. In the recent week I have read some blogs that I feel really contribute to the reader's understanding of life in different places of the world. And this is one of the things I find most interesting about blogs. Descriptions that rarely make it into other forms of media are available to readers of blogs.

One example of a blog that tells an otherwise untold story is Yaoni Sanchez' blog, Generation Y. I first learnt about the blog watching a streaming of the daily news on CNN's website one night. Sanchez, who lives in Cuba, told the reporter that she would write her blog at home and then sneak into tourist hotels to upload the file from a flash stick. Since internet access is limited by the government in Cuba this is the only way for her to get her opinions out. And out they come...In her blog readers can learn about everyday life in the country and hear a less official side of the truth.

My friend calling out a soccer ref who he thinks did his team wrong is in many ways similar to Sanchez' stories about her not being able to find a lemon for her sore throat. I guess the language of bloggers is universal and gives people the freedom to write about any topic without being censored. This freedom also extends to the readers, who can comment or ask themselves "why should I be reading this" and find another, perhaps more interesting blog to spend their time on.