For today’s class, we read an article by Danah Boyd entitled “A Blogger’s Blog: Exploring the Definition of a Medium.” In the article, Boyd grapples with the question of what exactly. In her research, she studied a vast array of personal weblogs on sites like Xanga and LiveJournal, reading diverse content published by a variety of individuals. Boyd discusses the formal definition of a blog, or lack there of, and examines the novelty of this genre of web-literature.

Beyond the metaphors and structural definitions, practitioners often refer to the sociable
aspects of blogging and blogs. They talk about the conversational qualities of blogging
and the desire to share with others. They talk about community and how blogging helps
them engage with a community of people. Few definitions take the sociable side of
blogging into consideration, but this is essential to the practice of most bloggers.

While “weblogs” have been around for a while, blogging has expanded into an online phenomena, drawing in writers from all backgrounds and walks of life, who then attract like-minded readers. While I have never blogged myself, I do follow a few fashion and literary blogs and can see why this form of media has become so popular in recent years.