Wow! I think they're a fantastic mechanism to express yourself. I'm one of those people that often suggests, offers advice, sticks my foot in my mouth so instead of those things, I'm going to blog it. It's a free space, and you don't have to worry about that foot thing.
Here's the thing with blogs though... just as with any journal or diary I'm not sure how much I want to share with people... Growing up I was always afraid to write in a diary. What if someone found it? What would they think? Would they do something too?
There are so many fascinating ideas, theories, questions to ponder when you post to a blog. I can say I've been easily pulled into a blog and taken a long time to get out. That's not a terrible thing, just very time consuming.
I'm wondering who is going to read them. Are we all hiding behind these words with pseudonyms? Do you really know who torchgirl is? It's wise to be safe and not disclose too much, right?
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3 comments:
Great Post. I agree, I can get completely lost in a blog. I happened to be watching my reader the other day and saw a great blog about technology and learning, an hour and 1/2 later, I had 3 great links, added some feeds to my wiki and had learned a lot. I think with me, I am more likely to stay within my subject area when posting a blog. I also do not feel comfortable giving up to much personal information. I also wonder how much we can be known and seen as valid members of the blogging community if we do not share something of ourselves. I think blogging is a great way to market yourself and ideas.
I think your quote on your home page says it all, "Blogs are like the swirls in these leaves, they go on and on. Progress is their aim."
Great question...how much can we should we expose? It's up to you really. I will say though that at some point I would be asking myself:
Who is Torchgirl?
What does she do?
Why should I read what she has to say?
We tell students all the time that they need to validate their sources. That they need to link and make sure their sources are relevant. If you do not expose some information about who you are as an author then does your information become invalid? If I did not know you, did not now your job, your experience would I read this blog differently?
Only you can decide where that line is. I worry that I'm to far the other way. I'm out there in a big way you can find out all kinds of information about me. As you start reading more blogs, more websites hopefully you'll be asking yourself these same questions. :)
I would love to say I use torchgirl due to my flaming personality! With such a common last name as Sullivan, I had to grab something that meant something to me. Hint: In Athens, recently, this relay started again. The same one since the beginning of time....
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