Response to Rebecca Blood's "Weblogs: A History and Perspective

Rebecca Blood's essay about the history of blogging was an interesting read. It was interesting to know how few and far between internet web logs were ten years ago. Today, by comparison, anyone can start a blog about anything they please, which is something Blood also touched on in her piece. I liked how she explained what filter blogs were. Without even knowing it, I found out that I look at a few filter blogs every week. The key part of her piece to me was when she said that blogging can help a person become more intellectually sound. Being a journalism major, I consider myself a writer. From my perspective, I find it much easier to express my opinions, emotions, and critiques through writing rather than spoken word. I cannot agree more with her on these sentiments. When someone comments on my writings and critiques, I gain confidence not only in my writing, but my intellect as well, just as she suggested. Blogging is becoming more and more common with people writing about more and more things. I think it is a way of stimulation for the writer, and it can also be entertaining and even informative for the reader. I was happy to see that someone shares these sentiments with me.

I'd say I have some good experiences with blogging. As an author, I've never published a blog, but it's something I've always thought about doing seeing as it's a fun and creative way to express myself. As a reader, I have read and do frequent blogs on a regular basis. This is because of my interests in culture. I'm a fan of things like heavy metal music, anime (Japanese animated cartoons), and the sport of mixed martial arts. Much of the news that goes around involving these sports are what Rebecca Blood referred to as "filter news" in her piece. Much of the news about these things slips through mainstream sources, and are picked up by bloggers passionate about the topic. I find much of the news and information that I'm interested in about those topics from blogs. I find them to be a very resourceful tool.