Blog Hopping

Ok, so another week gone by and I have been looking at blogs. Below are the five I have followed this week. Some of them have been a little boring because the people only posted a few times, but others have been actively posting everyday. It is interesting to see that those who post everyday seem to use their blogs as a way to vent or reflect on what is happening in their lives, at least for the personal blogs. The Blogging of the President has been quite an interesting one too. It appears that the people posting there are writing a little more formal, at least with less explitives involved. Each personal blogger seems to be adding whatever options of their personality there are to their blogs. Images and animated images were prevelant too. I found it amazing that I could go in and read what people had to say and then feel so connected to them. It made me want to go back everyday and read more, which made those who posted irregularly disappointing. I also found myself going through their archives and reading past the week I started in on their conversations. I was expecting to be so interested in what they were feeling and had to say. There is definitely power to blogs. I can see a certain culture, or at least a genre, that exists with them. I liked this blog from a fellow classmate Nomadic Thoughts. It seems to be along the lines of freedom of speech and mind. The personal blogs I read, especially Jenn's Ramblings, left you feeling so sad for the person writing but at the same time so enlightenend to know how she was feeling. Sort of relieved to know that she was expressing her true feelings and that she would actually do that with total strangers. The Blogging for the President: 2004 kept me on my toes and interested in what people have to say about the election this year. It was fun to read a blog that was more of a community area to post your insights and feelings. When I first started talking to family and friends about blogs and what a great tool they were, most of them asked what a blog was. They didn't know. At first I would explain they were like an online journal, but now after following these and searching around and looking at so many others, I am finding they are more than that. They are communication devices, they are journals, they are expressions of life and society, and they are fuel for online collaboration and gossip. It makes me feel like I should be searching for more and posting it to my blog. I guess I don't want to become someone who posts every so often just because I have a blog. I want to see if my blog can really add value to society. Anyway, back to my assignment for class. I did find that the most common thing among the blogs was structure. The format of a blog, giving you the most recent posting first was great. It made navigation for the blogs easy. I guess in the end I can say I have learned from blogging and reading these blogs. Assuming I go looking for blogs that are more "academic" in nature I could augment my education with some of them or at least read what others think and say.

Here are the blogs I followed.
1. Jenn's Ramblings
2. A Glimpse of the Vaguely Demented
3. weet_virginia's: welcome to my very strange mind
4. The Blogging of the President: 2004 ...notes on the transformation
5. Flit about in the woods like a faerie

I spent 4 hours reading blogs and creating my own.

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