Elda’s Weblog

This blog was firstly created to serve the purpose of maintaining a blog for my MA media class. It was about a month ago that i posted my first entry fully enthusiastic that i would begin something by myself and other people would comment on it. As  I read from the article “Why we blog” there are several motivations for blogging. I can say that my main motivation has been to provide comments and opinions; and maybe articulate ideas through writing about social networking.

I have to admit that this is not my first blog. I had begun another one last year where I was documenting my life and expressing ideas and opinions, but I deactivated my account after a while. The reason was that I did not feel motivated enough to continue writing. I was writing things about my life but what was the point? I did not have a great audience, the more passionate ones where my two closest friends, but no one else seemed to be interested about my blog. I was feeling too unimportant and that I was spending too much time for something that was worthless. I hope it will not happen the same with this blog too!

What reasons would you give for *not* carrying on with a blog?

As I already wrote, the main reason for not carrying on with a blog would be the lack of audience. As far as I see that other people are visiting my blog I will feel confident enough to continue blogging. I don’t think that I would stop my blog if I had nothing to say. There are so many things around us that affect our lives and we can have an opinion to express on them.

Who would you blog for? What sense of audience have you got when you are blogging? What evidence have you got for your blog being used by others?

For the moment, i believe that my main audience is my classmates from the media course. We are all trying to maintain our blogs and we expect from each other to read the blogs and comment on them. From the dashboard I have some indicators that other bloggers too have read my blog. They have reached it through certain tags which I have used in order to categorize my entries. Moreover, I have used a tool called blog stats which shows the total number of people who have visited the blog and which fortunately everyday seems to increase. After I finish the course my main target will be my friends and anyone else who is interested about social networking.

What are the benefits of blogging for (i) yourself and (ii) others?

In order to maintain the blog I have to be informed about social networks. I have to develop my own opinion and express it objectively in my blog. So, I have to be an “expert” about what I am writing about or at least have some knowledge about it. So, I read and search for articles, and I use the internet in order to stay informed. As a result, I broaden my knowledge too.  Consequently, as the blog will be informative and will be sticking to facts, anyone else who will be reading it, will stay informed too. They might even understand what I will be writing about in more depth because my goal is to use plain English.

I have read that some people use blogs in order to earn money through using advertisements. I would never do such a thing and my opinion is that it is not right to exploit the readers in such unethical ways.

What have been the ‘unintended consequences’ of blogging?

Sometimes, i feel that I am disappointing my audience if I haven’t written something for a week. I feel guilty because I think that they visit my blog in order to read something new and they feel disappointed when they find that I haven’t included a new entry. There is no one to apologize to because it is my own blog but I keep thinking that I should have an entry at least once a week so as they remain satisfied.

Has anything surprised you about keeping a blog?

Well, it is quite difficult to keep a blog. You have to spend quite a lot of time in order to maintain it and write new stuff every week. I thought that it would be easy to express my opinion and exciting to receive comments by anyone who would read it. The truth is that I don’t feel free to express my opinion, I am not totally excited that I will have an online journal; I have to watch out for everything I write about. I should be very careful in order not to insult or hurt someone. I should be very well informed because anyone can proof what I am talking about might be wrong. And sometimes I feel that I don’t want to share anything with anyone. I would prefer to keep it for myself or at least for my friends. Why should I spend so much time and effort for somebody else who might not even appreciate what I am writing about?

Have you suddenly made lots of new online friends?

No, I haven’t made new online friends through my blog …

Has your social life take a turn for the worse?

Of course not …

Is it all a lot more boring and mundane than you expected?

Yes it is, but no one has ever managed to become good at something without spending lots of time and effort (unless he is a true talent of course) …