whyBlog

Steven Ho I found Andrew Sullivan's piece ,Why I Blog, pretty interesting. He brings up a lot of positive and negative points about blogging. To me, blogging is a medium that doesn't have to require much thought, but is more like free writing. I think it's great and easy way to express yourself without going through the troubles of becoming a journalist or novelist. I think it cool that Sullivan takes advantage of this new medium while still writing print articles; I think this makes him become a more effective writer.

I made my first blog when I was in high school, on a website called Xanga. It use to be the cool thing to do, and it was kind of thrilling to share my random thoughts with friends and random readers. After a couple of months, I found it more interesting to read other blogs then write my own. Nowadays, I find the most interesting part of a blog to be the reader comments that argue back and forth.

Jose Vargas i agree with you Steven. i also did create a Xanga page back in high school. It is interesting to write your own blogs and it is a way to express your thoughts through writing. Also what i did was talk about a topic and have a talk about it, and state our arguments. Nowadays we have other blog writing sites like myspace and Facebook. I also did find Andrews reading interesting as well. my thoughts about blogging that are positive is that it can start an argument about a certain topic that you want to talk about and some people can get more knowledge about it because some people may know more than others. so instead of free writing its also a way to learn more about something you didn't know about at first. Also it can be a good practice if you want to be in journalism. in my opinion there isn't really any negative points about blogging because its expressing your thoughts. i think i am going to start blogging a little more about topics i find interesting.

Matt Burroughs @ Jose I do really like the concept of blogging, but I think there are plenty of negative consequences to it. The nature of blogs allows for immediate responses, which can be very humbling if what you write is instantly refuted or disproved. Especially when you blog about something important to you and you put a lot of emotion into it, and it just gets flamed. That's hard because there is no barrier between you and what you write, you get the full blow of the repercussions.

-James Le //@Steven Ho// While I agree blogging has made it easy for one to express themselves, it has evolved into a flaming battleground of opinions as well. It's true that technology has made it quite easy for people to express their opinions to the masses. We have the option of not putting much thought into what we write but what we write can greatly impact what others think or do. This comment I'm making right now in this "blog" could very well ignite the vigorous flames of war into some of you. Your thoughts and actions could easily leave the web and be brought into the classroom. Of course, there is the bright side to the rise in blogging. People who have trouble expressing themselves by other means have an easier option to choose now. I, for example, would have much trouble expressing these words verbally to just one person. Here you don't just have more time to think but you also have the ability to go back and alter what you have said or didn't say. In the end, what I'm trying to say is that as blogs will continue to evolve so will people as they adapt. As the benefits increase so will the dangers.

AulaS Its interesting the way that Sullivan puts it, its a personalized logs, entries of a persons thoughts not necessarily a journalistic piece. Neither is it a novel attempting its way up the ladder of the Best Selling list. Its simply a journal entry, something that is creative, gives you an idea of what the author is thinking. After reading this to be honest I began to think of all the medians that were used as blogging sites, or some how incorporated it into our social networks. The first time I remember blogging being introduced to me was just as I was beginning high school, just like both Steven and Jose, with Xanga. It initially started off with writing about your day to day activities and friends commenting on what you had written. Then the Myspace fad began and although I was hesitant to give in, I did. The aspect of myspace that I took such a liking too was again the blogging aspect to it. Just as I thought the blogging days had finally died down. I entered college and the new "it" thing to do was facebook. Most people dont notice the blogging involved in facebook but the random status updates and notes that you can create are exactly that, another blog entry. After some time of not having any blogging activities last summer I started to blog again. Mostly because of the down time but also because it was nice space to express my interests thoughts, pictures and just overall ideas on what i was thinking. But one of the aspects that I find fascinating about blogging is that; when it comes to writing an article you are just giving the facts and at times you add in your personal opinion on things but you're not really supposed to, but when it comes to blogging that is entirely what you are intended to do. You are supposed to write your feelings, your experiences, its you on the internet, and then you are there grappling over how much you want the world to know about you. A good point that Sullivan made was the fact that blogging holds a different stance than a newspaper article would. People reading a blog are not looking to read pages upon pages of thoughts a simple sentence could have more of a profound outcome in the blogging world than an 10 page essay could. Also one of the parts of blogging that I truly enjoy is the documentation of thoughts and responses to one anothers comments. Sullivan mentioned that he could look back on what time and how his friends and fellow bloggers responded to say 9/11. At that exact moment what they were feeling, and the progression of their thoughts, through the course of the weeks. Blogs do make an effect, but in my opinion mostly an emotional one.

Kyle Long Blogging as expanded tremendously throughout the internet, not many people remember but it popped into my mind that blogging is how Sarah Palin was chosen to run as vice president for the republican party, sadly but true because McCain heard the word of some Republican blogger. I remember clearly watching CNN interviewing a young man, he was a blogger who apparently was involved with some small time religious organization. The power of blogging has even gone to a political level where opinions are written to slander against competitors. As to some of the authors above me, internet giants such as Myspace, Facebook, and even twitter have impacted the internet and its use by a ton. The gaming company Blizzard Entertainment has leaped forward to interact more with audience in Facebook so they keep their video games in the minds of customers as a marketing strategy. Also Twitter has grown beyond the time that it took for Facebook and Myspace to gain popularity on the internet. I was in the movie theaters not too long ago and during the movie previews, ending of trailers would occasionally have advertisement to the internet links such as Twitter. I was never a fan of blogging mainly because the amount of ads that are spammed on blog hosted sites and the potential risk of getting viruses from blog sites. Xanga was difficult to use because links never were guaranteed to work properly from its creator. After reading Andrew Sullivan's chapter, "Why I Blog," I saw the passion and the metaphors he took into account for his article, that he did not see blogs just as battlegrounds to have verbal wars with those who disagreed. The reading really caught my attention with his creative examples to persuade the reader to go on reading like his example with journalism being limited by consequences as in blogging was an extreme sport. The media has focused on the internet more often where blogs can be used now to tarnish the reputation of the blogger. Consequences are expected to grow along side the blogs continue to expand in our everyday lives.