Entry #1: A Blog About Blogs

Honestly I never have been a fan of blogs. I have always seen them as something lonely housewives do to try and reach out to the world and interact with it in ways they haven't been able to achieve in their day to day life.

Well that was my opinion anyways until I started looking into what blogging was really all about. Blogging is as varied as people are, while there is the boring blog that is only relevant those who personally know the author there is also a vast expanse of general interest and special interest blogs that would appeal to a wide variety of people, myself included.

One blog that I have visited for years without even realizing was actually a blog was Post Secret. This is a blog where people send in post cards with secrets written on them which are then published on the blog. This blog is interesting as you get insight into people's personal thoughts and experience. There is often reoccurring themes such as a drive towards suicide or trouble within marriage that helps those struggling with those issues see that they aren't the only one in that situation and feel like maybe there is hope for them if others were able to overcome those obstacles in their life.  This blog connects people in ways not possible in daily life. The aspect of anonymity let's users openly share their darkest secrets without ever being revealed, sometimes the internet is the only place these secrets ever get told. Psychology shows it is healthy to let go of things rather than keeping them bottled in and Post Secret gives users a place to do just that.

The layout of Post Secret is very simple, letting the images speak for themselves with little to no interpretative text. When there is interpretive text then it is usually a translation of a language other than English or a single sentence that gives greater context to the entry. The black background makes the website seem serious, somber and highlights the secret nature of the website. The black pairs well with the often dark content of the post cards, yet the white text emphasizes the message of hope the blog tries to convey; the light shining through the darkness.

Another blog with a similar style to Post Secret is The Sartorialist. The Sartorialist appears to be a fashion blog. Now high fashion is not something I have any knowledge of and the website is presented in such a way that I believe requires existing knowledge of high fashion to enjoy. As with Post Secret a simple mono-chromatic background is chosen, this time white. There are pictures of people wearing fashionable clothing with the only text being when and where the picture was taken. The blog claims to create a "two-way conversation on fashion" a claim which it fails to reach. There is no conversation going on as far as I am aware, merely pictures being presented saying "this is fashion" with no expounding on what that means or why the pictures are fashionable.

While the above blogs are very serious in their presentation there are also blogs which are much more light-hearted in nature, such as the blog Dog Shaming. Dog Shaming is a blog where people post pictures of their dog with a written message about something they did wrong, publicly "shaming" the dog for their wrongful behavior. The background for this website is a wooden floor with dog prints on it, creating a playful image as one imagines little dogs scampering across the floor, making those prints.

After doing research and actually opening my mind to the possibility that their may be more to blogging than I first thought I have come to appreciate them more. The blogs that I can form a connection with such as Post Secret and Dog Shaming add value to my life, allowing an online community to form and interact with the content provided while those I do not connect with such as Sartorialist hold no interest for me as I don't feel like I can interact with them in any meaningful way.