All Good Things Must Come to An End

Looking back through my previous blog posts, I can honestly say the way I blog has been changed forever, and for the better. When I first started out, I didn't quite understand the concept of 'interactivity' or why it has such a significant influence on the creation of successful blog posts. Compared to my first blog post-EVER, "Can Our Blogs Really Express Who We Are?" I'd say my perception of blogging has drastically been affected. I never thought that I, myself, could ever be an academic blogger, let alone that there even were academic bloggers in the blogosphere. To tell you the truth, I used to think blogging was irrelevant, and that its sole purpose was to spark discussions by people on the Internet who wanted to evade personal contact and face-to-face interactions. 

However, thanks to our New Media and Writing course, I've learned a great deal on what it means to create an interactive writing outlet, i've learned how to hyperlink and connect my work to other reputable sources, I've learned how to share my thoughts and relay them in a manner that is organized and concise, and I've learned how to develop a certain tone and incorporate that tone throughout each of my blog posts as well as so much more to it. I've learned how invigorating it is when you publish your own blog post, and how it feels to contribute to a conversation knowing there are others who are reading and absorbing what you're saying. 

To me, composing a blog post is very different from traditional writing. Looking back again at my first blog post, I’d say my overall tone and expression through these posts have changed. In the beginning, I treated blogging like an essay: formal and in a sense, robotic. Blogging, in my opinion still has the potential to be formal, but in a tone and a structure that is quite different than those that traditional media outlets require. Blogging has changed my notion of writing in the sense that I feel as if I’ve learned an innovative way of expressing myself. In the past, from what I can remember, the only way I knew how to write was through a medium of essays and e-mails—never blogging. To know that I can publish a post and express myself through the blogosphere has given me great confidence in knowing that I can successfully utilize other outlets of writing, and not just forms of traditional writing.

When looking at myself as a blogger, I’d say that I am still exploring the field, in the sense that although I’ve had a great deal of practice thanks to “MEDIA JAMSS,” I feel there is still a lot more for me to learn. When I make my blog posts, I try to make them thoughtful, by incorporating my own ideas as well as providing my stance on the current topics. In the future, I hope to continue my role as a blogger--following other's blogs as well as writing my own. I am not sure how or when, but I definitely want to keep blogging. I think that in the future, I will be able to incorporate the skills I have learned from this class as well as shape my blogger identity. 

Side note-- I can't believe our class is over, and I just wanted to say how much I learned from you guys. Thank you for making my first blogging experience so memorable!