I’ll be honest. In the beginning, blogging scared me. It intimidated me. I wondered who would really care what I thought about random aspects of the world that surrounds us. And how could I possibly scrounge up a blog post every week? It was a little rough at the start, but little did I know soon just about everything would present itself as an opportunity for reflection through the eyes of an American.
Topics for my blogs have varied greatly over the span of the semester. Towards the beginning, they were more reflections of an observation I made of my life, and of the world we were living in today. Recently, they have been driven more by a story that catches my eye in the news, a book, an article or a topic spoken of in class.
As I look back upon all my past blog posts, I see a huge change between my first quarter posts and my second quarter posts. For my first quarter “favorite” I chose a post where I thought was reflective and relevant: Do I Get the Credit Yet? I was proud that I had taken two unrelated topics within the scope of class, and discussed them with a critical eye. However, I realize now how general I was. I wrote: “These stories that have been created for us completely change the way in which I view the attempt. While attempting to seem earnest and kind, both the Verizon Commercial and Grizzly Man documentary reveal an underlying desire for personal attention and gain.”
And this is exactly how specific got. Not specific enough at all. For my first few posts, I really hovered over interesting issues, instead of diving into them with evidence.
However, I learned my lesson. In second quarter, and my comment by Mr. O’Connor on this blog, I realized how much I needed ground my posts in tangible evidence. Whether it be in the form of an article, or a video: I needed strong evidence to push my posts further. Now, I would never even consider blogging without rooting it in an outside source. In one of my recent posts: Peaceful Assembly withPepper Spray?, I wrote about the Occupy Assembly that occurred at UC Davis. Not only did I reflect on the issue, in light of our unit of at the time, Civil Liberties, but I chose to take it to a new level. I pulled out a quote from the article, and then used those words to view the incident in a new way: comparing America on a global scale. I also chose to use a video. This practice greatly helped my blog posts, as can be seen in second quarter posts such as Blogging: Mainstream Media? and Am I Literate?
I have realized through this re-reading of all my posts that I am a major question asker. (I am starting to notice a theme with some of my titles…). I usually leave my blog posts open ended and ready for my peers to comment on. While I do want to work on making my opinion stronger and more clear for second semester, this aspect of blogging really appeals to me- the two way communication. Not only am I getting my opinion out there, I allow others to agree or disagree and think about what I have said. This makes blogging different and enriching.
Allison, I enjoyed the way you framed this insight: "I really hovered over interesting issues, instead of diving into them with evidence."
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing wrong with posing questions. As Neil Postman once said, "Once you have learned how to ask questions — relevant and appropriate and substantial questions — you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know."