Just Blog It

Essay # 57705

Communication > Mass Media
Computer and Technology > Internet
Sociology > Media and Society

Just Blog It

An overview of blogs and Internet communities.

1,620 words () | 9 sources | MLA | 2004 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews how "blogs", or online journals like Xanga and Livejournal, relate to community and globalization. It also discusses the many uses of such online communities and the way in which "blogging" surpasses the boundaries of physical community, such as space/time and visual representation.

From the Paper:

"The increasing popularity of blogs is undeniable; it is estimated that roughly 10 million will exist by the end of 2004, the majority of which -- 90% -- are personal sites that belong to teenagers and young adults between the ages of 13 and 29 (Nussbaum par. 3). This popularity is due, in large part, to the sense of community that blogs provide. For personal users, blogs become a kind of unlocked diary or journal, a means of expression that makes what would otherwise be private a public matter. They provide a unique opportunity for extroverted introspection, allowing the writer both self-examination and the display of that examination. As Emily Nussbaum, contributor to the New York Times points out, "if teen bloggers give something up by sloughing off a self-protective layer, they get something back too -- a new kind of intimacy, a sense that they are known and listened to" (par. 5)."