Blog. I’m sure everyone in the United States knows what that word means. Blogs seem to be turning into personal journals, as well as homework helpers. They are an excellent way of getting one’s opinion into the world, which was very hard before Internet. Blogs are becoming a new school necessity, especially for English classes. While exploring student blogs, three stuck out to me as being unique, or just interesting.
One example of a very well thought-out blog is Greater Omaha. Embedded inside of every entry, the author gives some of his insight to his generation and the world around him. All of his posts show what he thinks about different topics that range from divorce to technology. Metaphor, one main component of all literature, was used in every entry, which helped to further explain the author’s stance on certain issues. Drew, the author, takes simple, seemingly insignificant details of life and connects them to larger controversies. He also takes specific stands on moral issues and discusses them with understanding to different opinions of others, so he does not seem to be pressing his beliefs onto the reader. One of my favorite parts of his blog was the “About Me” section. In this section, he used poetry as well as random ideas to explain his background and character. The layout of Drew’s blog has some differences to the other blogs in his group. He used a song to title his page, and explained his choice using the lyrics of the song, which is unique. His page was very easy to maneuver and understand, although his writing was very advanced and sometimes challenging to read. The simplicity of the appearance of his blog is greatly appreciated, because some people, me included, struggle with technology and think it’s hard to find certain topics or entries on a website. Drew put most of his entries on the first page, getting straight to what the whole blog is about, his thoughts.
The next blog that caught my attention is titled thetriangle, written by a high school student. In this blog, the author does not categorize her posts, but some of them share certain themes. The posts titled I’m Still Here, Illegal Hiring, A Glance at the Other Side, What’s in a Number, and What’s happening to the American Pocket all discuss our country and politics. The other posts have to do with the superficial side of the author’s generation. One part of this blog that I liked a bunch was in the post titled I’m Still Here, where the author started the post with a photograph of a child covered in dirt, drinking from a dirty bowl. This photo showed the reader an illustration of the hidden poverty that is discussed in the article, which is very smart. While thetriangle is very well thought out in the posts, the layout of the actual blog is kind of confusing. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to get from place to place, because of the spacing of the side panel. However, since the content is way more important than the style, this blog is definitely good. I recommend it to anyone who wants to read about current events.
As my search was coming to an end, I found one more blog that really stuck out to me, a student blog called Future Effects. The full title is actually Future Effects-The Long-Term Effects of Child Abuse. Because this is about something to do with children, the blog really stuck out to me, because I love kids. The layout definitely meshed with the title, because the colors are dark and just not very happy-looking. The posts were organized, but they lacked personal outlook on the subject, which I think is important for a something like child abuse. This site seems fit for a link to information about child abuse because of all of the sites used to make it. The posts talk about organizations directed toward child abuse that are for people in need. One thing that really made me mad was the posts about the organizations. The students said that they tried to contact the organizations and they were impossible to get in touch with. One student said they personally called and got no answer. If an organization is supposed to prevent child abuse then they should always have their lines open to people in need. Over all, this blog has a good topic that needs to be discussed, and seems to be a great link to people who need help with abuse.
Blogs seem to be the journals of the future, but also windows to exploring new ideas. Each blog I looked at had something different and unique to discuss. Each one also had its own personal touch given to it by the author. I picked three, but there are many more blogs out there with personal stories to be shared.
