Blogs

The biggest characteristics of a blog are personalization, customization, and specialization. Blogs are good for following specific people and specific ideas. People write about anything, from entertainment to bird watching. Writing on a blog is good for more detailed and personal accounts on more specific subject matter that can be shared more frequently amongst other people. Not just with people in the classroom, but with anyone who may be interested in the topic at hand who is browsing the web. I have used blogs in school before and they were structured like a book club. Everyone was reading the same book, and we answered questions on it and were required to write a certain amount of posts. However, that blog seemed to separate people more than add to a nice discussion; people were more concerned for grades so the blog centered around each individual than the content as a whole. This is one of the advantages to a blog if it can be done right, with the right people, in the right kind of setting. All it takes is true interest in something for real opinions to be shared, and real discussion to begin. While I believe blogs do not come close to true personal discussions face to face, they can still be beneficial. In a class setting, each student could continually blog on one aspect form class or one theme or idea and blog as it develops through the whole semester. Sometimes students, with large amounts of materials being presented to them in classes, forget how previous material relates to the new, or how previous ideas inform new ones. Blogs would help keep the class ideas in perspective the whole way through. Although, the problem with blogs is motivation. The participants would really have to want to do it rather than feel obligated to. I believe that is key to writing in blogs. Personal passion and interest in a topic. Blogs are pretty pathetic when the people writing are only doing so because they have to. The things they write are forced, are often fake, and not critical. They write to please. The unique thing about writing on blogs is true personal experience and opinions. Part of wanting to read someone's blog is because of who is writing it, if their ideas form their material well, and if the readers can also engage in it. People want more truth and different perspectives out of blogs. To take in new points on a subject and explore them through interest and discussion. But without passion and dedication, blogs will simply not work.

In class, we discussed credibility on blogs. People may not think I have much credibility in doing film reviews on this very blog. But I have studied tons of films, so I would hope solely based on critical thinking, and the fundamentals for analysis and arguments would prove to people that I have a good take on film criticism. This goes for all blogs and all professional film reviews. I have read professional film reviews by critics who are credible, but he or she may not have good arguments about the films themselves. This is the beauty of blogs. You can argue to your hearts content. In a professional editorial, we are easy to accept them as truth. And I believe there is merit to that. We do want to have professionals who are trained and know what they are saying, we like to draw a line between the credible and complete nonsense. We all have our own opinions, but there are still critical and organized ways to argue our points against the professionals we disagree with. And against each other. Even peer reviews can be argued against in some ways. It just takes the time to try to understand what people are truly saying, if we can at least trust people a little and consider what they have to say even if it does no hold up at all. People can be surprising sometimes. While blogs may increase the amount of media being generating and changing the way we read and process information that could potentially be false, there is a greater chance to come across a interesting or different point of view on a certain subject that may change someone's mind or challenge some fundamental ideas. It just takes discipline, command of language, willingness to understand, and discussions that point us further to credibility and further to truths. Even if we never reach complete truths on some matters, the discussion and contemplation of them are worth it, and blogs can widen this discussion, when done right, and increase this worth.