Why I Blog by Andrew Sullivan is a well written article about why he blogs, and while I don't agree with all of it, I do think he has some good points. I agree that hyperlinks play a large part in blogs, but that wasn't something I didn't already know.
The main thing I feel he got right was the community. I'll admit to spending more time with vlogs over blogs, but the same principles apply. The comments section is a great place for you to add to my post. If anything, a blog's community is a sort of variant of the forum. In a forum, anybody can strike up a conversation topic and get feedback instantaneously, while in a blog, the conversation is started and controlled by one person – the blogger. How bloggers interact with their audience, how their audience interacts with each other, and even how different bloggers interact makes up the integral body of what blogging is.
There was one thing he said that I think is wrong. He said that a blog is a place for rapid-fire posts and not a place for thoughtful thinking. I think there is a place for that type of blog, but I don't think that's the only type. My friend from high school's blog is a good example of thoughtful and inquisitive posts that work well. He posts about philosophical ideas and says a lot of amazing stuff, but he puts time and effort into his posts, sometimes taking weeks before publishing. I don't think that hinders his blog in any way. A more famous example is the VlogBrothers. Although they started with "Brotherhood 2.0" using it as a communication between the two of them, it grew, and they started doing a lot of very thoughtful posts. I don't think blogs have to be instantaneous and thoughtless. In fact, the better posts are the ones thought through rigorously.
On a related note, in a previous post, I mentioned I don't like to blog too much, and I feel like I know why after reading this. If there are two types of blogs – rapid and thoughtful – then I have trouble doing both of them. You will soon learn that If I don't know what I want to say or haven't thought it through enough, I cannot write anything, taking rapid blogging out of the question. The only thing stopping me from creating a thoughtful blog is mostly laziness, but I guess that can be overcome, seeing as this post is already over 400 words long :P.
Anyways, that's my thoughts on the post. If you disagree with anything I said or want to add to it, comment in the comment section below, and make sure to subscribe.
I liked this post. :) I have to say I agree with you on the fact that quick blogging isn't the only type of blogging out there. I've seen many blogs where people plan out their blog posts, post work they created previously, etc. so it's not just on the spot ranting.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your comments on the community surrounding a blog and how it is mainly controlled by the blogger. I had never thought about how much the blogger actually does control the community surrounding their blog. It makes sense though because the blogger will blog about what they like or what they want to talk about and will usually attract a community of people who are also interested in those things. Whereas a newspaper, magazine, or book will attract a wide variety of different people and thus have a more diverse community.
ReplyDelete