Reflections on Blogging

Reflecting on the past eight weeks of PWR 2, I've come to the conclusion that blogging isn't altogether a horrible thing. My first reaction when I found out that we had to blog was one of great irritation. I've always thought of blogging as a very crude form of writing, child-like even. I no longer feel that way, because I've seen that blogs can be used not simply as online-diaries, but also as credible sources of information. I was definitely shocked to find that there are reporters that use the blog as a means of communicating up-to-date information on world events. I find it fascinating that people actually find blogs to be secure and credible enough to take seriously some of the information that gets passed along. As for personal use, I've found that blogs can actually be enjoyable to keep up; one can write with substance and style. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the use of blogging in academia, but my gut feeling tells me that it can't be an altogether horrible thing, because we used it in the class and it did not have a noticeable negative influence. The one concern that I have is that the blog might not be taken seriously because it has for many, the connotation of an online diary. A collaborative blog sounds interesting, but how different would it be then an online forum? That I'm not so sure about.