Creating a blog site had been something I had always wanted to do. I had previously created a blog site (free) on WordPress which didn’t last long as I have a short attention span. However, with this new blog site, I am able to make commitments as I have a clear thought of the theme and the extent of this blog.
About the topic of my own commitment to this blog, I was originally worried if I will be able to have a topic or something to write about every week. But it turned out quite nice as I was able to engage with some readers and even gather topics from my friends while we were talking. This blog had also changed how I view things as I start looking at the surroundings more closely and thinking if it will be an interesting thing to talk about. Talking about the theme of the blog, at the beginning of the term, it all started from the post “How to talk to strangers”. From reflecting on how we talk to strangers, I realized the way I begin conversations with strangers, is by sharing my own experiences and thoughts. As it says it is less confrontational when commenting on shared experience than making a remark about others directly (Hamblin, 2016). From that, I had imagined my blog to be a platform for sharing stories and my thoughts with others.
Reflecting back on the contents, it had been a long process in developing and knowing who my audience is or who I wanted it to be for. The theme had developed into a “web-log”, the act of recording my thoughts and memory that could be recalled in the future (Corey, 2021). As my audience was possibly my close friend or maybe some of my classmates. However, while my topics had gotten solid in sharing my experience, I believe most of the audience is returned viewers or maybe some new ones as I had created social media accounts.
Through the peer reviews and reflection, a finalized theme had been evolved and extended towards the end of the term. While the adaptation of the feedback is being made, there is a stronger sense of building more interactions with the readers. It also refers back to my main intention while developing my online self; to share or discuss the similar experience with others.
Learning from my audience from Google Analytics, I had understood the traffic flow and the time period when most people go on the internet. I was also able to discover the topics that contain the most interest. Analyzing the data allowed me to understand the main interest of the readers and the possible topics to write about in the future.
A few comments were also gathered on my site about the discussions I had written. Even though those comments were possibly from my friends, they motivated me in continuing as there are readers reading the topics I had written and even reflected on and build connections too. At first, I wasn’t expecting there will be many comments on the blog post. During the process of receiving comments, there were also spam comments that appeared. This also brings up the topic of haters since haters make comments due to the events that occurred to them and it is easy to release their emotions online with strangers (Konnikova, 2013). As I wished to build an open and calm discussion page, and also add on to the lecture topics. There are a few community guidelines established to enhance and shape a more peaceful community.
Looking back at times, rather than stating the publication as to how it changed, I believed it had been evolving and settling. My initial thoughts about this blog haven’t changed from the start and during the development of the blog, it had settled down my thoughts even more. My goal for this course was quite simple (want like a B+ or A) from the beginning. But during the process of writing and posting blogs, I was hoping to gather more fun and interesting topics that generated more interest for the readers. Looking forward to the future, I hope to build a larger community for my blog and possibly extend the writings to maybe some videos recording. I also hope to generate more interesting thoughts with social media integration. As I had always wanted to develop a YouTube channel, which instead of the end of this blog would be the start of developing even more.
In conclusion, throughout this term, I had learned a lot about publishing and how to develop my online self. I really appreciated all the assistance and feedback provided by everyone I had talked to during the term (you know who you are). I really enjoyed the progress in learning and also being able to share myself with others. Hopefully, the extent of the blog will be able to progress more and I wish the best for whoever is reading here.
References
Doctorow, Corey. May 9, 2021. The Memex Method: When your commonplace book is a public database. Retrieved from https://doctorow.medium.com/the-memex-method-238c71f2fb46.
Hamblin, James. 2016. How to Talk to Strangers. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/08/civil-inattention/497183/.
Konnikova, Maria. 2013. The Psychology of Online Comments. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-psychology-of-online-comments.
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