Last Blog Reflection of the Year

Last Blog Reflection of the Year  

* What did you learn about yourself as a reader from creating and keeping up with your blog?

            I never really focused on my reading as much as I did with my blog. My blog gave me a reason to focus, analyze and fully understand what I was reading. And I realized that although many people feel that reading in this way is just over doing it and doing too much work, but looking back at all of the work that I did for what I read, I now know that it is definitely my way of reading to take my time at a productive pace while also understanding and fully analyzing the text. And I read a range of types of texts this year and learned that this type of reading, now my type of reading works for both non-fiction and fiction texts. I realized that I like non-fiction but especially biographies. This year I read a biography about Steve Jobs, another about William Gates and Arthur Agee, a third about Barack Obama and another about Michael Oher. They just contain so much information and are relatable and meaningful. I feel that some of my best blog posts came from these books, so that’s why they’re some of my favorite types of books.   

* In what ways did you benefit from the experience?

Blogging was definitely a new experience for me this year, although it has many similarities to today’s social media cites and so it wasn’t very, very new to me. At times I liked it and at other moments it just bothered me. But there are many things that I benefitted from the experience. First, it gave me an organized type of schedule. I posted a blog every other week and did a synthesis page every week in between. It definitely kept me busy while I also enjoyed it. Second, it helped me to focus while reading and analyze my reading very precisely, something reading alone or reading with a reading log would definitely not do. Also reading in this type of way helped me grow as a reader and even introduced me to new ideas and genres. Third, it benefitted my reading for the reasons that I just explained while also benefitting my writing and analyzing.   
* Is writing online different than in a notebook?  In what ways?

I definitely think that writing online and maintaining a blog is a more modern version of a notebook although at the same time it’s also different than a notebook. You sort of try to write more professional online, because for one thing, it is accessible to the whole world. But also, unlike in a notebook, online you have to pay attention or maybe you don’t need to but you tend to, pay attention to what you say. This is mostly because again it’s accessible to the whole world. But notebooks are different, you can definitely make them confidential and you tend to speak your mind more and just write about whatever you want.   
* In what ways can writing online be liberating?  Limiting?

Writing online can be liberating because you can speak your mind and talk about so many different things and nobody really has the right to stop you in most cases. Liberating mean freedom and to many people the Internet is a type of freedom, it’s the only place where they can go to speak to others, speak about whatever they want and really see and do whatever they want. Writing online gives them the opportunity to reach so many people and for many is the only place where they can share their feelings and ideas. But like Ii mentioned in the previous question it can be limiting. This is for many reasons. The biggest of these reasons is because they have to pay attention to what they say because any mistake, even if they didn’t mean it can cost them a bad reputation and misinterpretations. And so they don’t have freedom, at the same time as having freedom, to speak their minds.    
* Do you think that people are more real online or do we create online personalities that project the best of ourselves? Or something else?

I think online people do create a personality that isn’t represented of them.  This is not true for all people. But, many people don’t tell you the true story about themselves through the web. The Internet allows them to hide their flaws and never let them slide by. It gives the opportunity for them to show what they want and hide what they don’t. Although it’s not the right thing to do, you can make the fake you.
* Do you think that teenagers abuse the freedom that being online gives you on sites like Facebook? Do people type things they would never say to a person's face? Do you think this is a good or bad thing? Why?

I wouldn’t say that all teenagers abuse the use of social media websites like Facebook. But many of the cases of bullying in today’s society are cyberbullying. And for many of the cyberbullies they take the freedom to write whatever they want as an advantage and don’t ever really think about the victim. They go on talking about the person while saying things that you know they’d never say in person. It’s such a cowardly type of move for them to make. It really frustrates me that these bullies just don’t care about the victim. It’s definitely a bad thing, definitely a bad way to use social media and if this type of media only had one problem it would be that it’s used for cyberbullying.
* Can you imagine yourself keeping up this blog or creating another one?  What would it be about?  What's your opinion of blogs in general and why?

I never really felt like I was the person to keep up with a blog and I remember being so frustrated when I figured out that we needed to create and  keep up with a blog this year, I just didn’t imagine myself doing it or ever being a blogger. But the experience definitely changed my view of blogs. I definitely can see myself keeping up with this blog or creating a new one. If I were to create a new one, I’m not sure what’d be about. I can try many things maybe sports.