Reflection On Blogging

Prior to this class I honestly thought that not once in my entire life would I write a blog. In fact, the idea of blogging sounded kind of juvenile to me; all I could picture in my head were over-enthusiastic people ranting and raving about how such and such was the best/worst thing they had ever witnessed. Upon learning that a major portion of this class involved keeping a personal blog I was a little anxious at first because I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.

My first blog on the show Undercover Boss followed a summary type format very reminiscent of the writing styles taught in most classes, but as my blogs progressed I experimented with different formats triggering my creative side and allowing me to better represent my opinions. I really enjoyed the un-strict guidelines that a blog provides, granting the ability to truly personify my writing style because there is no set layout on what a blog is or should include. Reminiscing on shows that I had not seen in a while, and remembering what I enjoyed or disliked about them, took me on an analytical journey that helped me to appreciate the shows in a new way.

Blogging created many obstacles for me that I had to overcome in order to develop my voice. Before this class I mainly watched television strictly for entertainment purposes and rarely analyzed the veiled connotations of many of the shows on television. The first step in my process to become a better blogger was to watch these shows in a questioning manner, thinking about the who, what, where, when, and whys of the shows I was writing about. After doing preliminary research I had to consider how to draw the reader into my blog by making valid points that were engaging and thought provoking. I felt that introductions like the one I wrote on the show Man vs. Wild helped in doing this because it provided an exciting yet relevant intro to the series. Creating a blog that was comprehensible to viewers was also one of my primary goals. I wanted to develop blogs that were simple enough in nature to be an entertaining read, while still looking at facets of each show that were not evidently known. In my blog on The Soup I tried to keep the conversation light and did my best to interject personal commentary whenever I could. Pulling away from summarizing shows was, and is, still very difficult for me. At first, forcing myself to look at shows with scrutiny frustrated me because I had a difficult time formulating my thoughts. Making my blogs visually stimulating, as well as interactive via links, helped me to overcome some of this issue, but it is still a work in progress.

To me blogging is a very personal type of writing that allows the author to critique a show, pointing out things they like or dislike, disregarding other aspects of the show in order to provide a stronger argument. In a sense blogging is similar to keeping a personal journal on your thoughts only other readers have the option of examining it. Blogging gives me the ability to provide my personal touches and opinions while still portraying over-arcing themes from the show being analyzed. While the tendency to create a blog that everyone will like is tempting, blogging is really about describing how you feel about a certain subject; in the case of this class television shows. This highly uncensored form of writing is something that you do not see in scholastic texts. Blogging allows the writer to really show their voice without any constraints or guidelines.

Over the course of the semester (if you could call it that) I truly learned to enjoy the art of blogging. It was interesting to read about what other people thought of shows that I had seen and I gained some insight into other series that I was unfamiliar with. Everyone had a unique voice to their blogs which showed off the diversity of my classmates and enabled me to watch their writing, as well as my own, further develop throughout the course. The structure of these blogs really allowed me personal growth as a writer because of their relaxed guidelines. I now feel that this style of writing should be implemented into more college level writing classes because it really enabled me to express thoughts in a manner I was previously unfamiliar with. By making someone follow a strict mold it is much harder to learn how to think outside the box so to speak. After writing all these blogs I now look at television in a very different light. Television really is a world community now and has just as many sub-cultures as the population watching it. TV creates emotions, conversations, and a common ground among people who use it daily as some form of outlet source, representing people’s ideas and views on society. There are infinite possibilities on where television can go in the future as it is now a staple commodity in our lives. Blogging is sure to follow television’s trends and has really opened my eyes to a new form of expression that I can actually see my self taking part in again.