blogging about blogs

I really enjoyed this weeks readings about blogs. I have had a fascination with them for a while by way of some of my favorite beauty gurus.

I love how Miller and Shepherd's article explains blogs and blogging. In all of the articles from this week (miller and Shepherd, Mortensen, Garden, and Shirky) they all agree that there are some key elements that make up the definition of a blog. First is is has to be chronologically organized. Thus each entry is dated. The second is frequent updating. This would make sense because the life of a blog depends on posts beginning constantly added to continue to have it stay relevant. The last is combination of links with personal commentary.

I agree with the article also when it says that across the board bloggers agree that content is the most important feature of a blog. I feel that without specified types of content, and the different versions of blogs, they wouldn't be as popular as they are now. I like how they also go on to say " Content is important to bloggers because it represents their freedom of selection and presentation." As someone who blogs, I find that to be very true.

The article also explains two themes prevalent in blogging: self-expression and community development. In another article by Mortensen it also goes into this idea of community development. The author says " This is part of the nature of weblogs: a personal expression of perhaps not community but an understanding of connectedness. To post online is to declare that you are part of something larger, even if the post is just in order to whine about dinner or about having lost a boyfriend."

Blogs and the content they hold can connect us to someone who shares our same thoughts on video games, or makeup, or anything under the sun and I think it is one of the great things about the internet. It has given a way for people to share their thoughts and opinions with the world in the hopes that there are others out there who share the same.

I think that Garden brought up an interesting argument about whether blogs should be defined as a genre or a medium. In my opinion I think they are more of a genre in the medium of the internet. What do you think?