Blogs and Attention Seeking Bloggers
Web logs are one of the newest things popping up on the Internet. “What is a web log?” one may ask. Well, a web log, otherwise known as blog, is a place on the web where a person can go to write down anything that they feel like writing in an archive that they have created. It’s a personal site almost like a diary, but it’s posted where anybody can gain access.
Wondering why somebody would want to put their lives online made me think that bloggers are just seeking some kind of attention. I looked into this to see what attention they are looking for and discovered many things. Not all blogs seek attention, but some do. It all depends on which kind of blog the person created.
The first thing about blogs that I discovered is that there isn’t one kind. A theory about the kinds of blogs that there are came from one of my classmates Adam who said that there were really three types of blogs. Adam puts blogs into three categories: Advertisement and non-personal informative, Personal, and The Hybrid.
I also read an article by John C. Dvorak, a writer for PC Magazine. In his article, ‘The Blog Phenomenon’ Dvorak classifies bloggers into five categories; Ego gratification, Antidepersonalization, Elimination of frustration, Societal need to share, and Wanna-be writers. From this I realized that there must be different types of bloggers and they aren’t all the same.
Adam’s theory and Dvorak’s article interested me enough to take a closer look at what blogs are all about. As I looked and thought about it there weren’t only three kinds of blogs, there seems to be more like a million. Then as I was looking I asked myself, Are bloggers looking for some kind of attention, and if so, what attention are they seeking and from whom??
To begin my research I started observing a blog that I randomly chose. My first instinct was that bloggers are teenage kids looking for a way to tell their boyfriend of girlfriend how much they loved them and that they couldn?t live with out them. Then when I started observing the blog “We Are Full of Shit,”I noticed that Jeremy Olson who started this blog took news articles and expressed his feelings about them. His blog was about sharing his point of view with the world, and sometimes it gave surprising reactions.
After only having this blog for a short while another person started posting to it also. His name is John Kisiel. He started sharing his views on the news on that blog too. This astonished me. I didn’t know that more than one person could write on the same blog. It made me realize that Jeremy obviously caught John’s attention with his blog because he started posting to it as well.
My first hypothesis was wrong. Not all blogs are out there to get the attention of some “loved one” that I thought, and it isn’t out there to try and make people feel sorry for them like I also thought. Olson was looking for attention, or at least expecting it because he was responding to these articles so that people could read his reactions. Then he got his attention and had Kisiel join in on the discussions. These guys that post on this blog are just letting the world know how they feel about what is going on with the world today. It’s a way for them to express themselves without having to be interrupted.
After observing this blog I still believed that bloggers were seeking attention, but it wasn’t always the same kind of attention. I found that a blog is like a sandwich. There are many types of sandwiches such as ham or turkey, which we could call the type of blog. Then you could mix them and have a turkey and ham sandwich. Plus, they always have different fixings, and no matter what, you always think that your sandwich is the best.
As I researched the different kinds of blogs I had an online chat with RavenWolf who has been blogging for about fifteen years. It helped me get inside the head of the blogger and know what they think like. When I asked her what she thought a blog was she replied, “A tool to get things out and off my chest.” That is such a wonderful idea. Before this interview I had never thought about a blog as a tool. I figured that blogs were just a place for lame people to go to spend their free time because they had nothing better to do, but that was a bad generalization that I made.
The thought of a blog as a tool has already been put into use. As I read an article by Charles Wheatly I discovered that businesses have started using blogs for their companies. As Wheatly pointed out, businesses can put current news on web logs to keep the workers in the company in touch with each other and know what is going on with the business. It can give them information on short term events as well as reminders about deadlines or meetings. This in a way is a blog that is looking for attention, and it is again different from the attention I originally thought.
Blogs can also be used as tools for schools. In a way, creating this type of blog is asking for attention because the teacher wants the student to look at what is written on it. A teacher can post their schedule in a blog and make sure that the students always have a way to see what is due and when it is due. Having things posted online makes communication between the teacher and student easier and more accessible.
I come to the point that not all blogs are seeking the same kind of attention and that the types off attention that bloggers are seeking are almost as numerous as the type of blogs. Then during my interview with Ravenwolf I asked, “What kind of attention do you think bloggers are seeking?” She replied, “true, but how many ‘strangers’ actually come across your blog? Not too many, unless you're doing something like the political blogs, the so-called war-blogs, the new blogs and the other critique blogs where their sole existence is to be read by as many people as possible.”
That’s when I put two and two together and realized that she just wanted to “get things out and off” her chest. She wasn’t looking for attention. She had been keeping a diary for about seven years before she started doing it electronically. For her it is just a place to put down her thoughts and feelings. That led me to my next question, “So, you aren’t seeking attention?”
She replied. “Attention? No. I do it because it's pretty much an upgrade from what I was doing before. Of course now it helps friends see where I stand and allows them to get a glimpse of what I feel at any given moment and helps them to gauge how approachable I am.” What she is saying is that she isn’t looking for attention, but she doesn’t have a problem with anybody reading what she writes. She does it because she wants to and that’s about all there is too it, and she isn’t the only person who feels that way.
The uses for blogs seem endless. It can be a personal page, a discussion board, for businesses, and the list goes on. A blog can help heal your soul or clear your mind, and also quench your knowledge. They can be used not only for pleasure, but also progress.
If I look back at the original question I had at the beginning of my quest, I have found that all blogs are indeed seeking attention. It might not be crying out to random people whom the blogger has never met. It may be a friend, or a co-worker. Then again, maybe the blog is just seeking the writer’s attention, and that’s all the attention they need.