The Effects of Blogging

The Effects of Blogging
Bogging is an interesting technology and tool that’s being used by many different groups. It’s an on-line forum where people can share ideas and different images. For our English 101 Class, students were instructed to write about their ideas of how blogging has effected how we write, what we write, and to share how blogging has changed/deepened our ideas that we had about writing. Personally, I have not enjoyed blogging. I’m trying to understand why I don’t enjoy it. Doing the assignments in English 101 is the first time I’ve ever blogged. Naturally, after posting a few assignments, I’ve become more comfortable with it. But, I still don’t like it.
I think blogging directly affects what we write and how we write. For each assignment, we were asked to write about specific things pertaining to writing, such as identifying and creating genre and techniques. The assignments I posted are not things that I would usually write or talk about. So, the assignments identified my topics to write about, and I was given the opportunity to share my personal thoughts, experiences and opinions about the topics. The ways in which I wrote for each blog posted was also affected by knowing that the instructor and classmates could/would read what I wrote. Some of my discomfort comes from wondering if I was meeting the instructor’s expectations, and wondering what my classmates would think. So far this semester, I have posted a total of six blogs. Most of the blogs were short and did not provide a lot of information. In retrospect, I think I didn’t write a lot because I really didn’t want to do the assignments; and (except for the essay Identifying Genre where I posted one statement) I felt I made my points, and met the instructor’s expectations. Two of the essays I actually enjoyed writing, but did not care for posting them on the blog. The two assignments: Universal Texts and Arguing for Genre, were essays in which I talked about things that were of interest to me: my personal art. This made a big difference in how I felt about the writings, opposed to writing about Kruger’s Prints which I initially knew nothing about and had very little interest in.
Another factor that effected my writing on the blog was my attitudes and opinions about my classmates. Recognizing that I’m older than all of them, and old enough to be their grandmother, directly impacted my feelings and thoughts of what to say to this audience. This forced me to stay focused on the assignments and topics, and not to talk much about my personal experiences and things of interest to me. In retrospect, this created problems for me, and greatly contributed to my discomforts with writing my essays and posting them on the blog. I kept thinking this audience is not interested in my personal life and work experiences, and other things I would share and address with an audience my own age. I recognize that if I was blogging for an audience that had some of the same interests that I do, and if I was blogging about things that I am specifically interested in, such as community work and social justice, learning to blog would have been a very different experience for me. While believing that my classmates would not be interested in what I have to say, I also felt I was not interested in what they had to say. I think we’re suffering from generational and cultural differences. This is not a bad thing, it’s just what it is.
Finally, even though blogging has not been a very pleasant experience, I’ve learned a lot from the class, especially about genre. And, the class has made me really think about my writing style, skills, different types of writing and techniques. All that I’ve learn will definitely help me to be a better writer. And for this, I’m grateful.