Atharv Dua Week #13 -- The Blog about Blogs
Why do we blog? Is it because of the indispensable flow of 5 writing points per week? That should definitely be a factor, but is that the only reason? The assignment itself says that blogging is meant to encourage us to “own our writing” and to encourage “authenticity.” If you own something, you by definition don’t just disown it the minute it’s published: it’s still yours.
Blogging is kind of like a public journal that you own. From quarter one, we’ve continuously compiled a colossal collection of blogs, not just our own but those of our peers too. All of the thoughts you put in these blogs are being stored on Blogger (at least up to a certain point in time) and even on Google Docs for you to keep for as long as you’d like. Through our blogging cohorts, we are recording younger versions of our collective selves along with a small piece of our identity for our future selves to look back at.
It’s like a photo: it’s a snapshot of your identity at this specific moment in time, which we’ve taken 12 times over the course of a semester and a half. Everyone has obviously been continuously evolving since the first blog, not just in identity as I mentioned above but also in writing styles and the exploration of the different topics that we choose to write about.
I think it’s interesting to see said progression, and reveals something about what was going on in our own lives at the time: for example, I wrote a blog about AI in college essays at some point at the start of the year because I was seriously thinking about my own at the time. I wrote a couple of blogs on politics, which usually followed major political events in the US (or worldwide), and I think they were even influenced by my history class at one point. Even this blog could potentially be about…blogs themselves because I perchance ran out of ideas (who knows:).
Will we reflect on these blogs once we’re older and think about our younger selves and the things that seemed so important to us at the time? The “shaping influences” that had an effect on our lives? Maybe, once we potentially become persons of American significance ourselves, these blogs could be used as evidence that future AP Lang generations use in their research papers. In any case, these blogs serve as an exhibition of our growth and development over this year, and I think it’s an excellent way of storing our memories in our own public journal.
The way that you view these blogs is new and refreshing. I'll admit, I never really thought about these blogs being snapshots of our identity at the certain moment in time as you mention. However, now that I think about it, you're absolutely right. Your post encouraged me to look through my past blogs, and I notice that I've always chosen to write about something that I enjoyed writing about or that I was passionate about. From Formula 1 and banned books, to Tamil movies and my weird interest in the paranormal, the topics I chose to write about were definitely ones that somehow had an impact on my life. For example, with my growing interest in motorsports, I learned more about myself: after years of not knowing what I wanted to pursue in college, I decided that I wanted a job in the field of sports business, preferably traveling around the world, just like many racing teams. As for banned books, I grew up as a kids that depended on books for company, and my heart would break if there was another kid like me who could not have that same opportunity or experience. In the past couple years, I've become an avid movie watcher who aspires to watch all types of movies and experience the emotions and worlds that they offer. Yet, Tamil movies will always be some of the best movies of my childhood, among other masterpieces like Cars and Big Hero 6. I've always had an interest in the paranormal, and watching videos about it introduced me to a world of places that I would love to visit, not only to learn about their histories but to see if I can actually spot a ghost or two. I agree that the topics of these blogs can be considered "shaping influences" in out lives, especially because from those topics, I've learned more about myself and what I want to do in the future.
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