Bloggers Paradise

For this assignment I have chosen to identify statements that contain irony. After reading the second chapter of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.

On page 32. an example Ive found is at the bottom of the page, last paragraph.

“Whatever the reason, all these books, I thought, surveying the pile on the desk, are worthless for my purposes. They were worthless scientifically, that is to say, though humanly they were full of instruction, interest, boredom, and very queer facts about the habits of the Fiji Islanders. They have been written in the red light of emotion and not the white light of truth.”

I can relate this to irony in the sense that is is implying that when he states, ” in the red light of emotion and not the white light of truth” what this means is that the red symbolizing the worthlessness of his feelings is that the books lying around on his desk is worthless although there is that white light of truth that has a meaningful affect.

Another example I have found is on page 37 it states in the middle of the second paragrah,

“A solicitors letter fell into the post box and when I opened it I found that she had left me five hundred pounds a year for ever.” .. “I had made my living by cadging odd jobs from newspapers, by reading a donkey show here or a wedding there, I had earned a few pounds by addressing envelopes, reading to old ladies, making artificial flowers, teaching the alphabet to small children in a kindergarden. Such were the chief occupations that were opent to woman before 1918.”

I find this very ironic because as state that she had left her five hundred pounds, that is alot of money especially during this time period. It is close to unbeliveable.

One of the blogs that I have found shocking and interesting was one of the first ones that I read on Jezebel, “Loose Lips” this article reveals news that really makes you wonder and concerned about doctors, and if they are treating their patients the correct way with useing safe procedures and material. It speaks about Priscilla Praisley being one of the Argentine doctor, Daniel Serrano’s victims who has been charged for injecting low levels of silicone similar to those that are used to lubricate auto parts. From what people assume is that he has smuggled in this silicone from outside of the United States and has sold it for up to five hundred dollars per patient. This has lead many to question and wonder what others can get by with and leaves us with concern for our future.

After reading “Web of Influence” the foreign policy article by Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrell on p. 85 I found it very interesting to hear what they had to say on whethere or not blogoshphere influences global politics as well as political scandals at the bottom of page 85 (last paragraph). According to them, “Compared to other actors in world affairs–govornments, international organizations, multinational organizations, and even non govornmental organizations- blogs do not appear to be very powerful or visiable. ” and “According to the 2003 Pew Research Center for the people and the press internet survey, only 4 percent of online Americans refer to blogs for information and opinions.”

I really can relate to what they are saying, becuase often most people dont refer to blogs unless you happed to be really interested in a certain topic of conversation. The statistics that have been calculated I feel are very accurate. Before this class I wouldnt be able to tell you the last time I researched or read a blog aside from a social networking group. This alone shows that blogging isnt very powerful when it comes to politics, and I agree that it isnt as affective and dosent have a huge impact on global politics.

“They Say/I Say”

Essentially, I am arguing that the information provided in  “Web of Influence” the foreign policy article by Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrell on p. 85, they are stating that blogosphere dosent have an impact on global politics. In other words. What this is saying is that their isnt enough people statistically that follow up and use blogs as a daily follow up. Statistically only 4 percent of Americans use blogging.

After reading all of the assigned readings, Chapter 9 from (Graff 115-122) “Ain’t So/Is Not: Academic Writing Doesnt Mean Setting Aside Your Own Voice.” “Blogging the Presidency: An interview with Ana Marie Cox” and “Sex Lies and Political Scrapes: An interview with Ana Marie Cox. I feel that the interview with Ana Marie Cox really does a good job of applying itself to the reading from Graff. What this reading spoke about focusing more on words that you would use everyday to express your writing style rather than those big words that you use to try to impress someone and prove that you are intellectual. Throughout this interview she really speaks as if she was simply answering these questions to her best friend. She isn’t trying to impress anyone or use big words to make herself sound good.

The blog that would be more likely to influence me the way I would want to votes in a coming election would be Daily Kos. It is a different setup than wonkette. i feel that wonkette focuses more on top stories and is a little bit easier to follow, but Daily Kos really digs down into depth with information and statistics.

After reading the assigned readings and looking over the Scobles 20 principles that the blog appears to be living up to. I found it dificult to pick just one post. But i did look on Jezebel and found a very interesting kinda comical blog on Dr. Phil and his counceling session of an addict that discovers he has his own myspace. This man talks over about pages that he has looked over and how he had to look at his myspace even while his grandson was being delivered in the hospotile. His wife had even found out that he had cheated on her twice through this networking site. Dr. Phil even found out that he had his own site that someone had created for him. Of which he was unaware of. I find this topic interesting because not only am I writting my paper on social networking but this is rather commical to see on Jezebel. I thought it was really interesting that from the response of his client he learned more abou thimself.

After reading, “Take an Obsession, Then Feed It!” Nick Deonton interview, it helped me understand blogging from a creators point of view. There where many points that where brought up that helped me answer a lot of my own questions of how blogging works. It started out with bringing up topics such as, blogging and the risks of careers involved, companies that deal with blogging, blogging being a powerful tool for business, the benefits of technologies, patterns created by companies making the best of web-logs, Google being a challenging competitor, and how providing a service for free goes about. However, By the end of reading through each of these interview topics, it helped me develop an understanding from a point of view of a creator who took the time to look into these areas of research and provide feedback to the public. As a result I was able to read these areas with interest and understanding.

After reading the artice ”Blogs Will Change Your Business” by Stephen Baker and Heather Green, I feel that what appears to be more important to me is the impact of blogging on communication that is not business- or profit related. Simply because after reading the text. It appeared to me that there are so many blogs out there and not everyone is going to click on the same one. As stated on page 222, the last paragraph, “Many of you don’t visit blogs– or haven’t since blogs became a sensation in last years Presidential race. According to a Pew Research Center Survey, only 27% of Internet users in America now bother to read them.” This is what makes me feel that there are not enough people that are using these blogs sites to have an impact on a business. Where blogs that are not containing business in them may be more appealing to click on and interesting.

One of my favorite blogs that I have posted, is the blog that we covered when we had to respond to “The Voice of The Customer” A product that I had chosen was Crest Whitening Strips in the link, <a href=”" title=”"> <abbr title=”"> <acronym title=”"> <b> <blockquote cite=”"> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>. This post was interesting to me, because I wouldn’t think to go online and look at a website of a product that I use daily and look at the customer responses and success stories. On the box it states, “Crest Whitening Strips a part of the crest dental plan healthy, beautiful smiles for life” and upon reading this and looking online, I wouldn’t have thought anything other than this product must work. I think the reasoning for this being one of my favorite posts is the fact that I am able to relate to this subject and it appealed to be interesting to me. This was one of the easier posts for me to relate to and I found the subject very interesting because its not a daily thing for you to look at something like this and take into consideration the effects it has on the business itself and the customers point of view.

The blog that I have chosen that has appealed to be the most interesting to me is an article,  “Ain’t I a human?”  by, Joan Dawson that was published in 2008 Oh My News, I have found this on the website, http://english.ohmynews.com. When you first open this article the ffirst thing that I did was scroll down and look at the pictures. After every paragraph or so their was a picture followed by text. All of the pictures really just about brought tears to my eyes. The pictures seemed to be taken in wealthy, nice areas around the world, and showed all different homeless people that were living on the side of the streets, under bridges, park benches begging for gods help, and those who needed to support their families by selling papers every week to support their families. One point that was brought up of which really touched me and I support fully, is the fact of normal people who support their own daily lives, how are they able to pass by some of these struggling cases. Don’t get me wrong not every homeless person deserves the support but their are those out their that simply have nothing and under certain circumstances cant help themselves. This is a very sad and upsetting topic to talk about. This article started out with a man Ronald who has been homeless for two years, he was laid off of his electrician job and needs money to support his family. He has gotten attacked by a pit-bull and has no health insurance to take care of himself. His point of view is that he isn’t able to get hired by an electrical company when all he talks about is suicide. Along with Ronald, their are many other different individuals that are mentioned. At the end of this article I completely agree with Joan Dawson and he brings up a good point, “Indeed, many people look down on homeless individuals as if homes and, indirectly, money should be the root of our worth. Value should be inherent on being a human being, not on being in a home. We need jobs that are secure and that pay a living wage in order to afford that home. If we are homeless because we lack work; we lack work, not worth. The two should not be dependent. We Americans tend to define ourselves based on our jobs first, our human qualities second. I say we are humans first, employed “productive” citizens second.” Basically what he is saying is that those that are homeless and would do anything for a job should be able to be provided with that job to help themselves and prevent more peoples lives to be ruined. This is a huge issue that most don’t even take into consideration and I feel that something should be done. So many people are rapped up in their own lives today that homeless people are looked down upon and not provided the help they need.

After reading MacKinnon’s statements, I feel that this blog takes a look at his point of view. From the reading what I got out of it was that he was looking for ways to take all of these conversations and make people aware of what is going on around the world, and try to make a movement with it and look at it through a political point of view. He cares about looking at peoples stories so that we can get a better insight of their lives. I feel that this article he would support, and it corresponds to my understanding of the reading “Making Global Voices Heard,” because not only does it target individuals stories, but their is a variety of stories that are covered. One of his major targets is understanding people and their stories. This article does a good job of doing so.

Someone who may disagree with me might look at this situations differently and think to themselves that this article is just trying to make homeless people look like they are good people that deserve a chance in life. Don’t get me wrong not all homeless people are in the same situations there are a lot out there that have completely messed up their own lives with no hope due to drugs and other circumstances. I am not saying that every homeless person deserves a chance, but from this article clearly their are those out their that could use a little support to get back on their own two feet.

After reading “A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night,” an interview with Ayelet Waldman. Throughout most of the article I agreed with her and what she was proving. However, when she states on page 309 that “the blogosphere has become a way for woman to experience a social community that I think has been really rejuvenating, particularly for woman that are not working or are not full-time. It has a whole different meaning than the blogosphere as a political blogoshphere.” Although I do agree with Waldman up to a point, I cant conclude that it only applies to woman who are not working or full- time, because this is open to everyone who is interested, and although some people may not have as much time on their hands. They are still eligible to take part in a discussion.