Hi, I’m Stefani…not steFANI like Gwen Stefani, but Stefani like Stephanie. Thanks to Gwen, my name gets mispronounced a lot. I’m a junior, human development major, from Rockland County, NY, about 25 miles outside of New York City. I am interested in working with people, but at this point, I don’t really have a specific career field in mind. This summer I interned at Nickelodeon, in the Research Headquarters Department, and I loved it. I like the idea of combining the HD “child knowledge” with business in order to figure out what works/doesn’t work in terms of products and marketing for kids. You still get to interact with kids through focus groups and one-on-one interviews and are not stuck sitting in an office 24/7.
This semester I am continuing with research, working on a project about children’s testimony. I am a Human Ecology Ambassador and I work in Human Ecology’s Career Development Center critiquing resumes, cover letters, and helping students find internships and externships. I also love playing tennis and traveling.
An internet-related phenomenon that I am interested in is blogging. Why blog? What motivates people to publicize their daily activities, events, and feelings, and why do strangers read it? I remember in middle school/high school, live journals were the “in” thing to have. For the most part, they were used as a supplement for face-to-face conversations – venting about school, crushes, and the now ex-best-friend who was dating the ex-boyfriend. While people would not dare to say half of the things they typed face-to-face, live journals were used as a space to write anything and everything.
While I suppose it is easier to say how you truly feel to a computer, rather than to the face of a friend, crush, or teacher, why make it public? What happened to the diaries that had a lock and were hidden under peoples’ pillows? Blogging has dropped privacy along the wayside. Even for those who write anonymously (which gives them some sense of privacy), there is still the public aspect of sharing your feelings and experiences with the world.
Blogging also gives people a way to circumvent face-to-face people interaction – is this really a good thing? Instead of just typing it, shouldn’t we also be expressing ourselves face-to-face with other people? From school to work to extracurricular activities, people need to know more than just savvy computer skills – they need to know how to get along with others, how to work out problems, and express themselves in a respectful, appropriate way. I don’t think bosses or coworkers would be thrilled to unexpectedly find themselves the subject of an angry blog. While blogging may be considered almost therapeutic in the sense of venting and telling the world who you are and how you feel, does it really help us get by in the real world?
I think that blogging would fall under both the world wide web and asynchronous discussion environment. Blogs are in the world wide web environment because they are posted on the internet and I think that some of them may be considered asynchronous discussion since people respond and post replies to each other.
3 comments:
I agree with your idea that blogging has started to erode the traditional sense of the “diary.” I have never written in a diary myself so I might be speaking out of context, but I feel as if the blog takes the diary a step further. Privacy is lost, but the idea that other people might be reading about your life makes it all the more exciting. I know Wallace mentioned that people believe that huge numbers of viewers are reading their site everyday. It could be this feeling of fame that keeps them posting. Perhaps it is the feedback and comments that people receive from their “posts” that keeps them wanting to write.
I also agree with your notion that a computer allows us to become bolder. It does give us a sense of anonymity and allows our “true” feelings to come out. This might also be another reason people continue to blog. There are no constraints.
Good evening Stefani, I was wondering if you could explain a bit more in depth about what exactly is a Human Ecology Ambassador?
Thanks
Hi Stefani,
I’m really glad you posted a blog regarding blogging because the phenomenon has also sparked much interest in me. I especially like how you mention the various purposes of blogging (venting, confessing a crush, reflecting upon daily activities, etc.). I agree that many seem to be resorting to posting blogs instead of keeping a tangible diary. One may think blogging about your daily activities and inner thoughts would be bizarre, considering all the privacy issues regarding the internet. However, I do not believe many individuals find this to be a major issue. Perhaps it all has to do with Wallace’s notion that bloggers believe their online audience is much greater than it actually. This may encourage some to be creative and detailed with their blogs in order to excite and entertain their audience—causing them to overlook the privacy issue.
Being a regular blogger myself, I find blogging to be useful in the sense that it helps me descriptively explain thoughts and concerns or ideas that may be on my mind. Personally, I sometimes have difficulty finding the right words to explain myself in verbal conversations; I seem to express myself better though writing. Being able to blog my ideas and thoughts enables me to thoroughly explain things in a detailed manner. I also like blogging because of the comment feature. Whenever I post a blog, I usually receive comments and responses from my “subscribers” (my close friends from home). I find these comments to be constructive and beneficial in the sense that they usually open my eyes to other issues or thoughts I might not have considered otherwise.
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