In this day and age when absolutely anyone can start their own blog (MDs, CEOs, journalists, mums, dads, kids, PRs…) have the distinctions between blogging, blagging, boasting and berating become blurred?

I have seen a whole host of stories in the news lately about people using blogs and social networking sites to “air their dirty laundry”. One lady chose to belittle her ex in an attempt to gain a legal advantage during their drawn out divorce proceedings, for example, while the co-founder of Wikipedia chose to dump his girlfriend via his site (in response, she advertised his clothes on eBay).

Could this nasty turn around in the usage of blogs mean that their value and importance might start to decline? An increasing number of businesses have started a corporate blog which can be a valuable source of information for potential customers, partners and employees. This very blog has led to enquiries about Berkeley PR! But might this recent corruption destroy the reputation of such a tool for business?

Still, I can’t help but wonder, should we all be so honest and open and let the world (wide web) know how we feel? It would certainly make for interesting browsing but, personally, I hope this isn’t the start of a new craze. The fear is that the internet will be overrun with ranting rather than the information that we all rely on it for.

Rebecca Wheeler