MADURAI: Expressing anguish over the future of writers in the digital era, noted Tamil novelist Indira Soundar Rajan on Sunday called upon the bloggers to dedicate themselves to the art while being a vibrant source of information.
Delivering a special address at Tamil Bloggers Festival, 2014, Rajan told a gathering of over 200 amateur writers that the influential online media was being widely misused. Unrestricted access to inappropriate content was misguiding the younger generation.
The bloggers had congregated to attend the third edition of the festival here. Though they were connected with each other in the web world, this ‘offline’ meeting was aimed at strengthening their ties.
Expressing disappointment over digitisation of several of his works without his permission, Rajan said, “Use of online media must be encouraged, as it has become an integral part of our lives. Ready access to information and communication has made our lives easy, but there is need for reasonable restrictions to check its misuse.”
According to him, there was a need for the contemporary writers to get well-versed with the technology. “Create your own websites and blogs to expand the reader base in the digital world,” he advised.
While for many, who participated the event, blogging was merely a hobby, there were a few who had taken the giant leap towards making it their profession.
Prakash, a private company employee at Madurai, fondly known as ‘Tamil Vaasi’ Prakash in the web world, said, “All like-minded bloggers get to share their views through blog aggregator. It is a website, which aggregates multiple sources.”
Expressing hopes that such fests would inspire newer people to take up writing, he said, “We can form a network by sharing views, interacting and commenting on each others’ blogs. It can act as a platform to promote Tamil language, cuisine, culture and literature.”