The Power of Publication

“What motivates people to blog?” I found myself facing that question shortly after being introduced to the art of blogging, a genre of writing with which I had been relatively unfamiliar. As a former high school English teacher, I had worked with a number of students who spent considerable time and energy posting their written work to their weblogs. They posted creative short stories and poems, shared aspects of their lives in journal form, and carried on conversations with strangers. Why? What could possibly have compelled them to spend so much of their time on an activity (writing) they otherwise seemed to detest? Though these questions intrigued me, I never thought to take them up with my students. Last night, I began to have them answered.

Prior to going to bed I logged onto my computer in order to re-read, for the umpteenth time, what had been my initial post. What can I say? It had represented my initial foray into the world of blogging. To know that my words, my ideas, had been made accessible to others somehow seemed exciting. As I scrolled down to the bottom of the page I was surprised to see that my post had received two comments, a possibility I had not anticipated. My heart skipped a beat. Who had responded? I couldn't help but feel a sense of nervousness. Would their feedback be critical or complimentary? Somewhere in cyberspace someone had noticed my musings, had interacted with them, and had taken the time to respond to them. I was thrilled. I hurriedly dragged my mouse to the word “Comments,” held my breath, and double clicked.

“Jen” in New York was the first to respond. In doing so, she unwittingly described the very emotions I would feel as I read her comments. She wrote:

We all say we blog for ourselves, as a means of self-expression, and we don't care if people comment. But we do. We tell everyone we know about our blog and hope people will leave comments and can't understand why they wouldn't, especially after you've posted a particularly brilliant cyber-essay.

I couldn’t help but be struck by the accuracy of her comments. It was as if Jen had somehow foreseen the feelings I would experience, and described them. She was right. Though writers may claim that their blogs are meant only for themselves, they willingly post them to the web, thereby making them available to others. In doing so, they enter a larger discourse, one that occurs in the public realm.

In my initial posting I had noted the ability of context to shape the act of writing. This is an issue few teachers, myself included, ever seem to address. The genres of writing that teachers assign in school do change. Students write creatively, persuasively, analytically, and descriptively. Yet while the assignments change, the audience for whom they write rarely does. In fact, the audience for whom students write in school remains remarkably consistent. Papers are written for teachers, evaluated by teachers, and undertaken solely to demonstrate one’s knowledge (or mastery) of skills. In short, the context is artificial. In what other situation would a person write in such a manner?

The fact that blogs are publishable does provide a powerful allure. As I found, it can be satisfying to know that one’s thoughts and ideas are available to others, and that the potential for correspondence does exist. Yet while I am tempted to recommend that blogs be used in the classroom to motivate young writers, I am reluctant to do so. In the end, I worry that institutionalizing the genre would render it less attractive. Perhaps the appeal of blogging rests in the fact that it exists outside the mainstream. I leave that question for my readers to consider. Hopefully, one or two will respond.