A New Genre: Blogging!

In response to last Thursday’s reading, “Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog” by Carolyn Miller and Dawn Shepherd, I think there are some very interesting aspects to the idea of blogging as a whole. Though it was confusing at first, the idea of blogging as a kairos made interesting insight into the genre that is blogging. As defined in the reading, kairos is “socially perceived space-time” (Shepherd 2), but the example Scot gave in class about how you know what to expect during a eulogy was more helpful. From that discussion, I think blogging came about as a genre because it was the right time in history for it to happen, and it filled some void that came about through the advancing technology.

One of the group discussion questions was #5, which said how the reading concludes that blogging’s exigence lies in the blogger’s need to cultivate and validate a sense of self online. Although I do agree with this I certainly do not feel it is the only reason people blog in the first place. Through our group’s discussion, I feel as though there are four main reasons someone begins to blog, and the most common is indeed the notion of self-expression. People want to “be heard” and there is no better place to do that than online, where anyone with internet access in the world can “hear” you. However, some people may blog but not let anyone see their blog, so there’s no way the first reason can be applied to that case. I would say that people that write a blog for only their own eyes are expressing their feelings, thoughts, opinions, or whatever they want to themselves. It is really no different than a diary then, except instead of writing by hand, they are using a computer. A third reason I believe people blog is to feel like a part of a community, and that this plays a large role in making people blog as well. Blogging allows people from different generations to come together as one, so older people can feel like part of the “in” crowd again. Lastly, I believe people blog because they are bored. As mentioned in the article, there was a blog that was a complete hoax about a girl with cancer, and I cannot imagine any other reason someone would do that except that they did not really have anything better to do with their time. For all of these reasons, blogging exists in today’s culture and allows these “voids” people have to be filled.

The other very interesting discussion question was #6, with regards to Jeff Rice’s arguments from the reading, “What Should College English Be”. He mentions “the space on the page keeps bodies of information (and, thus, bodies) separate” (Rice 130). In space on the page, he is referring to the normal print writing, encompassing mostly academic writing and paragraph essays. I think this makes an interesting liaison to blogs in that blogs are certainly not “space on the page”, but a newer media and genre. They certainly do not keep bodies of information separate in the least, but actually bring vast amounts of information together in one place. Yet, I think many social network writing actually keep bodies separate, much like the “space on the page” writing does. It’s much less likely that you’ll make a point to see your high school friends when you’re in town if you’ve been writing to them on Facebook or AIM compared to if it had been a really long time since you’ve talked. I also feel that though the academic writing does keep people separate from distant places, it can bring people together that are nearby in collaboration on some writing, whereas you may never bother collaborating or talking with anyone when writing things on your blog. Of course, you may be collaborating online through comments, but again this is bringing the information together, and keeping the bodies separate.

I feel that this can be a dangerous idea because no matter how useful new media can be, there is no substitute for being able to talk to people directly in person. Most jobs are interacting with people, and if it becomes too common for people to share all their ideas online through all the various networks, they may lose their ability to properly interact in person.