Lore Articles

      Laura C. Berry “On the Subject of Blogs,” writes about how blogging can make people uncomfortable. Blogs fuse together our professional and private lives and sometimes that makes people uncomfortable. Berry has some friends who are disgusted by the idea of blogging but this very reaction of disgust is what draws Berry to blogging. Berry hypothesizes that this disgust toward blogs is just a defense mechanism. People are getting defensive due to the uneasiness they get when thinking about sharing what goes on in their personal lives with their other social circles, like coworkers. Like Berry, I believe that every aspect of our lives is revealed through how and what we write and teach. There is a certain freedom that comes through blogging. Blogging is such a different writing space than a professional paper. Berry writes that,

"actively bringing the personal into the classroom and into our writing, in controlled and conscious ways, would mean that I am accountable for what I do, and that I model for my students and readers an active and above all genuine engagement with the work we perform."

Blogging can be fun to some people and a lot of work to others. I personally used to keep a blog just to have an outlet for whatever I was feeling or to share lyrics with my friends. My blog and I fell out of touch after a year or two just because life got so busy. It is so much easier to use other social networking sites like Facebook where I can just update my status anywhere I am. On Facebook I can update from my phone to let my friends know what I’m thinking. My last blog was a lot like an online diary, I actually titled it "dear dumb diary." That blog contained solely my random thoughts and feelings that I felt like getting my friends input on. Berry writes that blogs are

“sort of like diaries…yet they bring to the fore the constructed nature of self.”

Blogs have room for so much more than just words. Pictures can be interweaved within text, links can be added, and really anything the blogger wants, which makes the writing space of a blog a very different experience. Blogs reveal a lot more about their writer than an ordinary paper; just as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. In Angelina Karpovich’s “I Blog, Therefore I Am,” Karpovich writes that her colleague thought that the word "blog" sounded like some kind of a disease. Karpovich resolves that blogging can become contagious like a disease because there is so much that can be expressed through a blog. Karpovich became hooked on blogging for its social aspects after finding the blogs of several friends. She says,

“the journal relieved some of my anxieties about my own writing; it transpired that people were not only happy to read about what I had previously considered trivialities, but would frequently offer support and advice on issues both personal and academic.”

I agree that blogging can be a very useful means for social networking and a simple means of relieving anxiety. On a blog, I can type out all of my thoughts and leave them for the world to respond to. Blogging helps in improving writing skills through practice and the commentary of other readers.
    Karpovich says the blogging “epidemic is spreading” and I happen to agree. Social networking has become a huge part of our society. I have several friends who live far away and keep blogs in order to keep their friends and family informed of their daily events and others who just blog as a means of venting. I personally am not a fan of sitting down to read the complaints of bloggers but some bloggers have some really good insights and helpful information that they include in their blogs; those blogs I am not opposed to reading and I actually learn from them.