- First and foremost, don't bite off more than you can chew. Apparently, keeping up three blogs as well as a full-time job, Master's classes, and some turmoil in my personal life is a little more than I can chew and I feel like all of the projects have suffered a bit this month while I have tried to balance them. I started writing food reviews for eatsalem.com as well as keeping up my Salem blog and this blog. I also have a blog for work that I've been trying to keep up for my students.
- Non-bloggers have a different perception of blogging than I do and that is probably okay. Not everyone needs to blog.
- Blogging is a big enough thing these days that it is being scientifically studied. Who knew? Not me. I didn't realize how much interesting research and how many journal articles I would find when I started looking into it.
- What my students are doing in class, although it is on a blog, may not fall into the category of "blogging." Blogging is more than just writing an online journal. Although I knew this, I couldn't put it into words like some have. Blogging is analyzing information on one subject and writing about it on a consistent basis over a period of time. Some of my students probably fall into the actual blogging category and others are less advanced in their abilities and are just practicing their writing skills, not really delving into the higher levels of thinking needed to analyze information.
- Keeping up with comments doesn't work as well in Blogger as I would like. It is difficult to have actual conversations in blog comments because the other person may not know that you have responded. I think WordPress might be better at this because it gives you an option to get an email when someone comments after you. I started to put up a WordPress blog, but I'm going to have to hold off on that for now.
- I am very social. Therefore even my online social networking ends up being a truly social real life experience. Apparently this doesn't happen for everyone and some people end up feeling cut off from "real life" by their online activity.
Wearables and More
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The email alerts are full of articles about the AppleWatch ranging from
"you must have" praise to "why bother." A novel thought was that when the
watch fi...
Boy, know what you mean about biting off more than you can chew. Writing food reviews now, too? You are an ambitious woman!
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point about the challenge of keeping up with comments. I must have done the RSS thing wrong, because I'm not getting any notice of new postings. I need to address that issue again.
And now thanks to your new culinary column, I'm going to have to add one more blog to my list! It must be getting very close to dinner time...
I appreciated your summary and comments on blogging, and self revelations as a result. I made a personal connection on a couple of your comments.
ReplyDeleteAs I have discovered throughout this experience, it takes work. Work, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. I come from the generation that was preached the old saying: "you reap what you sow." Unfortunately, this also breeds guilt. Oh..... I should've, etc. Then self doubt creeps in and a vicious cycle perpetuates.
Like any "relationship" blogging takes nurturing and committment. I have not fully committed at this point. I started slow, got totally swept away, especially with the commenting portion and then when it did not feel reciprocal, the passion vanished. It is my human flaw. It isn't enough to have a voice, if you are not sure anyone is listening.
Hey Rebekka,
ReplyDeleteYes it is a full-time commitment keeping up! You have put so much useful information into your blog that I just want to graze! I now have a bigger appreciation-maybe that is not the right word-maybe respect for serious bloggers; well the ones that are useful to me. Your site is definitely useful and worth the time. There is so much to keep up with! But is is a choice too-we must remember!