Why We Blog

The Why we blog article investigated blog practices as a form of personal communication and expression by conducting in-depth interviews with bloggers in and around Stanford University. The study focused on blogging practices and blogging motivations (blogs as documentation, commentary, catharsis, muse and community forum). I found this article to be especially interesting in that it took blogs and analyzed its meaning as a form of medium. Today, there are an increasing amount of mediums to communicate through, and through reading this article I see there is a lot to be said as to why blogs have become more popular. There is tremendous diversity in blog content, as well as many different types of bloggers, which essentially means the sky is the limit for users. Blogs are at the disposal of users, allowing bloggers to create whatever content they want, when they want and how often they want. This article did a fine job at narrowing the key motivations as to why people blog and to what discretion they use when they do blog. I thought the idea of the blogger’s personal ethics code to be a riveting attribution to blogs as a medium. It is under my impression that there is no censorship of personal blogs, and so it is an interesting assessment that people must decide for themselves what ethical principles they will adhere too. In terms of their blogging, will they remain under the hegemonic practices, refraining from cussing, criticizing, etc.? Or will they engage in counter behavior? Will they post regularly or infrequently? I think that these are actual concerns for people to decide when maintaining a blog as to not let it impede on ones personal life or to negatively affect someone else. In terms of motivations, I thought this article brought great perspective into why people choose to make a blog in the first place. I think when people have the desire to create a blog whether it be to document ones life, for personal commentary, for catharsis, as a muse, as a community forum it can completely determine how the blog is managed. In my opinion, I think it is important to establish your reason for blogging from the get-go because then it allows you realize your personal ethics code. If I am using this for personal use, I will manage my privacy and only allow others to view information I am comfortable revealing. If I am planning on leaving information up for discussion, I will use different speech to engage others. Overall, I found this article to be a great transition for me as a new blogger because it lets me understand the importance of examining my own practices and motivations of blogging. Through the study I was able to determine what type of blogger I intend to be and to what discretion my content will be.