Everybody has something they like to talk about. Celebrities, fashion, video games, literature, food, sports, politics, their personal life, word origins, the list goes on and on. And in this digital world with all its massive social networking, people can say what they want any number of ways, using Twitter, Facebook, online forums and even blogs.

Actually, out of all of these things, blogs still seem to be somewhat foreign to people, especially those of a slightly older generation. They may finally be catching up with Facebook and Twitter, but blogs remain a mystery. So, what exactly is a blog?

Weblogs, shortened to blogs, are simply another method on the Internet for people to say whatever they want. They’re similar to LiveJournal, if people still remember that. It’s a website solely dedicated to the writer posting whatever he or she darn well pleases.

Most of the time, blogs talk about a specific subject, but really, they can be about anything you want. Streamlining it to a specific subject, or perhaps a gimmick, often increases the chance of readership and popularity, something most bloggers hope to achieve.

And blogs have slowly, over the years, turned away from being random Internet journals used by strange, reclusive people and turned toward being popular methods of getting your voice heard. There are several popular blogs (though perhaps still not as popular as certain Twitter accounts), such as perezhilton.com or the many blogs on Huffington Post, some written by celebrities like Alec Baldwin and Dan Aykroyd.

As news media has turned toward the Internet in stronger force and the Internet has been growing in popularity, blogs have become an easy way to gain fame or even make money. Just look at 2009’s Meryl Streep/Amy Adams movie “Julie & Julia.”

Blogging inspired the entire action of the movie. A somewhat lonely and distressed wife in New York decides to make a blog about her experiences cooking all of Julia Child’s recipes in 365 days. Based on a true story, the movie shows the blog starting shakily, but eventually taking up so much popularity that Julie finds herself in The New York Times, receiving money and gifts and, eventually, writing a book and getting it turned into an award-winning film.

If that doesn’t show the power a blog can have, I don’t know what does.

Not every blog gets this kind of fame, of course. But even the simplest blogs can get readers from unexpected places. UA student Glenn Halcomb started writing his blog, campusqueer-ginger.blogspot.com in late September 2010. It’s a simple blog about the arts and literature from a gay perspective. But as simple as it may seem, he gets, on average, about 100 readers a day worldwide, from countries as far away and surprising as Ukraine.

With the Internet, these types of connections across the world are readily becoming more and more common. More and more people are reading the words written on the Internet by ordinary, average Joes and Janes every day. And The Crimson White wants to help.

If you are a UA student who has something to say about entertainment, we have a blog. If you want to talk about politics, there’s a blog. If you want to let people know what you think about sports, we have a blog. And with people like Roger Ebert, or people from as far away as Qatar, reading and Tweeting about the articles found on The CW’s website, you may find your words making a pretty large impact on people.

If you’re interested in being a columnist or blogger for The Crimson White’s Lifestyles desk, where blogs can cover religion, health, literature, video games, fashion, dance, theater, film, food, music or entertainment in general, contact me at [email protected]. Who knows? Maybe your blog can get you a movie deal one day.