A Matter of Word Usage: The Post

Snow Field by Chris Ford
Snow Field by Chris Ford

Today, a rant for you.

I am a word person. I like words. I love the way some words roll off your tongue, like fisticuffs. I love what some words imply, like shenanigans. Words are important.

I admit, I might be a word person, but I am not a spelling person. You can’t have it all.

I want to take up the matter of what has become a common word usage that bothers me. Very few of you probably care or have noticed. I want to discuss the blog post.

This website is a blog. A blog is a website with entries that are chronological, usually with the newest appearing first. There are video blogs (also called vlogs) picture blogs, word blogs, and music blogs.

The individual entries on a blog are called posts. Their long name is a blog post. This entry you are reading is a blog post.

The problem is that I have noticed with annoying frequency that people refer to a post as a blog. They say, “I wrote a blog.” or “I posted a blog.”

I know why this had come about. Most of us are, at heart, very lazy and blog post is two words. People have just started saying blog when they really meant blog post or simply post.

The problem is that calling a post a blog means something entirely different than the way it is being used. “I wrote a blog” means you wrote an entire website which, in your defense, you may have done. It’s like a journalist saying “I wrote a newspaper.” They did not write a newspaper, they wrote an article for the newspaper.

It is more appropriate and correct to say “I wrote a post” or “I posted on my blog” or even “I wrote a blog post.”

I know this makes me a word snob, but the words we use have meaning. We argue over the use of certain words we find offensive because words matter.

Blog post, blog, and post matter very little in the grand scheme of things, but all words matter, no matter how small. Please, I beg you, stop using the word blog incorrectly.

Thanks for reading my blog post and rant. Have a fabulous Friday.