Blogging. It was something I thought I would never do in my lifetime. It was something I heard about, and ignored, telling myself I will never do it. I never had the desire to go on the internet and post to the world about what I had seen or heard. Actually, I had a ver different image of blogging before this class. When I heard the word blog, I instantly thought of a young teenage girl behind a keyboard, putting down the drama of her day as if it were the end of the world in a place for the whole world to see. I must say I have a different view of it now, though the image or the drama teenager still remains in the back of my mind.
Will I ever blog again? I’m going to be really honest with you, and say I most likely will not. Sure it was a great way to talk with others about different conflicts or opinions, and it’s a wonderful outlet for people to express their knowledge an opinions on media and politics etc. But it’s not for me. I don’t enjoy writing about something I have read or watched, and then commenting on what I liked and didn’t like, or the controversial issues that it brought up. I would much rather debate such things in person, face to face rather than over the internet.
Another reason I will most likely not blog again is because I have a hard time talking about myself or my opinions in written form. I am still trying to figure out where I stand on different subjects, and find that most of the time I am incredibly passive, and can’t choose a side because I can understand where both are coming from. Because of this, its hard for me to write a blog and express my true opinions on it. Most of the time, for my grades sake, I would just choose a side and write on it, but I never felt that I particularly agreed.
Plus I always find it hard to get 500 words out in a single blog. I either have much more to say, or I feel that I can write my opinion in less than the post length.
But I do have to say, it helped me to understand the assignments a lot better than I would have if we were not blogging. I find that I can write 500 words much faster and easier than before, and that the word count doesn’t bother me anymore. It has also made me aware of the people who may read this later on, and that I need to take my audience into consideration when I write anything from now on. I need to be careful of word structure and how I bring up controversial topics so I will not offend anyone with a different opinion. These are the traits I am very thankful for, an without blogging I may have never received them.
Thanks for a wonderful semester you guys. It was really awesome!
I agree with you on the part about expressing yourself in written form and taking a side because it can be difficult when you don't really have an opinion formulated. Like some of the topics in class were new to me and I had to take in the time to really think about it. I needed to evaluate how I felt at first and then I could analyze the works we read at a different level. I never knew that so much could be said in 500 words and just like you said I am much faster at typing it and not having to worry if it is less. I think your first image about a girl behind the keyboard is what most people imagine when they hear "blog" because of what our internet society has turned into. Nothing but random blurbs about the day, but I have came across many blogs online that aren't like that, they actually have value to them. Most include humor, which is my personal favorite but its true that we can't really imagine any other thing unless we experience it ourselves. I'm glad that your image changed slightly because I personally liked blogging and found it to be a better way to discuss some of the things we didn't have time to in class. But we can all express ourselves differently, and in class debate would have been interesting too. There's an idea Jennifer! :P
ReplyDelete"When I heard the word blog, I instantly thought of a young teenage girl behind a keyboard, putting down the drama of her day as if it were the end of the world in a place for the whole world to see."
ReplyDeleteI very much had the same image in my mind. In a lot of ways, I still do. In retrospect, if I had the choice at the beginning of the semester on whether or not I could blog, I would still choose no. This is because of a point that you bring up that I forgot to mention in my own blog, and that's the face to face debate versus over the internet. As productive as blogging was, I think it could have been so much more productive if we had had a chance to actually discuss some of those topics in class. While I realize that we did have to "respond" to other people's blogs, having to respond to two out of however many students are in our class each week seemed meager. If we had to respond to all of them, I think that that would have been too much work as well. By having in-class discussions, everyone would have had a fair opportunity at talking about the topics, as well as hearing everyone else's opinions. Regarding the blog responses I don't think there were many, if any, responses to responses.
"Thanks for a wonderful semester you guys. It was really awesome!"
You were/are pretty awesome yourself :).