PostSecret Ponderings

The second part of our assignment is to post an entry on the experience of commenting on the blog of our choice (see PostSecret below). I'll have to admit that the experience was enlightening. I haven't really spent much time looking at blogs revealing personal information. It is part of my research; I just haven't delved into the analysis part yet. In addition, I recently had a man at our church come up and ask my wife if she knew anything about blogs. She immediately turned to me and said that I was the person to talk to as my research is in this area. He asked what blogs were and as I tried to explain, I found that there really isn't any easy explanation or definition. Blogs can be so many things: professional, personal, news, humor, confession, information, visual, textual, auditory, etc.... That's part of the reason I am interested in genre analysis, but I am starting to wonder of categorizing blogs by genre is even feasible. Don't get me wrong, I still want to analyze blogs from genre lens, I just think that many of my assumptions may be called into question as I get deeper into this. The primary assumption that I am concerned about is that blogs can be classified by genre to begin with. Another is that there is a need for classification to begin with. However, I believe that this is what part of the research process is about. You go into the project with certain assumptions, and through the research, you either confirm or refute those assumptions. The point is that something is learned through the process, not only by you, but also your audience. I think that the process of blogging has been the most interesting aspect of this class and I hope to continue on my own in an effort to keep this process going.