Is blogging appropriate as an academic?

An article today in Inside Higher Ed asks if blogging is appropriate in academia and whether or not it should be a serious endeavor. The author of the article claims he is not a serious blogger, but "attempts to engage with the experimentation blogging affords as well as to produce a lighter sense of seriousness."

This publication has mentioned in the past that blogging is not good for an untenured professor because it could hurt tenure prospects. Since I am just a lowly doctoral student, I considered this a good way to learn about blogging as well as tell the world about what it is like being a phd student. It is truly a different world, sometimes, and not one that people know much about. I feel that I slip from role to role, and most people I interact with are truly unaware of "my other life." I suppose it would be difficult to explain that in one day you are attending your son's school musical, helping to organize the reception, and that very same afternoon, you are sitting outside your research supervisor's office, waiting over a half-hour for her to show up, only to discover that she forgot all about you, despite the long list of demands she made on you for the week.

'Tis the life of a graduate student. Always on your toes, trying new things...like blogging.