The Questions for the First Day of Class

A. What is the difference between a blog and a book?

A blog is a journal or log that appears on a Web site. Books, on the other hand, are physical texts encased within two covers. Additionally, while blogs are short and opinionated writings that are read within a matter of minutes, books are long, informative, and extensively explicative. Lastly, blogs are known for their jumpy nature: they provide links and outside information to support their arguments and ideas. Unlike blogs, books contain most of their information within one very long text.

B. How have blogs changes recently?

Blogs have recently changed because their writers have become increasingly hungry for attention. In the past, bloggers cared about the number of outbound links on their blog—the greater the number, the more information they had to support their arguments. Now, the number of inbound links to your blog determines how popular your writing is, so bloggers are trying to find new ways to get attention called upon them. They start rumors, tell lies, pick fights, create fake personas, and post embarrassing videos—all in the name of fame. In other words, the writers/bloggers have become “link whores.”

C. Why might you read a blog?

Blogs are a short and easy way of getting large amounts of information (not necessarily good information). Through just a few sentences, phrases, and links, blog readers get highly opinionated and supported information. So the day that I need some info or a specific opinion, I will Google the subject in order to find a blog—one that will give me all that need utilizing very few words.

D. Is there reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog? Why? Why not?

Of course there is a reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog. First of all, blogs can be posted by anyone and everyone with an internet connection, meaning that there is no screening process for bloggers. Anyone with a strong opinion on a subject can post a blog—and as legitimate as they might make themselves, most people are not well-informed. Secondly, the whole topic of “link whores” has created a frenzy for fame, one where bloggers will do anything, including lying and making up information, in order to become a household name.

E. If you kept your own blog, what would you title it?

I would title it simply Ami’s Claim to Fame