General: Everyone should blog

A few days ago I was in the Stuttgart city centre waiting for my train back home. There are large TV screens opposite the platforms to occupy the attention of people waiting. They display a variety of things, 30 seconds at a time, such as news headlines, adverts for new films, small puzzles and health tips. One of the tips that I saw stuck in my mind. It said that everyone should write for at least 10 minutes a day to keep his brain active. If you can't think of anything else, write a diary. The article called it "sport for the brain".

I agree. We all spend years learning how to write our mother tongue in school, but what happens when we leave school? The fewest of us carry on writing in our careers. Even those of us who go to university don't write much afterwards. When I worked as a software developer, most of my colleagues complained about having to write documentation for their programs. They were skilled at writing computer programs, but they had problems writing texts in German describing their programs.

It's not enough to send short, often misspelt sentences with your smartphone. Even social media posts aren't enough. To maintain active control of your language and keep your brain fit, you need to write small essays. There has to be a beginning, a middle and an end. The 10 minutes a day guideline is the same as with jogging. At first it's a chore, and you keep looking at your watch to see when the time is up. After a while you begin to enjoy it, and before you realise it you've sat writing for 20 minutes, 30 minutes or a whole hour.

If you want to buy a notebook and sit at home writing every evening, why not? That would be enough to keep your brain fit. But why leave it at that? Why don't you set up a blog and write your thoughts online? Don't worry about whether other people are interested in what you have to say. If you sit writing at home nobody will ever read your words, so if you write online and only one person in the world reads your blog, it's an increase.

What you write about is up to you. Maybe you have a hobby you want to rant about. Maybe you want to write about your dog, your grandchildren or your home town. If you can't think of anything else, write about yourself. Just write! Everything is good.

There are two free alternatives for blogging: WordPress and Blogger (Blogspot). I use the latter, and I'm convinced that it's the best choice, but I shan't go into the reasons now. Just trust me. Blogger, a Google product, is easy to set up. You'll be wooed with the possibilities of making money, but don't worry about that. Remember, you're writing to keep your brain fit, not as a source of additional income.

Maybe you'll pick a simple blog layout like mine. Maybe you'll pick something fancy and artistic. Blogger offers lots of standard layouts that you can change later. Just write. I recommend that you put at least one picture at the beginning of each post, to break up the monotony, but it's all about the writing.

Blogging isn't an alternative form of social media. It's something superior. When you post something in Facebook you're talking to your friends. When you write in your blog you're talking to the world.

If you're too busy to write anything for a while, don't worry. You can start again at any time. Your blog is there to continue writing, just like a notebook lying on your bedside table.

Maybe you'll change over time and want to distance yourself from your old posts. Don't delete your old posts. They're part of your history. Create a new blog, if you must, but I recommend against it. If I'd been blogging 30 years ago, I might have written things that I no longer agree with. There's no shame in changing your mind. It protocols your development as a human being.

Recommend other blogs. Add links to blogs that you like or blogs written by your friends. If this post of mine inspires you to begin writing a blog, as I hope it will, please add a link to my blog.

Just write!

You won't regret it.