Blog World

After reading Chapter 2 in A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, I have found that she uses irony all though out the chapter. One quote that I found that had irony in it was “Women do not write books about men- a fact that I could not help welcoming with relief, for if I had first to read all that men have written about women, then all that women have written about men, the aloe that flowers once in a hundred years would flower twice before I could set pen to paper.”  (pg. 27) This was ironic because she said this after discussing men and women her statement turned into talking about flowers. She is using the flower that only grows twice saying that even after the flower lived its life, she would still not want to write about the subject, there is too much to say about it, so she thinks it should just be left alone. Another ironic statement was “How shall I ever find the grains of truth embedded in all this mass of paper” (pg.27) I think what she means is that there are so many places to find answers, but she’s saying that there isn’t because there was too much information. Another ironic thing she says was “Wise men never say what they think of women”? Wise men never say anything else apparently.”(29)  I think that she isn’t trying to be sarcastic and she sounds like she is making fun of them that they have nothing else to say. I think that this chapter was also very confusing; I think she talks a lot about different subjects and it is somewhat difficult to understand. But overall this chapter was good and she has a lot of her own opinions to just about everything.

After reading “Web of influence” in Kline and Bernstein’s book, there was a very important paragraph on page 84. The paragraph starts out by telling the readers “Blogs are periodically updated journals providing online commentary with minimal or no external editing.” The author also talks about that blogs are usually are set up as different “posts” with people commenting and writing about all different things. They said that posts often include links to other websites for other people to see what they are commenting on. Blogs can also be personal diaries, political analysis, advice columns, computers, money, or advertisements. In 1999 there were 50 blogs, five years later there are about 2.4 to 4.1 million blogs. Many media institutes now have their own blogs such as newspapers or the news on television. Blogs are currently influencing U.S. politics. They attract about half a million visitors per day. They also say that many people are becoming noticed because of the blogs. I feel like this is an important paragraph to read because it gives you a lot of background information and it tells you how popular blogs are becoming. In other words, people are looking into blogs more and it’s becoming a bit hit. My point is that blogs serve a big purpose in our world now and this paragraph gave some information about it. Blogs are so important to know about because even politics are turning to it.

While visiting both websites, I think that the Daily Kos website would have more influence on the way I would vote in the upcoming election. This is because of the way the website consists of. The wonkette website is a site that is all about gossip. It doesn’t have the real facts so I wouldn’t be so sure of what is being said there. Even though it is funny to read, it may not all be true. I should not let the gossip effect my vote, I need the facts. The Daily Kos seems more conservative. The website stands out with the colors and the way it is set up. The articles are what things are really going on in the world. The website shows many articles that I could read that will tell me about each candidate. When Graff says “just because you are composing an academic writing piece, doesn’t mean that you have to lose your voice as a writer.  You can still subtly give your input on what you are writing about without completely losing your objectivity. This was what the website follows. I think that the Daily Kos website would have more of an influence on my vote then the Wonkett website.

The blog I read was on Jezebel. Com. The blog was a comment about magazines, such as glamour and cosmopolitan and their specials on diet plans, which seem to be unhealthy. The writer of the blog commented on how the diets celebrities are crazy. One of the diets she mentioned from the article was to have Dieter’s tea which is known as a liquid cleanser. The writer of the blog also lists some ways that people diet such as not eating, steam rooms, horse pills, and laxatives. She then gives a description of each and her opinion on them. In Kline and Bernstein’s interview with Robert Scoble he lists his 20 rules on engagement for the blogosphere. The blog on Jezebel carries many of those traits, but also does not. One of the rules that the blog on Jezebel is rule number 15; never lie. You can tell that the writer follows this because under every crazy diet fab, she lists her experiences with them, even if they were very personal. I think that there standards are not for all blogs. If someone is writing about something personal, if they lie, you really never know if they are. Some of the rules don’t apply to the blog I just read, I think it is just for a business blog, like he says in the book.

BLOG: http://jezebel.com/359360/whats-the-dumbest-thing-you-ever-did-to-lose-weight

After reading “Take an Obsession, Then Feed It!” and interview with Nick Denton I got to learn more about him and his blogging. Nick Denton is a 36 year old British expatriate and former Financial Times reporter. In addition Nick Denton is known for blogging as a business. On the other hand, what I have learned through out the reading is that a blog is mainly someone’s opinion and that everyone has one. As a result blogs are good for many things, in Denton’s case, he uses it for business, but it depends on who the costumer is and their opinion of the product. For example, on page 156 Denton talks about the New York Times and says, “The New York Times will no longer have as much of a trump edge in determining the national agenda. Instead, I think increasingly it’s going to be weblogs that will collectively decide what’s important.” He is saying that the people reading the blog are going to form an opinion which will determine what’s important. In conclusion the facts on blog also may not be true, so it depends on the viewer what they believe or not.

After reading “Blogs will change your business” by Stephan Baker and Heather Green I have come to the conclusion that in my view, the impact of blogging on business is most important. I believe having a business on a blog may make a better impact on the product. For the customer, if you read peoples opinions on the product and you see people liked the product or did not like, it could be an impact on the whether the customers buy the product or not. For businesses, this may hurt or help their product. “But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they’re simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they’re going to shake up just about every business–including yours.” (Baker and Green 222) Blogs of business can either brake or make it. Blogs again can really help the blog readers decide if they like a product or not. An example to this would be GM. “For a company that’s slipping in the auto biz, GM is showing a surprisingly nimble touch with blogs. GM uses them on occasion to steer past its own PR department and the mainstream press.”           (Baker and Green 225) GM is growing because of their blogs they have, people read and see the good comments on GM and more and more people will buy this product. In conclusion, blogs can  really help a business with its sales, and it also counts as advertisement.

The article I read from under my “blogs I’m Watching” was from Jezebel. I article I chose with called Rock of Love 2: Strangely, Bret Michaels Thinks Mooning Is No Fun. http://jezebel.com/357861/rock-of-love-2-strangely-bret-michaels-thinks-mooning-is-no-fun. The article contains a clip of the show, Rock of Love 2 were Daisy, a woman on the show and him and Bret Michael’s interaction. After the clip there are people that left comments on the clip. I think this is an interesting article because I get to see how people think about all theses sorts of reality shows. Most of the comments are angry with the shows and how they have no meaning, but others really like the show. I enjoyed reading other peoples reaction because I think that reality shows are sort of pointless so it’s good to read people who feel the same way. I think people should read this because it’s a fun to read, and you get a good laugh.

The blog I chose to talk about is called RConversation. RConversation is a political blog that talks about issues in our world today. Many of the articles involve issues in China and Asia. On the site, http://rconversation.blogs.com/ there is a few pictures, but nothing that is really interesting. There is one you tube video on the page also. The colors do not stand out and were just red, black, and white. There are many links to blog sites with bloggers such as Rebecca MacKinnon, Michael Geist, and Paul Kane. The writing style is easy to read. The links are underline and then there is a description underneath it explaining the article. When you click on the link the style of writing is as a newspaper would write it.  The topics of the blog involve political issues with international affairs. I think the blog agrees with what MacKinnon said it would be like in her interview. MacKinnon quit her job working at CNN because she did not feel that she was fulfilling her job, so writing blogs is something she is able to do, such as writing about Asia and other places she was no aloud to. Many of the blogs in the book delt with issues of that. Of course, many will probably disagree with this assertion that MacKinnon did not explain her blog in the book the way is it put on the internet.

After reading “A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night” the Ayelet Waldman interview I disagree and agree with certain things she has said. One point that she made was something I highly agree with about blogs. “I’ve always written for an audience. This gave me an audience but it was also very easy to be a confessional” (Kline, 309). After finding out about blogs, Waldman thought it was very fun. She was able to talk about her family and husband and the very intimate details of her life. Blog for her is a place were she can talk about anything because she didn’t know who she was talking to. I agree that it is a place to let all your feelings out and have comments on it. I do not agree when Waldman says that “the first thing that comes into anyone’s mind is the thing that comes out on the page…” (Kline, 310). I do not think that everything that bloggers say is real. There are some things that people need to keep private. Blogging is a way to express your feelings, but there are just some things that bloggers are not going to share with everyone.

After you read Emily Nussbaum’s “My So-Called Blog,” (Kline 349-261) a question arised. The booked said that parents should not read everything their child writes on the internet.  I believe that parents should not have to monitor everything that a child does online. Children should be aloud to have some sort of privacy and be able to express how they feel. Not everyone on the internet is bad for a child. Blogs are usually private and parents have nothing to worry about. I feel that children should be allowed to express those feelings they have. It could help them out with their feelings and people can comment on the blog which can also help. “He didn’t write for an audience, he said; he just wrote what he was feeling… Writing in his online journal was cathartic for him, he said, but it was hardly stress free” (Nussbaum, 353).This quote shows that children don’t just use the blog to see where the parties are, but to write about your feelings and to read about other feelings. Kids can express their feelings and let to all out without talking to someone about it. Overall, I do not think that parents need to read everything their child does on the internet.