Blogging: Multiple Uses

[Will]

When I think of blogging, and many of you probably think the same way, I think of someone complaining or ranting about something that only affects them or a few select people. For some reason I have this stigma chiseled into my brain about what it means to blog. I forget that there are multiple uses for such an expressive form of communication.

One use I've come across recently has to do with pregnancy. My brother and his wife recently had a child, and without getting to personal, there were complications. Alicia, my brother's wife, has come up with a unique way of keeping everyone up to speed about the baby's condition. She found a website, carepages.com, that has allowed her to post updates, photos, and individual messages. This has allowed my brother's family to stay connected and inform everyone without having to talk to everyone individually and repeat everything numerous times. I can imagine in certain situations this would be much easier than telling someone face to face some really bad news. I feel that this allows them to let all the nosy, "less-important" friends and family all they have to offer without really having to talk to them. At the same time this is less intimate and you lose a human aspect to the birth of a child.

I know my brother was receiving 60+ calls a day, of people just wanting updates on the baby. He doesn't have time to get to all those people, so this was a way of doing it. Blogging about the situation has helped them a tremendous amount as well, because people are posting support messages. I can't even imagine what I would be feeling if I was in their situation, all these people with all these kind words. You get my drift.

Does anyone else have some other use for blogging that they have thought of or come across?

[Taylor]

That's a really, really good idea that your brother and sister-in law are doing to keep people updated, those close and those not so close. I have never thought of having a blog like that. I usually, like you once did, think that blogs are for people who need an outlet to rant and rave about their sucky life, or their political views, or whatever...usually it's something I don't want to waste my time reading. However, the blog your brother and his wife came up with is very interesting, and something that changes my opinion on blogs. Maybe there are more bloggers out there than rant and rave, rather than share interesting, funny, or positive messages to the readers. I feel like blogs are like non-private journals for people to write in, yet they share really private things sometimes and it's weird. That anorexic blog I saw Deanna attracted attention to, is sick. Having an eating disorder is one thing, it's usually a private matter that those suffering from don't like to share with others very often. Yet, that blog is disgusting and destructive, and it is a sick person sharing with others how to feed their sickness and not get help. It makes no sense to me, and blogs like these I wish didn't exist for the sake of society and those who fall prey to them.

[Bwhisman]

I have the same feeling about blogging too at times. Xanga was the first social network I ever joined and I believe it was the beginning of blogging or one of the first sites. I can remember enjoying reading people's blogs and trying to stay in touch with people I haven't seen in a long time, however it becomes very annoying when someone's blog becomes a place to complain. And I feel that is where blogging is heading. Now, that is not to say blogs and sites like Xanga cannot be used for good. Will, your brother and sister-in-law have an excellent idea about spreading general information rather than trying to reach everyone, one-at-a-time, which would take forever. I also know people who use a blog to update status on births. Also, my mom's friend keeps a blog about one of her sons in the Marines. She keeps it updated about all he is doing in boot camp and also when he ships out. Another example are engaged couples I know, keep blogs to inform others about their wedding plans.

One think I like about this is that the creator can be as specific or general as they want to be. If they don't want to add all the "gory details"... they don't have to. Blogging, if used correctly can be a great tool to spread information. However, depending on the information, it can end up like millions of blogs when people just "vent" about their everyday lives. No one cares.

[Michelle Cilip]

I think that the use that your brother and his wife are using it for is a good one. I can't imagine how hard it would be to repeat the same news 60+ times... and it would be emotionally impossible, I would think, if it was negative news. As long as the people allowed to see the blog are people who are supposed to see it, and not random strangers. Otherwise I think then it gets into people just wanting to be nosey (I, myself, am guilt of being the nosey onlooker at times!).

This applied to my life today actually when a close friend posted a myspace blog about her recent life; school, work, and love life. She shared details that she shouldn't have shared with the world at large, and I thought it was pretty inappropriate. While I thought it was really weird that she would post these details on a blog, I also thought it was sad that she felt she had no one to talk to about these things and therefore resorted to telling anyone who would listen. I think that sometimes this is the case... people just need someone to tell things to and need someone out there to listen, so they tell anyone and everyone. But, with my friend, I know that some of her myspace friends aren't good friends of hers at all, and some of them are coworkers and supervisors, and there are things that these people just shouldn't know about... like someones love life.

So, I think blogging is good to share news with people who are concerned, but I don't feel comfortable when people post information that is better left for a private conversation.

...Just the first feelings I got when I read your thread.

That being said, I really hope the news your brother and his wife ultimately post regarding their situation is good news, and I am certain that the people who are concerned about them and are being updated through the blog are very appreciative of this technology!

[Lauren]

I think that your brother's situation is a great example of how an online community can come together in a positive way that benefits all parties involved. It is in these ways that I can totally see how blogging has changed the way we communicate with each other. If it didn't exist then your brother's situation would have been a hell of a lot worse, especially in the aspect of explaining to mere strangers time and time again his painful ordeal.

On the flip side, I do feel that blogging can also serve as a mere social tool for complete self exploitation. Take for example, Perez Hilton. He created this celebrity obsessed/gossip website/blog that initially served no purpose but to humiliate celebs and politicians and anybody else who crossed the path or computer screen of Hilton in a negative way. But once more people started to visit his website; he took notice and began to post important news reports and interesting facts about certain corruption that is going on within the country and also began to post videos by up and coming musical artists. In addition, during election time Perez posted numerous videos regarding the candidates, and although he made it clear that he was voting for Obama he was never biased in the videos that he posted of their debates and so on. Through posting important information about the issues in the country that his age demographic usually undermines or fails to pay much attention to he has most definitely made the younger generation more up to date on imperative issues that in the end may very well wind up affecting them. Although his site does also serve as a tool for shameless self promotion, it does also offer information in a way that is easily conveyed and interpreted.

In addition, it seems that a lot of celebrities now have taken it upon themselves to use blogging as a form of self promotion or a way to clear the air about rumors and so forth. I personally think that celebrity blogging is absurd, especially when they use it to clear the air about their lives to in the end let the public know about something that should be a private matter.

[Vicky]

I think it's fantastic that your brother and sister-in-law decided to keep everyone up to speed on the pregnancy through blogging. There's not enough time in the day to answer all those calls, even if you kept it brief. Not to mention that it would run up a quite expensive phone bill. Plus, it gets redundant and bothersome to repeat the same thing over and over again.

Though you might lose somewhat of the human aspect to the birth of a child in doing so, it does ease aspects of communication in regards to reaching the masses, especially when it comes to being the bearer of bad news. It's always nice to re-read the supportive messages or responses on a day you might feel discouraged too. And when the baby is grown and talking, their child can read anecdotes about what he was going through before he was even born. That's pretty cool.

Before I knew much about blogging, I too thought it was basically like a diary or journal, a place to rant and rave about things no one else but the writer probably cared about. I actually started learning more about blogging in college, and that it’s actually an up-and-coming way of providing news. The New York Times has its own blog page (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/topnews/blog-index.html), and an introductory “Blogs 101” page in addition to it. New York Times journalists Justin Sabblich (actually a Cortland graduate!) and Tom Joly recently visited campus and talked about the importance of blogging in regards to coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

I’ve seen blogs about everything from the keeping up with the campaigns of the 2008 Election to reviews of strange, new products (go to www.strangenewproducts.com; it’ll give you a good laugh).

This semester, I am interning with Career Services as a staff writer, which requires me to blog about career development, including workshops I attend, working on my resume and cover letters, searching for internships, participating in a “mock interview,” etc. The purpose of it is to inform Cortland students of what a fellow student is doing to pave their career path and to motivate more people to do the same. You can check it out at http://blog.cortland.edu/career.

[Ed Blackford]

Blogging can be a great tool for an english class like this one. I basically consider these discussions that we have as blogs. I don't think of blogging as ranting though like you do. The blogs that I usually read are informative and helpful. On a tutorial website I have been using, the creator has a blog where he posts new findings and keeps his audience up to date on when he is working on the next tutorial.