Some thoughts about blogging
I just spent about an hour responding to new comments on my blog, and that got me reflecting on the pluses and minuses of blogging. One obvious plus is the richness of the conversation that has evolved on this blog. Thank you readers! I've been given helpful hints on everything from skunk/dog interactions to my current scholarly study of online citizen reviewers. Several of you have also raised issues and asked questions that will really forward this research project .
It's been a fascinating experience for me as a writer and writing teacher to write my way into the blogosphere. As I noted in my first entry on January 11th, 2005 I found the thought of posting to my blog quite intimidating. I'm used to writing in quite specific rhetorical contexts: I typically know who my audience is (even if it's a general scholarly audience) and what the governing conventions are. I didn't have a good sense of this at all when I first began posting to my blog, and I'm still not sure I do. I am aware of having tried to tone down scholarly jargon and to mix the personal and the professional in a way that I hope readers will appreciate--but only readers can tell me if this has been effective.
Another plus--one I didn't expect--is the human empathy and support that readers expressed when I wrote about my mother's death. This was very moving to me.
And now the negatives: the big one of course is time, time, time. I don't know if I could possibly maintain my blog if I weren't having the luxury of a residency at my university's Center for the Humanities.
There's another unexpected negative: I find I'm spending more time on my blog and less on email. This leads to some interesting consequences. Hope (of Humor Hangout) and I have a long history of email conversations. But now that Hope is an active reader of my blog I find that I'm more likely to respond to her blog comments first rather than to her emails to me--even though the emails are arguably more personal. I'm not sure why I do this. I suspect it's because I'm aware that blog etiquette requires posting regularly to your blog, responding to comments, etc. And since my blog is public I may feel more pressure to do that.
I'd be interested in readers' comments about the blog/email relationship.
A final possible negative--I'm not sure about this--is the tendency for blogging to take over for/substitute for real life (whatever real life is). I just read that several well known bloggers have publicly announced that they're no longer maintaining their blogs. (Sorry, but the stories about them are at the Humanities Center, and I'm at home, so I can't say who they are.) I wonder how long I will be able to--and want to--maintain my blog. I guess only time will tell.
Hmmm. Perhaps this is the moment for me to say that I will probably post less frequently in the next two to three weeks or so. I'm just getting ready to embark on two big projects: writing a talk for the major national conference in my field and doing my husband's and my taxes. I've also got the typical slew of end-of-term letters of recommendation to write.
Once I accomplish these tasks, I'll head off to my conference, which over spring break, and then enjoy a brief post-conference vacation with my friend and coauthor Andrea Lunsford.
So don't be surprised in my presence in the blogosphere isn't as strong or frequent as it has been lately. I promise to check in now and then and to respond to comments--which I look forward to reading. I'm just not sure how many new posts I'll write.
posted by Lisa Ede @ 9:29 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
Hey Tavosmom, thanks for visiting my blog! And thanks also for your comment about online reviews.
I agree that online reviews can play a very important role in purchasing decisions. Here's an example. Last fall my siblings and I decided that we wanted to buy our parents a digital camera for Christmas. Their regular camera had just broken, and since they have a computer we thought a digital camera made sense.
There were many emails among us sibs as to which camera would be best. (Some contributed more than others; we still don't have a digital camera, so I didn't have much to say.) Finally, at the urging of several sibs, we purchased a camera with especially strong customer reviews on Amazon.com.
It's interesting to speculate why people trust customer reviews as much as they seem to do. An online customer review is the opposite of the kind of review that appears in, say, Consumer Reports (where enormous care is taken with objectivity, comparability of data, etc.) On the face of it, it would seem to make more sense to go to Consumer Reports or Consumers Union to gain information about a purchasing decision.
But that, of course, involves time and effort--and online customer reviews are so much easier to locate and process. You don't have to study the criteria or figure out what the funny symbols so beloved by Consumer Reports mean.
But I don't think that fully explains the appeal of online customer reviews. I've read some studies by marketing agencies that suggest that the fact that customer reviewers are (or appear to be) "ordinary" people is what gives them credibility. It's as if a family member or someone who know and trust whispers in our ear and tells us directly about their experience.
I'm not sure how one would begin to study the accuracy and helpfulness of online customer reviews. I have talked with friends who rely on websites like Craig's list to make purchases and hire people to do household repairs, and they generally report positive results.
But back to your comment: You absolutely only want the best carseat arrangement for your beautiful, beautiful son Tavo!
I have email from Lisa that I hope to respond to as soon as I can get to my apartment which I have had to vacate so as to let my landlord make a shambles of my bathroom, as I am a very forbearing tenant. I want to read all the interesting comments here and what a nice thing that people are not endangering children, as that would not be good.
Hope
Hi Lisa!
I hope you don't mind if I add some thoughts too!
First, on your blog/email relationship question:
I'm not sure if my time spent talking to people on livejournal.com has actually replaced the amount of communication I do via email. Generally, replies and discussion in my livejournal are related to the post itself, and if I need to get a personal message to someone, email is still what I use.
I do know that blogging can be very addictive and socially destructive. I've got a close friend who deleted his livejournal account and also chose to stop using IM services because he felt they were becoming a problem and preventing him from leaving the house! In my opinion, it can really be like an addiction. You get a big sense of satisfaction and gratification when you see the number of comments in a blog entry grow, for example. I think some people are more or less "at risk" of becoming "addicted" like this, just as they may be more or less "at risk" of other addictive behaviors. I also think that the ability to recognize it as a problem and take steps to correct it also depends on the person. It would be really interesting to research things like this more deeply, although it's not as related to your customer review research.
So, about the customer review research:
In your reply to Tavosmom, you were speculating about why customer reviews seem to be so popular. I think you're right about it having something to do with "ordinary people's" personal-experience, and that it's like having a friend or someone tell us about a product (or a seller).
I think there could be more to it too. I personally trust customer reviews because I think a customer isn't going to have any hidden motivation to be misleading. I can't always tell if an "official" review site or source might be affiliated with a certain company or be being pressured to do more research on products from a few big names. I'll trust customer reviews or message board discussions of products because those seem to be motivated PURELY by an open discussion of the quality of that product.
I did a lot of research on geeky discussion boards before I bought my mp3 player a few weeks ago. I went for a brand-new, relatively unknown (non ipod!) model because of the rave reviews and discussions that the release of this product generated. This player has become a kind of "superior underground product" because of its features and design--"underground" because the company isn't as big as Apple, so (I imagine) has trouble marketing the player.
I think customer reviews/discussion might be a way smaller break-out companies with superior or new products can gain visibility.
Lastly, SORRY THIS COMMENT IS SO MASSIVE! judging by the length of everyone else's comments though, it appears you don't mind verbose replies. :)
Wow! How cool to check my blog on what in Oregon is a truly gorgeous Sunday afternoon and find these great comments. Thanks!
Emily, you're so right when you comment about the gratification and satisfaction you get when you check your blog and see that comments have increased. This is definitely an ego boost. While I'm at it, thanks very much for posting to my blog, Emily. Your comments make great sense, and I especially appreciate your example of your mp3 player
I do think that blogging can become addictive--but then I also think that just about anything humans do can become addictive and/or obsessive. We're the only ones who can finally figure out whether this or that activity we're engaging in is healthy or destructive.
That reminds me of your comments, Kim. It's clear that blogging has many benefits, and surely the biggest one is simply getting people to write theirthoughts in a semi-public way.
It's interesting to try to think about metaphoric comparisons with earlier technologies. I'm wondering if blogging might be in between letter writing and the telegraph? Anyone can write a letter (if they're literate), but you had to learn a new language to use the telegraph. The great thing about blogging software is that for the most part you don't have to learn a new language (HTML). You can just blog.
Alan, thanks for reminding us of the benefits of good old f2f communication. There are times when nothing else works. In fact, there is nothing like sitting down with a cup of coffee to talk for working out differences, deciding if you really love someone, etc.
Now that last kind of statement isn't anything that I would write in a scholarly article, so that brings me back to the general subject of blogging. As I've scrolled through the responses to my blog entry, I'm struck by how the blogosphere has enabled a group of people who don't know each other to engage in discussion. That may be my very favorite thing about blogging.
Hmm, on the email versus blogging issue. I think email should be attended to first, as that is between friends or directly business related, whereas blogging is between the blogger and a more distance audience to whom the blogger owes less of an obligation.
Realistically, Alan, most of us don’t have time to sit around drinking coffee and that reduces economic productivity in any case and is a bother if you are a bicyclist. Emailing is cheaper too and suits conservatives better, as liberals are the coffee type types.
Interesting how Tavosmom’s posting in the end was a sort of email message from her to Lisa in the form of a blog posting. At least that is what it becomes in the latter paragraphs.
Kim: Letters were a fairly upper middle genre, whereas blogs seem to appeal to people of borderline literacy.
Good point about blogging being a way for things to break out, Emily. And what do you mean verbose? Whom are you calling verbose?
Engaging in discussion is good, but you notice that most of us are addressing our comments to Lisa and not to each other.
Hope
What are/is the 4 Cs, please?
I looooove, "transactional missives."
Hope
I had a spare minute and thought I'd check my blog, and I see that the conversation has continued. Cool!
Before I forget, the 4Cs or CCCC is the Conference on College Composition and Communication. It's the major professional conference for faculty in rhetoric and writing--and it's in San Francisco next week.
I've appreciated these reflections on blogging and email. They do seem to address (and maybe also invoke?) different communities. And it's clear that we feel different kinds of urgencies and responsibilities with both. Perhaps because I'm new to blogging and more familiar with email I find myself wanting to give my blog first attention, even though your point about email being personal or professional makes complete sense to me, Hope.
Rosa G, thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's always cool when someone new find their way to my blog.
Our discussion about blogging and its potential advantages (Kim) and disadvantages (Emily) reminds me again that blogging is a human activity so can be everything from liberating to mind-numbing. I do think it's fascinating to reflect on how quickly people are incorporating blogging into their lives--including me!
Who'd have thunk it?!
I had a spare minute and thought I'd check my blog, and I see that the conversation has continued. Cool!
Before I forget, the 4Cs or CCCC is the Conference on College Composition and Communication. It's the major professional conference for faculty in rhetoric and writing--and it's in San Francisco next week.
I've appreciated these reflections on blogging and email. They do seem to address (and maybe also invoke?) different communities. And it's clear that we feel different kinds of urgencies and responsibilities with both. Perhaps because I'm new to blogging and more familiar with email I find myself wanting to give my blog first attention, even though your point about email being personal or professional makes complete sense to me, Hope.
Rosa G, thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's always cool when someone new find their way to my blog.
Our discussion about blogging and its potential advantages (Kim) and disadvantages (Emily) reminds me again that blogging is a human activity so can be everything from liberating to mind-numbing. I do think it's fascinating to reflect on how quickly people are incorporating blogging into their lives--including me!
Who'd have thunk it?!
Emily. And what do you mean verbose? Whom are you calling verbose?Hope:
Did I use that word wrong? I thought it had no negative connotation! Maybe my mistake is revealing how I learned that word from unix jargon, where it means basically that there is more information printed to the screen when something is being compiled. This is as opposed to setting the compiler to a more "quiet" setting that hides most of the information.
Didn't mean to offend anyone in any way!
None taken, Emily. I was only kidding.
Hope
None taken, Emily. I was only kidding.
Hope
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
What an interesting reflection on the word "verbose"! I do think of verbose as generally having negative connotations--ie a verbose speaker is someone who takes much longer to say something than is generally necessary.
I had no knowledge of the term's specific meaning in unix jargon. That's fascinating!
And thanks to all of you who tactfully chose not to tease me about posting a comment twice. I guess I have a heavy hand when it comes to pressing "publish."
Academics are hardwired to publish.
Hope
Hi, Lisa! Hope you are enjoying your conference and vacation! I happened across the folowing site while surfing and thought it might be of interest to you in your research:
http://www.reportsfromconsumers.com./
Hi, Rambling. Good for you for helping Lisa with her research.
Lisa: Here is an article that I came across in the alumni journal of the University of Chicago (which my folks get:
http://www.danieldrezner.com/
Confessions of a Scholar-Blogger
The writer, editor, and publisher of danieldrezner.com reveals how he balances his day job as an assistant professor of political science with his passion for electronic commentary.
Since becoming an assistant professor, I have authored one book, edited another, and published a respectable quantity of scholarly articles. And yet I can say with a fair degree of certainty that if you added up the number of people who have read any and all of these works, it would probably be less than the number of hits I receive daily on my Web log—an online journal I’ve kept for the last two-and-a-half years. That fact simultaneously exhilarates and appalls me.
Daniel Drezner
Why did I start a blog? Well, I was reading blogs long before I began writing one. Five years ago—the Paleolithic era of blogging—some of my favorite essayists and journalists had started what were then called “me-zines”—writing on topics that ranged from cutting-edge technology to the future of party politics to the joys of dog ownership. The first blogs were created so writers could shop their wares to readers and future employers, with the occasional log entry to encourage recurring visits.
And then a funny thing happened—netizens liked the blog part of these sites. They certainly interested me. The writing style seemed more idiosyncratic, more conversational, less… edited. There was a candor to the prose that piqued my interest in blogs. The fact that many of these writers were plugged into machinations inside the Beltway also gave their blogs a gossipy, insider feel.
Something else started to happen. Bloggers began having conversations with each other. They would post their thoughts on some issue of the day, and a few hours later hyperlink and respond to rebuttals and disagreements with their original post. A group of individual blogs came to be known as the “blogosphere.”
After the September 11, 2001, attacks it was only natural that the politically oriented blogs started talking more and more about foreign policy. While I read much of interest, it struck me that none of the prominent bloggers had any advanced training in international relations. There was a niche to fill. At the same time, blogging software became more standardized, making it possible for someone as technologically illiterate as myself to get involved. A year and a day after 9/11 I started my eponymous blog, posting once or twice each day about politics, economics, international relations, and the Boston Red Sox.
By now I probably devote an hour or two per day researching and writing posts—but that’s an average with a high degree of variance. There are weeks where I simply do not have time to devote to the blog. There are other times when I find myself spending half the day trying to get an entry just right.
My areas of scholarly expertise are the utility of economic statecraft, the political economy of globalization, and U.S. foreign policy, so I certainly blog on those topics. However, I’m also a policy wonk, a news junkie, and a popular-culture devotee. The blog is an outlet for me to post quick thoughts about events from Iraq to offshore outsourcing to Pamela Anderson’s novel-writing abilities. The posts represent a very rough draft of what I’m thinking about—and let me stress “very rough.”
The best, most addictive part of blogging is seeing whether my posts provoke interesting and cogent responses. As National Journal columnist Jonathan Rauch wrote in Kindly Inquisitors, “We can all have three new ideas every day before breakfast: the trouble is, they will almost always be bad ideas. The hard part is figuring out who has a good idea.” Rauch believes that the liberal scientific enterprise is the way to separate good ideas from bad. For the topics that interest me—whether foreign or economic policy or pop culture—the blogosphere is now a useful part of that enterprise.
There are many bloggers I admire both in and out of the academy, and they’re all on my “blogroll.” But three bloggers in particular possess skills that I envy. Former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan has an exceptionally rare talent—he writes well when he’s impassioned. It’s exceedingly difficult to translate emotion into polished prose without seeming either petty or undisciplined. If you can do it, I tip my hat in deferential respect, and I tip my hat to Andrew. At the opposite end of the spectrum of prose styles, Virginia Postrel, author of The Future and Its Enemies and The Substance of Style, has an astringency to her blogging that I greatly admire. Her opinions are always her own—she never blows with the political winds. Finally, Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA, makes all other scholar-bloggers look like slackers. In addition to his considerable publication schedule in legal journals, Eugene inevitably finds time to post 2,000-word blogs about interesting law cases.
When I started blogging, I feared that it would prove a distraction from my scholarly research. What I did not anticipate was that it would actually trigger new research avenues. My interest in offshore outsourcing, for example, started when I posted a few items about it and received impassioned responses. By the time I decided to write an article on the topic for Foreign Affairs, I realized that I had unwittingly completed a fair amount of my research via my blog posts.
Done properly, blogging can be a form of initial research in both the empirical and theoretical realms. Empirically, blogging is similar to clipping news articles or gathering information about a case study. Theoretically, blogging permits one to play with ideas—and even better, to get instant (and candid) feedback from readers. The feedback effect on blogs is much quicker than more traditional presentations of new ideas in academia. Because of these comparative advantages, blogging is seeping into scholarship. Already, footnotes referencing individual blog posts are appearing in both legal opinions and public-policy briefs.
The other area of investigation that blogging triggered was research about blogging itself. For something that started out as a hobby for most of its practitioners, blogging suddenly looks like a major political phenomenon. Commentators generally assign the blogosphere an important role in Trent Lott’s resignation as Senate majority leader, Howell Raines’s resignation as executive editor of the New York Times, Howard Dean’s rise and fall as a presidential candidate, and CBS’s retraction of its story on President Bush’s National Guard service. In July 2004 White House Internet Director Jimmy Orr stated: “Bloggers are very instrumental. They are important. They can lead the news. And they’ve been underestimated.”
How can a collection of decentralized, nonprofit, contrarian, and discordant Web sites exercise any influence over political and policy outputs? George Washington University professor Henry Farrell and I proffer an answer to this question in a paper we presented last year at the American Political Science Association annual meeting, entitled “The Power and Politics of Blogs.” In our paper we focused on two significant aspects of the blogosphere: the skewed distribution of readers across the array of political blogs and the interactions between significant blogs and traditional media outlets, or “mediasphere.” A few blogs command most of the hits, but they also link to less-recognized bloggers. Those who want to keep up on what’s going on in the blogosphere need only read a few elite bloggers to get such a snapshot. When key blogs focus on a new or neglected issue, they can create interpretive frames that act as a focal point for mainstream media, shaping and constraining the larger political debate.
My biggest surprise about blogging came as we researched the links between the mediasphere and the blogosphere: unexpectedly influential people read blogs.
Why would political experts read the musings of (mostly) political amateurs? There is no single answer. For some, it’s because blogs represent a new way to gauge public reaction to news. For others, it’s because the blogosphere is remarkably efficient at pointing readers to expert opinions. For many, I’m sure, there’s a simpler explanation: people who work in politics and the media are information junkies, and blogs feed their habit.
People often ask me whether blogs will be this decade’s equivalent of CB radio or if they’re here to stay. My strong hunch is the latter—in part because popular blogs are starting to earn significant advertising revenues. Blogs like Instapundit or Daily Kos are now valued brand names. That said, I can assert from first-person experience that there is such a thing as burnout. This past fall, with a tightly contested election and a polarized electorate, was a particularly difficult time to blog without being accused of partisanship by one side or another.
Will I still be blogging in five years? I honestly don’t know, but my suspicion is that if I do, there will be plenty of sabbaticals thrown in. One undeniable effect of having a successful blog is the inculcation of a sense of duty to keep up regular posts. Even the thought of blogging on a regular basis for half a decade exhausts me. However, the thought of not blogging about the interesting ideas or information that comes my way bothers me even more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel W. Drezner, an assistant professor of political science, joined the Chicago faculty in 1999. With an MA in economics and a PhD in political science from Stanford, he is the author of Locating the Proper Authorities: The Interaction of Domestic and International Institutions (University of Michigan Press, 2002) and The Sanctions Paradox: Economic Statecraft and International Relations (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
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