I’m sociology blog (in)famous

I was going to respond in some detail to the comments but find that I really don’t care enough.  Just two quick points.

1.  I’m not going to approve any comments for the past post.  If you want to talk about it do it elsewhere, preferably on your own blog.  This applies both to the positive comments (heh yes there were some) as well as the negative ones (my my my some of you visitors have as big a potty mouth as me).  Not will I be forwarding any of the messages to my department chair or the captain of the internets or whoever handles such things (yes that’s sarcasm in case you were wondering).

2.  Jeremy.  Honey.  It’s ok to say fuck.  Or shit.  Or any other words in the English language.  I can understand maybe trying to stay on the moral high ground but it’s a little late after you called me out for calling y’all out and nominated me for king of your haters.  I decline the nomination by the way, I apparently need to spend more time worrying about dying people.  Oh and my family.  ‘Natch.

Blogging! What is it good for?

Self-introspective post here. Consider yourself warned.

So I have, oh I don’t know, let’s say 8 or 9 blogs. These are either blogs I have solo or share with other people. There may be more but 9 or so is a good number to think about so let’s keep it there.

The problem is that I’m not too particularly good at keeping up with any of them. Partially this is a problem of time and motivation. Blogging is something that takes time and sometimes I don’t feel like I should be spending my time blogging.

But mainly it’s a question of audiences. Who do I blog for? This is a problem because as much as I’d like to believe I blog for me the fact is that if that were true I wouldn’t be blogging. I’d just write in a journal. So take, for example, this blog. VF is for me, mostly. But it’s also stuff I wouldn’t mind other people seeing.  I talk about academics, I talk about politics, I talk about things I share with other people.  These are all social activities and should be shared with people.

But there is the problem of audiences.  From past blog experience I’ve learned that audiences definitely have an affect on how often and what you might blog about.  And the question of audiences is one that’s going to grow increasingly important.  I’ve seen people lose out on jobs because of things they’ve blogged about, it’s that chilling effect that occasionally worries me and keeps me from posting the really personal stuff.

Of course you could always go with filters but the problem with filters is that they’re only as good as the people who access to them.  Anyone who can see past the filter can cut and paste to share with anyone else on the other side.  As long as it’s in print it can, hypothetically, get out there.

So what’s the point?  Good question.  I’m kinda bad about the whole ‘point’ thing.  But if pressed I’d have to say that this is probably my primary blog but will remain a bit impersonal on the whole.