“Why Blog?” Reflection

Written from a professor’s point of view, “Why Blog?” explains the basic premise of a blog and how to set one up. It had a lot of good points to make and was generally helpful to as I had never even considered blogging previously. I did, however, find it difficult to read and concentrate on. I think a large part of this was due to the fact that I  had already set my blog up. He goes into some detail about the function of a blog and the different areas you can customize. But, I had already completed all of that before being assigned the reading.

I did find some of his ideas on using a blog to improve academic writing rather interesting. He explains that if you are in a less writing heavy major, good writing skills are still important. Part of becoming a good writer means putting in time writing. As I’m not in an English or writing heavy major, keeping a blog may help me get in that writing time. I like that I’ll be able to control how formal I want to be and how often I write. Being forced to write, while not terrible, is not usually enjoyable for me. I like to write about my interests and attempt to be creative, not having a lot of restrictions on what I am required to write.

After thinking about the article for a couple of days, I started to consider how blogs have evolved over the last two decades. They may have started as a way to keep a journal, but they have become so much more. They allow us to have discussions, expand each other’s views on things, or even inspire other to create things. Hundreds of thousands of blogs are kept for an unimaginable variety of reasons. Everything form political platforms, to movie reviews, to personal reflections. It’s hard to think of another form of media that allows for such a huge variety, with such ease.

As I consider all the applications of blogs, I wonder why it isn’t talked about more. It’s almost as if the stigma of blogs hasn’t been addressed to the general public. It’s a niche media that has no niche!

I’m glad that I’m doing this for school. It’s unusual (which is fun), but it’s also very exciting. I think that it will be nice to see what other have thought of the material. And that we can all spitball off one another’s ideas could be invaluable to our own successes. I was unsure of how this was going to work, as I’m sure we all were, but, I’m excited to see where this leads.