Blogs Reflecting Personality

After Reading Timothy Burke’s blogs I was not surprised that I was still confused by the concept of blogging. When I first started this class I had a simple stance on blogging and now as I learn more about the genres of blogging and the complexities involved I realize that it is definitely not as simple as it appears. As I continue to read different blogs it seems to me that each one has its own personality that incites a different response from me every time. For example, when I was reading Kate Thomas’s blog there was no denying the “flavor” between each line that in a very odd way made me feel as I knew Kate, or at least had a vague notion of her persona. When reading Hannah’s blog it felt as if Hannah were a friend that was merely letting me know how her trip to Chile was going. Even more bizarre was that when I saw Hannah in person it felt like she was already someone I knew and could refer to as a friend despite my never having met her. All these distant connections I feel with the bloggers remind me of reading a novel with a likeable character. After you finish the novel you feel as if the character is real and you know them as well as you know your own friends. This leads me to believe that blogs reveal more about the people writing them than they probably know. Blogs offer readers a glimpse of the writer’s personality even if they are not writing about themselves. The more I read of Timothy Burke’s blogs the easier it was to have a notion of him in my mind although I have never met him or even seen a picture.

While reading his blogs I did have a few questions though. ‘Easily Distracted” seems like the perfect title for his blog and since he seems to be in fact so easily distracted I would like to know how he feels about genres when it comes to blogs. Burke seems to be open to writing about anything and his blogs jump from discussions about vigilantes to discussions about sixteen year olds reading The Scarlet Letter. Would blogs having “official” genres affect his method of blogging? Would he feel “boxed in”? Burke’s blogs also seem to be very uninhibited even going as far as naming people; does he ever worry about repercussions for what he states in blogs? When reading the contents of his blog I also wondered if Burke would consider his blog to be inviting to everyone, or is it written for a certain kind of audience. After finishing Burke’s blog I had to smile at the thought of someone trying to classify such a varied blog to a specific genre.