📕🆚🖳 publishing (beda day 17)

17. online publishing yay/nay?

not gonna lie, i thought this prompt was referring to e-books or something. but according to techterms.com, "Web publishing, or 'online publishing,' is the process of publishing content on the Internet. It includes creating and uploading websites, updating webpages, and posting blogs online. The published content may include text, images, videos, and other types of media".

wait a minute... this is a blog challenge... why would you post against online publishing on a blog? seems kinda hypocritical and purpose-defeating, no?

anyway. let's go through this definition.

there's a ton of info you can find online in the modern era. news sites, wikipedia, research databases... the list goes on and on. techterms also explicitly notes that social media sites don't really fall under the "online publishing" category. that being said, think about how much web content is when you throw those sites in too!!

some would find it pretty surprised to hear me say this, but it's hard for me to imagine getting info without the internet. i've used different websites to help me fix broken devices, cook meals, study for tests, and complete a multitude of other tasks. before, these things had to be taught by word of mouth, through books/magazines/tv, or learned through experience. at least, that's what i think is what happened. idk. i wasn't alive then.

for me, then, online publishing has been both helpful and essential to my daily life. having easy access to such a plethora of information is something i take for granted sometimes. the internet makes my life much more efficient and manageable.

all the info floating around is kind of like a double-edged sword though. the stuff you find on the interwebs can only help you out to some extent. you can read about driving techniques online, but you can't practice them if you don't have a car. you can use wikihow to find an omelet recipe, but if your cooking skills suck then your omelet might end up as an eggy disaster. you can use webmd to diagnose strange symptoms, but you might end up getting worried over a terminal illness that turns out to be a head cold.

using the internet is all well and good. but it's also important to use common sense, try things out for yourself, and talk to other human beings!! yes, i said it! me! the social hermit! talking is important.

so now let's tackle another issue - blogs vs. physical media. blogs cover a number of subjects - personal experiences, travel, cooking, fitness, music, interior design, social commentary and so on. that same sort of content could easily be found in a book, or a magazine, or a newspaper. so what makes blogs so special?

convenience, i guess? it's easier to google "la tourism" than it is to subscribe to a travel magazine and wait for them to talk about the place that you want to know about. it's easier to read about someone's life through a series of blog posts than it is to plod through their 5000-page biography. (let it be known, though, that i can't stand e-books. but that's for a later post, perhaps.) it's easier to buy a new york times online subscription than it is to sift through the multilayered grief known as a newspaper.

but i don't think digital media should completely replace its physical counterpart, though. having a nice balance between the two will ensure that information is propagated in a matter that is accessible to and enjoyable for all. or it should, anyway. ideally.

with all this in mind, i guess it's a "yay" for online publishing. but a "yay" that is also receptive to physical media. we're all friends here. content is content as long as content is content. i need to stop...