That’s what the authors of this article believe. According to them, blogging on a regular basis has several positive benefits:
1. Blogs can promote critical and analytical thinking.
2. Blogging can be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking.
3. Blogs promote analogical thinking.
4. Blogging is a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information.
5. Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction.
Read the entire post, it really is quite interesting.
I’m not sure if blogging is making me smarter, more attuned to what’s going on in the world, or whether its having no effect at all. The main reason that I started doing this 6 weeks ago was because I wanted to become a better writer and advocate and there’s no better way to do that than to write and advocate. I also felt like I had something to say and, before blogs, there was no effective means for individuals to communicate to a wide audience on a daily (or as often as you want to update) basis. As a medium, blogs are changing the way people get their news and shape their opinions, and the mainstream media is only now starting to recognize that fact.
Are the authors correct in their belief that blogging makes you smarter ? In some sense, I think they are. Like any intellectual activity, I think that blogging can make you “smarter” in some sense just because it keeps the mind engaged and active and exploring new ideas.
Of course, in a day or two, I’ll probably make some stupid comment that will disprove the entire hypothesis.
Hat Tip: Ann Althouse
