Essays on Blogging

After reading the twelve blog insights from professors around the world, I found that two really caught my attention. The one that first jumped out at me was by Billy Clark, titled “How I Became an Academic Who Blogs”. In his blurb about blogs he opens by describing what exactly a blog is, as well as ways to get involved with them by providing two links of websites to construct your own. To me this was very beneficial because if I were to be interested in blogging, his information would have served to be helpful. Clark also goes further by giving links that display other bloggers’ sites. Being someone who was absolutely clueless about blogs, his links allowed me to better understand them. Viewing actual visuals rather than just reading text is one of the main reasons I preferred Clark ’s text. Another writing that intrigued me was by Amy E. Earhart, called “Knit Blogging: Considering an Online Community”. She begins by saying that blogging in her opinion was “nuts” and then explains how her opinion was changed. This amused me because if I thought blogging was absurd than perhaps she could convince me to change my mind as well. Her summary of blogs was particularly appealing because she talked about blogging about a passion of hers. This, to me, gave blogs a whole other side I was unaware of. Not only can someone blog about academics, or what they did that day, but they can also blog about something simply that they love to do and find others who do too. She then ends her blurb with “The fluidity of the presentation, not marked by the physical presence of a person, allows a different and more inclusive community.” This especially stood out to me because I completely agree that someone can show their true colors if they aren’t intimidated by a face to face situation, rather that they can display themselves through words and ideas.