Authors like Lee Siegel and Steven Johnson argue the pluses and negatives of the technology boom and the Internet on our society and intelligence, but neither seems to touch on the time commitment that Internet activity, like blogging, merit. To truly benefit from blogging or Internet interaction, I feel it is insufficient to solely worry about your own blog. Instead, the majority of one’s time should be spent on reading other blogs and searching through clicking on links. However, as I just browsed around reading other people’s blogs I failed to realize I spent 25 minutes just skimming random posts. For me, getting sucked into mindless, unproductive activates occurs multiple times a day, and I often use ‘doing nothing’ on the Internet to kill time.
I just wonder how much more schoolwork or how much more productive I could be if I totaled up all my unproductive time, and accomplished things I had pushed back. I realize that jumping from link to link is mentally stimulating because one is surrounding themselves with diverse information, but is 30 minutes of skimming blogs really worth my time? Most of the time, the posts are just someone’s opinion that is thrown at us with the assumption that it is valuable knowledge.
This issue of time does not just apply to blogging, but to most of the new forms of technology that are engrained in everyday American culture. There is no doubting that my generation spends our time differently than my parents generation, however I think it’s too early to tell the effects of such a culture shift. In theory, our productive it may be so much higher now that we have time to kill because we can accomplish the same amount today that took twice the time 30 years ago. Either way, the Internet can act as a double edge-sword that has something to offer everyone. I hate to formulate an opinion about blogging before I have ample exposure, but I want to give it a fair shot before I dismiss it because of the time requirement.
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This is a valid complaint, and I find myself often regretting the amount of time it takes me to read through the blogs. But I do believe that students should write their own opinions on topics they choose. Siegel says the average person has nothing to say. In "Against the Machine" Lee Siegel has a chpater on blogging, or should I say against blogging. He gives his "Five Open Secrets." Here are the first three:
ReplyDelete1. Not everyone has something meaningful to say.
2. Few people have anything original to say.
3. Only a handful of people know how to write well.
Well, I won't say he's wrong, but I do think in a class on writing, the students should try to find something meaningful and original to say, (and this doesn't happen as often in assigned papers as it does on a blog) and should try to write it well enough to attract a reader. I really do understand the time factor involved in trying to find a good post, so keep watching my blog for some recommendations. And there is always the possiblity of stirring up some debate on a post that doesn't show much thought.