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February 20, 2008

Blogging about blogs

5 simple questions about blogs and blogging

Because this blog is meat of my senior communication thesis, I am really interested to hear what YOU have to say about blogging. I have created 5 questions that get to the core of what this blog, and my thesis, are really about. Please take you time and think about these questions and how they relate to your online blogging life. If you would prefer to email me your answers privately, please don’t hesitate to do so. If not, please feel free to respond right here on the blog to help stimulate other’s responses! I can’t wait to hear what you have to say! Thank you for helping me on my journey of inquiry and discovery!

1. Do you blog? If yes, why? If not, why?
2. Do you read blogs? If yes, what is your favorite and why? If not, why?
3. Do you consider the ‘blogosphere’ a community? If no, why? If yes, what kind of community?
4. How does connecting with people online change the nature of interpersonal relationships?
5. Does becoming part of an online community and/or being a part of a new generation of writers change your thoughts on blogging? Why and how?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 COMMENTS | LEAVE YOUR TWO CENTS »

COMMENTS

February 21st, 2008

Noah Brier

1. Do you blog? If yes, why? If not, why?

Yup, I do. I started on a whim and I continue because it makes me happy. I’ve met a ton of interesting people and it allows me to think out loud.

2. Do you read blogs? If yes, what is your favorite and why? If not, why?

Yup. A few of my favorites at the moment: murketing, swissmiss and lots of my friends’ tumblrs.

3. Do you consider the ‘blogosphere’ a community? If no, why? If yes, what kind of community?

I guess. I never really thought about it. I think in a way there are communities within the blogosphere, based on interest and other factors.

4. How does connecting with people online change the nature of interpersonal relationships?

Not sure I completely understand. To me connecting with people online is an interpersonal relationship. I’d be happy to expand, but I think I need some more info.

5. Does becoming part of an online community and/or being a part of a new generation of writers change your thoughts on blogging? Why and how?

Well, I think you start thinking more about who is reading your stuff and how audiences develop. Being a media outlet yourself helps you think in smarter ways about the media.

These are just some quick thoughts, will try to go more in-depth. :)

February 21st, 2008

Jared Gruner

1. No.
I don’t like to think out loud.
My friends would make fun of me.
It’s seems like too much of a commitment.

2. Yes.
I like reading Eater. Because I like restaurants. Plus, I get a kick out of people taking something as trivial as restaurants so seriously.

3. Yes
The blogosphere is definitely a community. In our marketing world, for instance, there are groups of people who refer to each other, know each other, and often write about the same things. That’s a community for you.

4. I’m kind of with Noah on this. But I’ll take a stab.

For starters, in most cases, it widens your pool of relationships.

And I find that for many people (especially blogger to blogger) it deepens the relationship because they share more.

5. I guess this does not pertain to me since I don’t blog. I only respond!

February 21st, 2008

headphonaught

1. Do you blog? If yes, why?

Yes… been blogging for a while now and love it. Its the way in which I express the whole of me… all my passions / obsessions / dreams… the holistic stuff.

2. Do you read blogs? If yes, what is your favorite and why?

Yes… 137 in my google reader. Favs include Coolhunting / Josh Spear / Johnny Baker / Aurgasm / PSFK / tallskinnykiwi / my pals JD Blundell, Johnny Laird and faithscape21.

3. Do you consider the ‘blogosphere’ a community? If yes, what kind of community?

Yes I do… I have met people I met through my blog… had food and talked like I’ve known them for years.

Your brother, Noah, hooked me up with a fab insiders map of NYC for when I came for a brief visit.

Its about give and take… write and comment… hook people up with others who do stuff they need.

Its more a “fellowship” of likeminded people and a conversation with buddies.

4. How does connecting with people online change the nature of interpersonal relationships?

I know more about my pal JD in Texas than I do about my nextdoor neighbour in Motherwell, Scotland. Its about trust and friendship, not about location.

5. Does becoming part of an online community and/or being a part of a new generation of writers change your thoughts on blogging? Why and how?

Yes. Its about contribution and collaboration… its about working together… supporting each other… keeping the conversation fresh and the fellowship tight.

I hope this makes sense?

Best

Thomas

Motherwell, Scotland

February 21st, 2008

Wes of SitDownStandUp.com

1. Do you blog? If yes, why? If not, why?

Yes I do. I blog about Hip Hop on my blog and about Indie music on others because it’s a way to share my passion about good music with others that are like-minded. I’ve also met some interesting people and gotten the chance to expand my photography experience.

2. Do you read blogs? If yes, what is your favorite and why? If not, why?

Yes I do. I have dozens of blogs I read daily and probably 250 in total in my RSS reader that I browse.

3. Do you consider the ‘blogosphere’ a community? If no, why? If yes, what kind of community?

Hm, yes it can be, it’s also sometimes very clickish, and sometimes very supportive and interesting.

4. How does connecting with people online change the nature of interpersonal relationships?

Hm, good question. I think it CAN speed up the getting-to-kn ow each other process in some cases, and slow it down in others depending on communication methods and skills of people involved.

5. Does becoming part of an online community and/or being a part of a new generation of writers change your thoughts on blogging? Why and how?

Not so much my thoughts on blogging, but my thoughts about the press community yes as I’ve come behind the curtain. Just sheds more light on a lot of processes in press and the music industry beyond what I already knew from working in several different arenas of the music industry.

February 22nd, 2008

Lurch Kimded

1. Yes I do, I suppose I blog for a variety of reasons, sometimes all at once. These include, because I want to keep a sort of a diary, keeps remote friends in contact with what I am doing, and it allows me to vocalise my thoughts and beliefs.

2. Again, yes, I don’t think I have a favourite blog because each is quite unique and I visit them all for different reasons (related to why I blog).

3. I would say it is a community, of sorts, a disfunctional one, but still a community. at times it can be one of great discussion, caring, and consideration where effective strangers rally together for one of their own… then at times it descends into almost Neanderthals beating their chests and arrogantly spouting their views at the expense of others.

4. It really depends on the relationship which is being nurtured, it can create a very frail basic relationship built upon the façade that is portrayed on-line by either party. Or it can foster a deep connection even though the two may never meet by allowing each other to be more expressive and open than they would normally be.

5. I suppose on some levels it does, it a difficult one to answer since I have been blogging on and off since the whole idea kicked off. It has allowed me to see the wider aspects of the community, both its good and bad sides, and see where it can be a force for truth illuminating places where the traditional media either ignored or twisted. Then at times the opposite is true as hate and falsehood are disseminated as truth in the most harmful of ways.

February 22nd, 2008

David Berkowitz

1. I blog because I am. That actually fits in a sense. I’ve always been a writer, and it’s a good outlet for my writing and commentary. It’s also a professional scratchpad, a way to make myself organize my thoughts.

2. I read blogs religiously (more than I read anything religious). I’d say the one blog I absolutely need to read day to day is TechCrunch because it’s such a great resource for my job.

3. The blogosphere’s most definitely a community, but it’s one with tons of its own communities - say, like New York City, where you have this pastiche of people, and you might have people who are part of multiple communities where they live in Park Slope, party in the West Village, and spend time in Astoria on the weekends.

4. It opens up the sphere of potential relationships. I’m closer with some people I know mostly online than some friends I’ve had for years who I’ve known mostly in person.

5. The community is a huge reason why I keep blogging. In a way, just maintaining my blog keeps me as a current member of that blogging community, and it’s huge motivation to keep doing it.

February 22nd, 2008

Dara

Good luck with the thesis! Man, I wish I was in college again.

1. I freelance blog for an old client of mine (I do that for money and because it’s fun and easy). I used to have a personal blog, for about 3 years, but I gave it up because it stopped being therapeutic.

2. I think I read too many blogs to have a favorite, though I always look forward to The Sartorialist. It’s simple, it’s visual, I can identify with it, and it’s incredibly aspirational. When I get dressed in the morning, I now wonder, “would The Sartorialist photograph me in this?”

3. Absolutely. I made a handful of close friends from my blogging days, and I’ve seen it happen enough with other people to know it’s true. I think this is an incredibly personal medium where a person’s true voice can be heard in unprecedented ways, even when what we discuss is business related. It’s hard not to develop interests in each other and relationships. I once had a great, theoretical-debate relationship with this guy where we would attempt to derail each other’s philosophical arguments on a regular basis - I was in London and he was somewhere in North Carolina. It was great fun, and I grew quite a bit intellectually because of it.

4. I think being online allows people to act, say, or do things they might not normally act, say, or do in real life. I think, though, that the closeness that arises from blogging can be derailed when you meet in person. You’re only getting part of a person, not the whole picture, when you meet them online. And sometimes, your expectations of who someone will be based on extraordinary, 2-dimensional verbology is not met in face-to-face interaction.

5. If I’m being totally honest, the idea of being part of a “new generation of writers” is enthralling and enticing. But, if anything, it makes me realize just how self-satisfying this form of communication can be, and this diminishes the sense of community from my perspective.

I sincerely hope that was helpful!

-DARA

February 25th, 2008

Jeff Hughes

1. Do you blog? If yes, why? If not, why?
Yes I do for the same reason everybody else blogs - because I think what I have to say demands to be read by others. I am a specific blogger (chicago bears) and I find people who blog about the things that happen in their lives to be the most narcissistic human beings in existence. What the hell do I care where you bought your sweater?

2. Do you read blogs? If yes, what is your favorite and why? If not, why?
I don’t know what the hell is a blog anymore. I read Huffington Post and Drudge Report because it gives me a ncie political balance and the opinions are more interesting than Wolf Blitzers. I read NoahBrier.com because I need fodder to mock him with. Other than that, no I don’t.

3. Do you consider the ‘blogosphere’ a community? If no, why? If yes, what kind of community?
These people don’t care about each other so NO it’s absolutely not a community. Just because you can “link” sites together doesn’t mean they should be considered unified in some way. If I go to the magazine rack at B&N and there’s an ESPN Magazine next to Sports Illustrated, is that a community?

4. How does connecting with people online change the nature of interpersonal relationships?
We don’t know yet. Because the blogger generation hasn’t completely disconnected with the rest of us yet, though it’s coming. I think so much about the internet is just a terrible thing but anyone who would let the internet ruin their actual human interpersonal relationships deserves to have those interpersonal relationships ruined and is probably not going to be missed at the bar Saturday night.

5. Does becoming part of an online community and/or being a part of a new generation of writers change your thoughts on blogging? Why and how?
I am amazed at our site’s ability to reach people, though I hope this doesn’t birth an entire generation of people thinking they’re writers. Very few of these sites are well-written but it just doesn’t seem to matter anymore. As a matter of fact, the IM/text/MySpace/Blog revolution is actually destroying the construction of sentences nationwide.

February 25th, 2008

Barbara Brier

1. Do you blog? If yes, why? If not, why?

I have a blog, but post infrequently for many reasons, not the least of which is lack of discipline. I think Jeff, above, is right on with the why of this Q. We blog because we think we have something others should be hearing from our unique perspective.

2. Do you read blogs? If yes, what is your favorite and why? If not, why?

I read blogs, but only a few with any regularity: 1 - noahbrier.com, daily 2- streeteasy.com,daily (because of my addiction to the NYC real estate market) 3 - http://www.downes.ca (Stephen Downes on education, which I read at least weekly) 4 - dabearsblog.com, regularly (because Noah created the blog and Jeff is a damned good writer :)

3. Do you consider the ‘blogosphere’ a community? If no, why? If yes, what kind of community?

I think there are many kinds of communities within the blogosphere, mostly made up of people with particular interests and/or in specific fields. For example, when I’m looking for restaurants in NYC I check chowhound.com because I know the people who comment there are real NY foodies, not just anyone who’s been to a restaurant. There are many people who post there regularly and I expect that many of them know each other. I also think communities have grown up around noahbrier.com and dabearsblog.com — there are definitely many people who have come to ‘know’ each other through their comments on the 2 sites, and I’d bet that if somone from either site sent out an invite, a lot of them would want to come, just to meet the people they’ve been ‘talking to’ in the last few years.

4. How does connecting with people online change the nature of interpersonal relationships?

I’m not sure it changes the nature of the relationships. It may limit it a bit, because geography may preclude face-to-face contact, but I think real relationships can grow from being part of a blog community. I, for example, ‘met’ the mother of another tech-savvy son when I mentioned his work in a comment I left on Noah’s blog. She e-mailed me and we subsequently met in person, talk occasionally, etc.

5. Does becoming part of an online community and/or being a part of a new generation of writers change your thoughts on blogging? Why and how?

I definitely think my views on blogging have changed the way I view writing and communicating in recent years. I think blogging encourages interaction and reflection in the same way written correspondence did years ago, but the circle of communication is so much larger, there’s just so much greater an opportunity to see and think about varying points of view. From my perspective (in case you didn’t know :), I think some variation on the blogging theme will play a central role in the future of education.

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