I have found the DrJoolz site a lot easier to keep up with lately. (Easier to write than this site at least.) I have enjoyed just putting bits and bobs of interest on there; I have realised that as time has gone on I have been writing much more for a particular group of people who I know are reading. More and more people have TOLD me they are reading and it is this group who I think about as I write.
I wondered whether this was somehow ‘wrong’ to write for a particular group - especially a group so small, intimate even - and not really in the spirit of ‘real’ blogging. Yes I feel there is a right way to do it (!) and it is one which should assume no particular people / readers and just kind of ‘put out there’ in a sort of, I don’t know,
After I went to the UKLA conference though, I wrote a lot about it (here, here and here for example) and I realise now that I was pretty much writing to explain to Anya, as I am always grateful to her for sharing her conferences online, so I put down what I thought she might be interested in.
But I also wrote for others who HAD attended the conference; I wanted to share my view and get feedback on theirs. I knew that everyone would still be thinking about it and may want to continue to interact on the same theme. And indeed this is what happened. I got quite a lot of comments and someone even sent me a link to one of the films shown by a keynote speaker - Mizuko Ito. So why blog it? Why is this the chosen mode?
I think that one of the reasons is that people can look at any time to see what I think. It is a way of communicating to many. I can use all the affordances of the wb - not just language.
I guess I like to get the reaction of many. It is also, of course, a pretty exhibitionist activity, to blog; to hold court and then wait to see what other people will say and do as a result. In some ways it is like writing a letter, the same letter to a lot of people. Except with a blog it is a public writing; like reading out on stage or ike a town crier shouting out at people whether they want to know or not! (Although they can always ignore me online.) In other ways, I feel like the whole thing is a bit like one of those inane chat shows. I don’t like chat shows really as they are so bizarre; a group of people talking to each other,witnessed by many - a live audience in the studio, and then anther audience which watches an edited version a lot later. A blogger seems to assume someone wants to listen to her - how vain. And a blogger’s audience is also a bit multilayered; consisting of people who know her in real life and read her blog; peole who know her as a blogger only but read her posts regularly; people who might read her work (published academic stuff) and find out about her blog; then there are those whohappen across the blog once and never read again; there are those who come across it and gradually visit more and more (etc.) These readers may or may not leave comments. And so there is this thing of layers, of degrees of involvement. So it is all more compicated than being just one type of person sharing an affinity space. Some are casual, some are keen , some - wel, here and there. ( Icould maybe do a diagram here - (;-0)
It has always seemed really pretentious to me, this strange thing of chat shows where they pretending they are in a lounge at home or something, and refer to interviewees as ‘guests’ (they are paid after all) - (sofas; drinks; flowers on the table; some ‘guests’ even bring presents) - Yes, I think the blog has a lot in common with that; this sort of pretense at exclusive views on the ‘real’ thoughts and so on of a guest; and it is presented as if to a group of friends - even though it goes totally public, is not exclusive etc etc. Except that people do sometimes choose to reveal a lot of their ‘private lives’ both on chat shows and on their blogs. In this way that ‘private/public’ thing is shared by blogs and by chat shows.
Another characteristic of how I write on my blog, is that although I write with a group of people in mind, I am always hoping for more like minded people to listen - and join in. Thus the use of links for people to follow up on previous conversations, allows them to ‘catch up’. Many links will not be read by -regulars’ as they refer to old stuff. In this way it is like explaining a family joke, or a bit of social history to a new member of the group. And this of course brings us yet again, back even closer to a ned to refine ‘Affinity Spaces’ as a concept. The drive to involve more people, comes from my constant desire to interact with others; to be social; to find more like me; so I can learn from them, with them, find out stuff. Anything. I love to follow their links; I love to have a reaction from others. I like to see them
’show and tell’
too. - as Guy would have it. (When is he back btw??)
I really appreciated reading all about the conference from your blog and thank you sincerely for sharing!! I love reading about other people’s impressions and understandings about what the big people in our field have to say. I didn’t do one of the talks justice at my conference last week because I was struck down with the flu, but usually I try to do a mini summary of key points I’ve found interesting. I really liked that you linked to other talks by the various speakers too, because I didn’t know too many of them very well. Interestingly, I don’t think I commented on those posts because I was an outsider of the event and the other commenters were insiders. As I read their comments I wasn’t able to see how I could participate. But the lack of comments doesn’t mean that I didn’t read the posts and follow up the links very carefully :>
I don’t seem to have many people comment on my blog- there are lots of one off comments but only a couple of regular commenters. And yet I do receive a number of emails from people who tell me they are regular readers of my blog, so I kind of know there’s a vague group out there.
The knowledge of an audience and particular members of that audience censors me a little, but I still don’t care so much if I blog personal stuff (My sister loves keeping up with what I am doing through them). I just might not add the URL to a job application or CV in future :>
Comment by Anya — July 25, 2005 @ 4:52 pm
Dr Joolz, I enjoyed reading this post. I am a regular reader of your blog although I don’t write comments often, so you words touched a lot of spots. so I do want to write a comment this time.
I have had lots of thoughts as a consequence of reading the post but not thought them through adequately. I will just post them as is (sort of thing).
my own foray into blogging was thoroughly tentative. I established the blog and then paused for three days without posting. I think that i was overwhelmed by the thought that my words would be ’sitting’ out there. I got over that. then faced another decision -what did i want to post. I made a decision to post my research and uni work. little reference ever to my personal life. I maintain this focus in my blog however your own post made me think about why I do that, and what this suggests about blogs (perhaps).
for me, blogging is up for grabs, that is, I can make it what i want it to be. I don’t think that many people read my blog (I don’t have a meter) but i do enjoy writing it. also, it has served some purposes for me -recently I wrote up a list of things i was going to do in the student break. felt compelled to do those things once written on the blog, and did.
So, I think that currently people may use blogs for many purposes since you can. that is what interests me about blogs.
Comment by christinA — July 28, 2005 @ 8:39 am
Hi ChristinA
Thanks for your comment // your words strike a chord with me too.
When I first started my blog, the best thing was the writing process; I felt I improved my writing somehow - think it was the discipline of articulating thoughts and changing thoughts into the written form.
But then when people started reading it , it felt like I was writing more for them than for me to a certain extent anyway.
Here I am talkng about the DrJoolz blog, (http://drjoolzsnapshotz.blogspot.com/) not this one, Blogtrax. This one I think is much more about thinking out loud still.
Comment by DrJoolz — July 28, 2005 @ 6:56 pm