Ranchi blogs for awareness - Netizens rue loss of popularity to Facebook, Twitter

Bloggers at the meet in Ranchi on Sunday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

The capital had its date with faces behind words on the web on Sunday, as more than 50 bloggers from across Jharkhand and abroad too gathered at Sri Krishna Institute of Public Administration for a daylong discussion. The meet was organised under the aegis of Jharkhand Bloggers Forum.

The netizens, who had made their way mostly from cities like Dhanbad and Bokaro, with one even flying down all the way from Canada, expressed anguish on the waning trend of blogging due to the emergence of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s high time people understand the importance of blogs and how, just like other social networking sites, they provide a platform for like-minded netizens to air views,” said Bokaro’s Rajni Nayyar, who has been running her personal journal online since 2009.

Nayyar, whose journal chandniraat.blogspot.com is a huge hit among her online followers, added that her blog provided an opportunity to budding poets to showcase their works and share their poetry.

Canada-based Swapna, who blogs at swapnamanjusha.blogspot.com, said it was a matter of concern that most people of the state did not have access to any weblog. Swapna, who has posted a huge collection of Hindi prose on the web, including works like “Wo shaam kuch ajeeb thi”, “Diary ke panne” and “Sachmuch kali ban jaogi”, was supported by Ranchi-based Nadeem Akhtar.

Akhtar, who has been blogging since 2006 at ranchihalla.blogspot.com, said that information pertaining to technology, society, lifestyle, business, politics, sports, science and more related to the state capital could be shared online through blogging.

“However, the response to blogs has been particularly poor if we compare it to other social networking sites like Twitter,” Akhtar said. He added that there was an immediate need for revival of the blogging trend that has been pushed to the background in the state due to lack of awareness.

The participants, however, promised to convene meetings at regular intervals to generate awareness about blogging and encourage more people to comment on the writeups.