"Why I Blog" - One Student's Voice
While our COPPER Blog is intended to function as a collaborative tool, blogs have been used in a variety of ways, in particular as individual online journals. It's in this capacity that they are often used by instructors in a variety of classes. Many people use them as interactive personal diaries. One student (a member of my online class) who is an active "blogger" shared her motivation for keeping a blog. With her permission, that reply is reproduced below (note: LJ refers to LiveJournal a blogging site):
I've been blogging (keeping an online journal or web log) for nearly two years now. I currently have four blogs in use--a completely private journal, a locked journal for my original writing which serves as a sort of writer's group, a more "fannish" media-based journal, and a public blog where anything and everything goes. I've found that most bloggers have more than one journal and often separate them by usage as I do.
In January of this year I was wondering why people blog and I ended up posting the following which I think sums it up pretty nicely:
"Why we do it.
I’ve been thinking about the nature of blogging and why we do it. Now, I have a few journals, two of which are public, and I read a lot of others. I’m basing my opinions here on the things I’ve read in these journals and on my own thoughts.
Some people blog for their friends. They have a limited readership (or Friends List) and they use their journal to pass along information. It’s basically a continuation of their normal conversations.
Some people seem to blog for an audience. They feel a need to update frequently, to be funny or insightful, and they seem to have some guilt if they can’t do these things. One of the things that bothers me in reading these journals (and, oh, LJ is full of them) is that these people don’t seem to have any fun doing this. I really wonder why they even bother.
Then there are your fannish blogs, much like my LJ, which tend to concentrate on one area of your life only. They’re used for tv and movie reviews, posting your fanfiction, and otherwise indulging in your habit. Fandom bloggers seem to be pretty damn happy.
Then, finally, there are those like me. My blog is public, sure. Some people I actually know have access to it. But I don’t blog for them or for their entertainment, I blog for me.
I used to fill a one inch thick 8-1/2x11 hardback journal in less than a year. Blogging online is just a quicker extension of the same thing. If there’s anything I want to remember or think about or learn about myself, I do it here. Whether you read or not, whether you’re entertained or not, I don’t care. My blog is an exploration. It’s all about me, baby."
--Tammy (online MCC psychology student)