An Extension of Self

Last week was a very interesting class for me. Although Professor Howard opened up his presentation making fun of his undergraduate students for their preconceived notions about blogs and bloggers- I secretly identified with undergrads who believed that people engaged in blogging were somehow very socially inept and greatly lacking interpersonal skills.

There are two major themes that “stuck” with me from Monday’s class. The first was complete awe in the power of a persuasive and effective presentation. In what seemed to be no less than 20 minutes, Professor Howard absolutely changed my mind about not only the usefulness and necessity of blogs, yet also about what “type” of person uses them. Professor Howard altered a few years worth of my negative attitude about blogging and social networking websites in less than an hour. Now that's effective communication! Wow.

The second aspect that turned out to be quite profound for me is when Dr. Howard called blogging an “extension of self”. That resonated with me as I never thought of blogging as a form of self expression. It dawned on me that whenever someone is sharing something about their thoughts and feelings-- it is very personal regardless of the subject matter being discussed. While I may prefer another form of communication, blogging is often times used no differently than putting a pen to paper and writing a letter. It is simply conveying a particular message to a certain audience.

Now, blogs have definitely become personified in my mind, and not some abstract tool that only introverted people use. I now look at it like a photograph, or even a journal entry; meaning it captures a specific moment and is reflective of how a person thought and felt at that time. Blogging is something that could be fun and useful for everyone.

Quite humbly, I learned a lot about how incorrect I was!


--A. Harris