The purpose of this blog… I figured some reader would want an explanation. Or maybe I just need a bit of self-reassurance to why I should spend at least a couple of hours a week putting ideas into a neat essay format online.
My obsession with blogs exploded at the beginning of 2008, when I began reading through Diana Kimball‘s website (she’s on the ROFLcon staff) and finally discovered Henry Jenkins’ blog (the director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies department). Actually, I would say it really began over the summer, when I began to download hundreds of podcasts and listen to them while working in the basement of Harvard’s Houghton Library (aka. my summer job). A month’s worth of audio later, I became addicted to searching out information on the Internet. Combined with my discovery of the MIT CMS website and the concentration of media studies, this quest to learn from the bloggers of the simply escalated into hours of “healthy” procrastination.
I have been a “blogger” for a good while now through LiveJournal’s platform, mainly commenting on the quotidianities of my life. This year, I was inspired to actually give birth to my own weblog, because I felt an urge to actually respond to the articles I was reading.
The problems associated with publishing my own writing, though, are endless.
For one, I always feel as if I will plagiarize, not someone’s work, but someone’s idea. Actually, with my luck over the past three months of 2008, I have had a multitude of light bulb clicks for articles that ultimately end up on the New York Times or one of the Berkman Center’s blogs. In the first few years of the new millennium, I realized that we basically live in the Age of the Experts. To be original means to win the race to a niche idea and publish it, either in Barnes & Noble or on a webpage.
Realizing that I will probably not have many entirely novel theories and thoughts, I present my second problem: the awareness that much of my writing will not, in fact, be original, but instead be in response to other blogs, scholarly publications, and newspaper articles. Not that this is a bad thing. In fact, many bloggers appreciate feedback on what they have written. And these bloggers usually respond to the comments they receive. Essentially, I am continue the circular supply-and-demand economy of digital information.
The difference with white paper publication remains that I can participate in a similar economy, working inside my head. When I read and reread my old posts, then get a craving to edit my horrible style decide to add a few tidbits to an article, I can easily edit it. Back in high school, when I wrote a paper, it was done — I had no desire to look at it again. With a constant bombardment of information, I would not be surprised to find myself editing older articles more often than continuing them in new posts. So, I’ll try my hardest to add a header to each emended entry.
Where will I go with this blog? Hopefully to graduate school (no, seriously). Topically, I want to write as much about Internet culture as possible. On the side, I’ll comment on my classes at Boston University, my experiences swing dancing in Boston, and those thoughts that would make great subjects for first-year university writing seminars. Maybe I’ll even take a few of my articles, expand them in my free time, and publish a few in actual magazines. I’m feeling ambitious. But, hey, we can do anything with the Internet.
