It's funny that we needed to read this article this week, because my sister came into town and I was able to discuss blogging with her. My sister is an author. She is in the midst of getting her first novel published (clearly just to show me up!). Her pursuits and the frustrations of getting published are chronicled on her blog which has garnered many followers. Her writing, stories, edits, and revisions are in large part due to many of the comments received on her blog. I think this exemplifies much of what the article was saying.
Blogs can be extremely useful in allowing students/humans to get to an important idea and explore it in a way that is meaningful and often productive for them and for the readers. Because there are readers, bloggers do tend to take more time proofreading and evaluating their posts knowing that the blogosphere can be a harsh and unforgiving world for those that don't take the time to edit.
Blogs also encourage the student who may not want to be face to face with their readers. Students will often times be more willing to explore their creativity, angst, or challenging topics if they know they will not have to face their readers directly. The article, "Blogging and New Literacies" explores this idea, asserting that this can be helpful for students with disablilities. Blogging allows these students the freedom to be judged like anyone else in the blogosphere rather than being judged for their disability. I think the anonimity provides a huge amount of shelter for these students and is important in developing successful and creative writers who are tapped in to their inner feelings.
Your sister's experience in the blogosphere is very interesting to me. Gone are the days of authors spending months writing in seclusion in a dark room. (At least that's how I imagine writing a whole entire book would go.) What is her book about?
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about blogs as a way to pursue an interest in a meaningful and productive way. I'm new to blogging myself, but I can see how this could be true. Can we use our blogs to commiserate about internship exhaustion in a meanginful and productive way?
Here's a pretty cool blog you should follow: http://edescapades.blogspot.com.