Blogs

Blogs

One of the most popular forms of communication still around, blogging gives people the opportunity to write a diary-like entry online for others to see. This genius creation gave people the opportunity to express their opinions and thoughts in their journals which then became a cultural phenomenon. Blogs are still used to this day, more popular then before thanks to the help of social media. Blogs are a way for many to voice their opinions in certain topics. It’s even gotten to the point where many are doing vlogs, video logs in which people record their own diary entry about an event in their life. Blogs have such an amazing impact in our society because of its history and culture.

Let us start with the history of a blog. According to St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, “Blogging began in the early 1990s and soon became a powerful tool for social communication…” (333). Think of a blog as a diary entry, but for the Internet. And that’s exactly where it came from, people writing in their journals. According to Jill Walker Rettberg’s Seeing Ourselves Through Technology, “By the late eighteenth century, the personal diary had become common…as paper became cheaper and a wider group of people learned to read and write, personal diaries…became increasingly known” (5). As time went on what started out as paper writings became worldwide Internet diary entries. The book also states that “Vivane Serfaty (2004) compares blogs to the diaries of the Puritans, which were, she writes, ‘a requirement of self-discipline’ that ‘recounted a spiritual journey towards personal salvation’ (5)” (5). Diary entries back then were used for religious purposes for an individual to be grounded and stay religiously intact. And since it was from the age of the Puritans, technology wasn’t available.

Now that we know a little about where blogs came from, let’s explore how it has made a difference in our society. Since blogs started out as diary entries for religious purposes, blogs are not just for one topic, but multiple. These posts were a way for others to communicate with each other on any topic from food, to fashion, to politics, and so on. This was also a way for people to give a piece of their daily lives that others could possibly relate to. This could also be why modern blog posts are categorized depending on the topic, because common journal entries were for religious purposes back then. Which means many wrote journal entries related to religion.

We write blog posts about a relative topic whatever it may be. And we can see them on other popular social media sites. Not only does Jill Rettberg have a book on this technology-based innovation, but she also has her own blog created in the late 2000 that’s still going strong. One of her posts says “Blogs are different, but we often read them through other social media sites, finding links to blog posts on Facebook or Twitter. Blogs have grown increasingly….” (jill/txt). Now we see blog posts everywhere such as Pinterest, Instagram, and even Tumblr. If social media is still around, it’s believable that blogs will be too.

Blogging is still popular today, especially since there is now a thing called vlogs. A vlog is a video log by which people create a diary entry of their own, but in the form of a video. This is a popular innovation for, say, YouTubers because it gives them the opportunity to share their stories and events that happen throughout their daily lives.

What started out as common diary journal entries became a cultural phenomenon anywhere. Technology was not advance back then, which means nobody could really post a diary entry on the Internet. Now anybody can publish their diary entries through the process of blogging. From topics such as food and fashion, to travel and countries, anyone can voice their opinion about anything, just like blogger Jill Walker Rettberg. Blogging may even have sparked vlogging. This gives people a chance to record video diary entries. So instead of blog posts, vlogs are more of a visual representation. All in all, blogging will be around for long time if social media sites are still around.

Work Cited

  1. Rettberg, Jill. “Category Archives for Blogging”. jill/txt, Oct. 2000,

http://jilltxt.net/?cat=37.

The author of jill/txt is Jill Walker Rettberg. Rettberg is a blogger and has been blogging since 2000. She is also a writer in which she created a book called Seeing Ourselves Through Technology, which discusses our life with technology. The intended audience for this website is for those who are interested in reading her posts and possibly interacting with her on her website. A secondary audience could be for those who are interested in the topic of technology and would like to get insight from a blogger. This website was relevant for research and it did support my topic because it was a site from a blogger and her blog posts, which is what the basis of the research was about. Although it was relevant, it does have its pros and cons. One good thing about this website was that it there were a variety of technological topics to choose from with blogging. The downside is that if you’re not interested in voicing your opinion in this field, it doesn’t have a diverse number of topics. This is also why the website could be considered bias because it’s mainly about technology.

 

  1. Rettberg, Jill. “Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs, and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves”. jill/txt, http://jilltxt.net/books/. Macmillan, Palgrave. 2 Oct. 2014.

The author of the book Seeing Ourselves Through Technology is Jill Walker Rettberg. Rettberg is a blogger and has been blogging since 2000. She also not too long ago came out with the second edition of her book. The intended audience is for people who are interested in technology and the book. A secondary audience could be for those who would like to find deeper meaning about how technology affects us as humans. This book was relevant and supported my topic because of its information on how we use blogging and the impact of it. It is bias only because Rettberg discusses the good about technology more than not. In terms of pros and cons, one good thing is that the book is informational on blogging. The only downside is that its not too diverse on technological topics.

 

  1. Giles, Cynthia. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. https://ezproxy.stevenson.edu:2354/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=2&docId=GALE%7CCX2735800295&docType=Topic+overview&sort=RELEVANCE&contentSegment=&prodId=GVRL&contentSet=GALE%7CCX2735800295&searchId=R4&userGroupName=vjc_main&inPS=true.   James Press, 2013. p333-334.

Cynthia Giles created this piece of the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture and intended to publish it for those who want to educate themselves on what is happening with blogging or any other general topic on pop culture. This site was relevant and supported my topic because it was on blogging, including the history and impact. The only reason why it would be bias is because it’s mostly about blogging. The good thing about this part of the encyclopedia is that it discusses a little about blogging, but the downside about it is that it doesn’t go into depth about it.

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