Blogs

A. What is the difference between a blog and a book?
B. How have blogs changes recently?
C. Why might you read a blog?
D. Is there reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog? Why? Why not?
E. If you kept your own blog, what would you title it?

A. There are many differences between a blog and a book. Probably one of the most obvious one is the space in which each of these is created. Books are the final product of amny revised drafts which have been given to a publishing company to print and distribute among the population. Blogs, on the other hand, are found on the world wide web, a place anybody can have access to anywhere (unlike bookstores). Blogs can talk about many different subjects, and, unlike books, many people's writings and opinions contribute to the maintenance of the blog. Blogs are much more concise and to-the-point than books, which tend to ramble a lot to try to make the literary work interesting. Blogs permit you to easily access and have information about whichever topic you like by simply searching on the web or starting your own discussion. They are some of the best places to search when you are looking for specific information about a certain topic, and at the same time offer a great variety books don't possess. Unlike books, blogs can be updated on-line, and are permanently expanding. Blogs possess links, which are pieces of text which you click on to get transported to another website which complements your blog. Lastly, books have certain spelling and grammar rules which must be followed - they have a strict structure, which has to follow a specific order depending on the genre. Blogs are informal - they don't require you to have perfect spelling or grammar, and even permit you to include animations and emoticons, as well as commonly used abbreviations (LOL, OMG, FYI, OMFG).....

B. Blogs, although somewhat recently invented (1980s) have undergone vast changes in the past years. In the year 1998, blogs began to become popular around the world. At the beginning, these didn't include commentary from people, just a series of links that people wanted to offer that took you to specific websites. In 1999, blogs began to gather momentum and expanded rapidly around the world. The whole character of blogs changed: new websites began to appear which offered people assistance in creating their own blogs, which could include as much information as its author wanted to show. Comments from other people began to make their appearance on blogs, a custom which has come to define blogs today. from the years 1999 to 2003, the number of blogs on the web began to expand: from a few hundred to two million, its numbers doubling every five months. The blog boom erupted with the nw millenium. People wanted to gain fame and attention of the web. Links directing you to outside pages began to be replaced with links that took you to your own blog. Opionions began to be more liberally expressed in blogs, which began to talk about subjectys of controversy in order to attract more viewers and people to post comments. People wanted to become popular, or "link-whores". the past few years have presented dramatic change in the nature of blogs. they have now become massive, popular, accesible, free-minded places where you can express your opinion and talk about whatever you like.

C. One of the reasopns blogs have become so popular is because people read them a lot. Personally, I would read a blog to get informed about the most recent news about a topic, or the "411" of the day. I would also read blogs to get informed about opinions from other people about a specific subject. These are very important, as they break the boundaries of your mind and introduce to you new ideas and points of view you might never really have thought could exist. I might also read blogs to get fast, easy, and accesible information about a topic. Of course, if I wanted to get into detail I would rather read an encyclopedia, but blogs have the benefit of being fast and accesible whenever you want to get briefly informed about something, especially something recent that INVOLVES OPINION. I would read blogs whenever I am bored, or as it is said in Colombia, "desplanada". That is, when I have nothing urgent to do and would simply like to have a fun time messing in people's private lives.

D. There are many reasons to doubt the objectivity of blogs, as blogs are places where people express their opinions obout something. They don't commomly inform you about facts (which are left for you to google), but on the opinions and personal reactions about events. therefore, they are very subjective. As was mentioned, people want to attract viewers to their blogs. This means that they will probably be radical about their positions in order to make blogs more entertaining and attractive and so people may contradict or support you, and hence you get more viewers. if you ask me, I think blogs are more subjective than the editorial page of newspapers, as they show opinions and comments from people from all over the world and in all sorts of situations. Blogs are places of gossip, where people go to to let the public see what's on your mind.

E. If I kept my own blog, i would probably title it "the 411", as I would want to talk about the most recent news and expect people to be gossip-ish and express their opiniomns on my blog. This name actually appeals to the public, or at least to every girl teen in the world, which I expect must have seen the movie "Mean Girls". I would choose this title because it has significance for me and my best friend natalia, who has also seen the movie a dozen times, and we always laugh about the wanna-be Barbie, dumb-blonde, socially-preocupied mother of one of the preppy school girls, and is constantly asking "what's the 411, what's everybody been up to!!", hence making reference to the theme of recent news I would want to talk about in my blog...

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post your comments. if you have any questions about point E (which I expect you seem to think is a little strange), feel free to talk.. remember, blogs are random!!
P.S. please excuse me for any typeos you may run into