Blogging for this class has been difficult and frankly frustrating for me, as someone who has long kept a blog that discusses a lot of the issues and topics that we cover in the class. I know how to make jokes and link things I like and speak informally, but the process of making sound arguments that I actually back up with references is not something I’m used to doing in this venue. One of the hardest parts has definitely been my inability to find an academic voice that is casual enough for a blog setting. I often have things to say about the texts I consume, but I’m used to having a definite line between the academic voice and the casual voice, even if I’m saying substantially the same thing.

And I wish I had done more video essays with the blog, because I think the process of working with texts has fundamentally changed how I academically engage with them.

The most interesting aspect of this process is that I have a constant internal voice that says, “This isn’t important enough for a blog post,” even when it’s something I would write a full academic paper about. Partially I think this is the perception of audience. I am constantly aware that someone might actually take the time to read this stuff, which makes every post a performance. I am the opposite of shy and retiring, so experiencing the tension between playing to the audience and using the venue as a workspace was often stymying.

As it pertains to the topics of the class, this is actually a really interesting issue to work through, because so much of what we’ve discussed has to do with creation and presentation of the self. I had no idea that there was any venue in my life in which I would feel uncomfortable exposing my every thought, but the knowledge that a change in context can change how comfortable I am with presenting myself, even though I am used to working in this medium, taught me a really valuable lesson about perceptions of control of persona.

I plan on keeping this blog and continuing to learn to meld my academic voice with my interests. If for no other reason than the fact that having to actually articulate academically what I find interesting about various texts helps me to see which topics are viable research interests.