Sburke42's Blog

Blogs a Dying Genre? February 5, 2010

Are blogs a dying genre? What are they being replaced with and why if so?

The most common form of blogging that my generation uses is definitely Facebook or Twitter or Myspace or Live Journal, etc.  If you consider these as true blogs, then they are definitely not a dying genre.  If you don’t consider these true blogs, then they are defintely what are replacing traditional blogs.  These media are fastly becoming and are the way that many of us younger people communicate and share things on the web.  It is also seen as our virtual life and the maintenance and upkeep of our virtual image is important.  Through this, we are constantly updating and sharing exactly as a blog does.  Because of this, I think that blogs are not dying genre and are becoming more popular every day, expanding across a greater demographic.

First Post Ever!! February 5, 2010

First post of my first blog…unless you count xanga in middle school (I don’t).

My name is Spencer and this is the first of several posts as part of a blog production project in my Participatory Cultures media class at Austin College.

Are blogs megaphones or diaries?
I see blogs as public diaries although some bloggers definitely use theirs as megaphones.  I think the “good” blogs will be diaries that a blogger uses to express their own opinions and interests.  If these opinions and interests gain some kind of following then they will probably be treated as a megaphone in some way or another.  Some bloggers that do use their blogs as megaphones may do so just for the reason that they are so excited for and devoted to the information that they blog to the world.  They want everyone to know what they know or have found and shout it to the world.  In the same way, a blog that is a diary will divulge this information more quietly and if subscribers to the blog find it as interesting as the blogger, then it has accomplished this task without acting as a megaphone.

More to come…