In the Spring of 2012 I will be entering the real world; searching for a job and living in my parents' basement. I'll be looking for a career working with words, whether in the literary publishing field or the journalism route. Needless to say, these two fields are very often mentioned in the same sentence as blogs.
People say that publishing on a blog isn't really publishing, and bloggers aren't journalists. However, blogs are changing journalism and publishing, and no one would deny that.
Here, a blogger at successful-blog.com debates whether a blog can be literature: http://www.successful-blog.com/1/blogging-as-literature-why-not/ but I would rather think about what a blog can mean to someone who is looking to launch a literary career. A blog offers a writer a place to get their work out into the world. Instead of sending a short story or poem directly to a literary magazine, a writer can post it on their blog and see what people think about it. It's a better version of handing a manuscript to a friend and asking for feedback. People will be more honest online, since they likely don't know the writer and can hide behind the veil of anonymity. Real, honest feedback is so important to a writer, and a blog's comment field is a great place to get that feedback.
As for blogging and journalism? Most journalists have their own blogs now, so obviously there is something to it. Print journalists can criticize home-body bloggers all they want, but at the same time they know it is changing the game. Like a writer looking to be published, blogs can do the same thing for a beginning journalist or a freelancer. Blogs are a free way to get your words and your name out to people. Why not sell your article to a newspaper, and then publish it on a blog? Thenextweb.com has a nice piece on the blogging vs. journalism debate: http://thenextweb.com/us/2010/08/18/blogging-vs-journalism-the-ongoing-debate/
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
On the verge of deletion
The time is almost here: the day I delete my Facebook. It's something I've been planning to do for a couple of months, but somehow I still have an account. I check it about once every two weeks, and all of my photos have been transferred to a file on my computer. I'm not trying to make some anti-society point by deleting the account like some people. I don't mind being a part of a huge commercial mass. my reasons are more practical than that, and mostly stem from paranoia.
First, I fear that employers looking at my Facebook will see my as unfit to hold any sort of responsibility. Facebook has painted a slanted portrait of my life. The only time I appear in photos is when I'm at a party. I rarely find my way in front of a camera when I'm sober. The result? Looking through my Facebook pictures, someone would assume I was a sloppy drunk who does nothing but attend theme parties. Instead of sorting through the photos and untagging the ones that have a beer in them, I'm choosing to delete my account. Keeping it would leave me with about six photos and a list of friends, most of which I can hardly remember.
Second, I don't like my information being harvested and sold to advertisers. I do have a Gmail account, and I know they do something similar. However, my Gmail account doesn't have my interests listed, connected to photos of me. The fact that people are extracting information from my life and analyzing it in order to sell products to me through increasingly invasive means really bothers me, and I'll choose not to participate.
First, I fear that employers looking at my Facebook will see my as unfit to hold any sort of responsibility. Facebook has painted a slanted portrait of my life. The only time I appear in photos is when I'm at a party. I rarely find my way in front of a camera when I'm sober. The result? Looking through my Facebook pictures, someone would assume I was a sloppy drunk who does nothing but attend theme parties. Instead of sorting through the photos and untagging the ones that have a beer in them, I'm choosing to delete my account. Keeping it would leave me with about six photos and a list of friends, most of which I can hardly remember.
Second, I don't like my information being harvested and sold to advertisers. I do have a Gmail account, and I know they do something similar. However, my Gmail account doesn't have my interests listed, connected to photos of me. The fact that people are extracting information from my life and analyzing it in order to sell products to me through increasingly invasive means really bothers me, and I'll choose not to participate.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Naming my blog
There are three steps in signing up for a blog on this site. The second one -- naming your blog -- is a real challenge. I overlooked the fact that I would have to name it, and when I was forced to do so I had a flashback. It was about three years ago and I was sitting sitting in a garage about to draft my first fantasy football team. Everyone else in the league had played the previous year(s) and already had a polished name. What I came up with I would rather not mention, it was so stupid. a couple of years later, I now have, in my opinion, the best team name in the league.
But naming this blog might have been worse than naming my first fantasy football team, except for the fact that I wasn't surrounded by eleven men loaded with beer and waiting for me to come up with something witty. After looking at different sites that claim to be the guide to a perfect blog name, I ended up partially stealing a name from a list. That blog is called "The Note," and I sat staring at the wall for ten minutes trying to find something similar. What I came up with is not half as good, and I'm left wishing I had the power to steal that name.
But naming this blog might have been worse than naming my first fantasy football team, except for the fact that I wasn't surrounded by eleven men loaded with beer and waiting for me to come up with something witty. After looking at different sites that claim to be the guide to a perfect blog name, I ended up partially stealing a name from a list. That blog is called "The Note," and I sat staring at the wall for ten minutes trying to find something similar. What I came up with is not half as good, and I'm left wishing I had the power to steal that name.
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