Looking from the Inside Out, Academic Blogging as New Literacy

I have been blogging for quite some time now, I used to have a political blog where I would post an issue and me and some friends of all political stripes would debate the issue to some sort of conclusion. It was the equivalent of a bar room conversation where we would solve all of the world's problems in a single day. I had to shut down that blog as some people who were not friends discovered the blog and ruined what was polite and civil discourse by being polarizing and divisive.

I also have a blog for my creative writing something I am becoming more comfortable allowing someone to read. I have one follower, my girlfriend, and I doubt many people actually read anything I post with any regularity. It is a big blog space out there and I doubt that anyone has really discovered my creative writing blog.

I probably blog most at a site called the Daily Kos, I was more active during the 2008 presidential election; however, from time to time I contribute to the GUS (Gave up smoking) series and I have had a couple of diaries on the recommended list. The first was one from when I gave up my membership to the American Legion, and the second was a blog I wrote about my mother when she in the final hours of her life. There are other blog posts I wrote that while they did not make the recommended list, were equally as powerful, one about the loss of a lifelong friendship and another that I wrote about the possibility of a new cold war with Russia's invasion of Georgia by sharing my story of serving on the East/West German border during the Cold War.

The thing I like about blogging at The Daily Kos is the sense of community, the blog about my mother, and the people who I did not know offering me support when I needed it most meant a great deal to me it showed me that even in my darkest hour that there was hope. I even got an e-mail from Keith Olberman who was going through a very similar event in his life with his father at the same time.

Now you may ask yourself, "What in the world does this have to do with this weeks reading assignment?" Well, I think it ties in rather nicely, with the primary point being that on the Daily Kos, I am able to blog with anonymity, whereas on blog spot, my name is out there for all to see. That being said, several people on Daily Kos know who I am, the majority do not, I have become friends with several people with whom I only know by a handle. Others, I have gotten to know on a more personal level. I think this quote from the article sums it up fairly succinctly.

"Through the accumulation of information about bloggers' lives, readers build a richer picture and an understanding of how multiple discourses make up complex selves. When such details are offered and reciprocated across a plurality of blogs, a sense of a shared social history is acquired, especially where comments are made about others' lives and views. In turn there is a new sense of self, as it is woven into a joint narrative text across the blogs; a sense of a new self in a new and complex internet space."

Blogging, at least in my opinion, allows me to express myself in ways that I am unable to in society.