Why Blog?

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When I moved to the U.S., it was really hard to let go of my friends and family in Brazil, and to adapt to the U.S. way of life. In order to keep in touch with the loved ones I left in Brazil, I created a blog, in which I started posting pictures of my new-born baby, my family, and writing about my new experiences, and sometimes, even writing about how misplaced I was feeling at the time. Blogging at that time, helped me to heal the wounds of feeling lonely  and secluded in a different world  where I couldn’t express myself as I would in Portuguese. To me, blog was a form of screaming to my world, letting all my friends and family know that I missed them and that I needed them to give me strength, even if just by reading my posts and giving me advice. At that time, I didn’t know that blogging would bring me so much more than just feedbacks and comfort from my dear ones who were across the ocean. Nor did I know that I would expand my list of friends, and that I would encounter so many people who were in the same situation that I was. Within six months, I’ve made as much as 100 friends- all of them were Brazilians, some living in different states from their hometown, some living in different countries. At that same time, I was also going to school, taking 12 units of ESL classes, and trying to socialize with my school peers-people coming from all over the world, with their own beliefs, cultures, and different languages. I saw myself exchanging different and interesting experiences with people from all over the world. All of these experiences were being related in my blog, and a lot of people were giving me advice, and adding their own experiences to my own. Blog was not only a device to relieve the burden I felt from being apart from my family and friends in Brazil, but also an opportunity to help improve my communication skills in the U.S., to exchange knowledge, and to make new friends As time passed by, I had to stop blogging. As time went by, all the academic and life demands diminished the time I had to write blogs to my friends and family in Brazil, until two years ago, when I stopped blogging in Portuguese for once after entering SJSU. Finally, and to my surprise, for the first time, I am being assigned to write my own blog in English for one of my English Composition classes.


Even though blogging in English will be a challenge for me, it will become an important vehicle used to practice my writing skills, and expose myself to the “English- world”. As it happened before, blogging will motivate me towards actively participating in academic topics. I will be able to express myself, using my own experience and knowledge to hopefully add my own ideas to a web of other ideas, instead of keeping them to myself. As professor Dennis G. Jerz points in his article The Bane of the President's Existence "there is educational value in asking students to be accountable for the writing they post" I agree with professor Jerz, since by making my own writing public, I will become responsible for my own thoughts, forcing myself to be more careful while gathering the knowledge needed to produce my blog. I think that blogging will help me to improve my writing skills in English as well as it will help me to have a more active role in collaborating towards adding some reflections and experiences to the world.

Even though there are a lot of academics who still think that blog will expose their private lives, I agree with professor Laura C. Berry, when she points that professional, and personal lives collapse with each other even if people try to keep them separated. Professionals, should always link their personal lives to their professional lives because it is through experiences that people take important decisions in all aspect of their lives, including work. So, why not be clear and give your own experiences as an example for your work? I understand that sometimes it is embarrassing to expose yourself to the world, but I believe that it is by exchanging experiences and knowledge that we can help to improve society. Because blogging connects not only Americans, but the whole world, blogging can be a powerful tool towards shaping and developing societies. By using my own experiences and opinions to address an issue, I will be cooperating to improve society, and I will be connecting with people from all over the world- People who share the same interest towards certain issues.

The Lecturer and Coordinator of Instructional Technology in Texas A&M University, Amy E. Earhart, points that "Race, gender, sexual orientation, and class become both highlighted and hidden within knitting blogs. By this I mean that bloggers may move across subjectivities within their blog, one day emphasizing their difference, another day emphasizing their sameness. The fluidity of the presentation, not marked by the physical presence of a person, allows a different and more inclusive community" While blogging, some people might as well use some “makeup”, to hide their true self. Even though some bloggers may try to hide their own selves, they will still be collaborating towards shaping society. Today, people still live their lives making decisions according to judgments and presumptions imposed by their own culture background. However, while blogging these opinions based in societal parameters will intermingle. At the same time that one may try to hide his or her own identity, his own cultural background will reveal his personal principles, and thoughts. As Clancy Ratlif, a Ph.D. candidate at University of Minnesota points, "a pseudonym enables a blogger to be far more frank about sensitive subjects than he or she could be otherwise" At the same time that a “fictitious” writer will feel free to judge, and take his or her side towards certain topic with more authority, he or she will also be able to input their own hidden-identity into their written words. As professor Nels P. Highberg points, he takes seriously "blogs and online journals", "as they are primary sites of autobiographical expression". Even people who are trying to hide their own identities, will express their own views in certain topics according to the knowledge they obtained throughout their lives, not only academic knowledge, but knowledge acquired by contact with their own traditions, beliefs, and language.

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