Local bloggers stay connected to fans … and family
Social media provides a different format for social sharing and business networking. The growing number of social media sites is also a medium for showcasing personal and professional blogs.
Laura Harris, co-writer of a popular food blog with her sister Amanda Alldredge, blogs out of Utah County, sharing recipes with people on the Internet.
“It is something we started doing so we could share recipes,” Harris said. “People just started asking for them as well, so we started our own specialized food blog. And it’s been great.”
Harris said she has enjoyed seeing where all of the hits come from for the blog – from all over the state, country and even the world.
“I had misconceptions about blogs,” Harris said, “But you don’t need a ton of time to do it, it’s a great thing to do when you just have a little bit of extra time.”
She said her favorite part about blogging is staying connected with people. Whether it is family, or other people who love the recipes she and her sister put up, staying connecting is fun, Harris said.
The sisters’ food blog is just one an example of the different uses blogs fulfill for anybody with access to the Internet.
According to a New York Times article, the first blog was created in January 1994 by Swathmore student Justin Hall. Over the following years, according to the article, webloggers, political blogging, advertisement blogging, personal blogging and mommy blogging started to grow.
Now sites like Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress and others allow anyone who wants to blog easy access to start an online publication. The word blog is a portmanteau word – or combination of two words – for “web log” and, according to dictionary.com, is “a website containing the writer’s or group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often have images and links to other websites.”
Some might wonder what the appeal is in creating such a public way of sharing information; however, there are many blogs not related to personal lives, such as Grammar Girl, which is an instructional blog for grammatical corrections and advice on how to become a better writer.
There are also blogs for personal assistance – many mothers keep blogs to give other mothers advice, also called the mommy blog – and some blogs are for classes and organizations to keep things organized in one electronic place.
For college students, blogging can be a big deal. Some students keep blogs because they want to keep loved ones informed about their lives as college students.
“I started because I was coming to school, two years ago when I was a freshman,” said Sarah Martin, a sophomore majoring in social work.
Martin said she figured it was an easy way to keep her family informed back home of her experiences as she lived and studied in Logan.
“I realized as I got into it, though, that blogging is more complicated than just writing what you are doing every day,” Martin said. One aspect she said she didn’t expect was being able to meet people through blogging.
“I like it because there are a bunch of people with blogs who you wouldn’t guess have them, and it’s a way – an insight to their life – which you wouldn’t get to know otherwise.”
Martin knows there are people out there who are really serious about blogging, she said, “some blog about fashion and advice.”
Emily Nelson, who is a junior majoring in political science, said blogging ended up serving as a huge blessing in her and her family’s lives.
“I really had no interest in blogging,” Nelson said. She said she never wanted to tell a lot of people know about her life.
“When my sister got cancer and we went to the hospital, we started having to tell people once she had to say what was going on,” Nelson said. “She had so many people who cared about her once they heard about it. We were getting overwhelmed, trying to distribute information to people. And when it’s emotional, it’s hard to not have to say it just once, but over and over.”
Nelson said she was therefore able to use a blog to document everything her sister went through over the next several months – gathering more and more followers all the time.
Because of donations from blog followers the family received enough support to help take care of her sister’s funeral, and much heartache was saved for her parents, Nelson said.
“It really just changed our lives,” Nelson said. “It was wonderful, and a great way to involve people who were willing to help, because we could let them know about any need.”
Blogs can also be used to inform people about something important, or those who are recording day-to-day happenings can create support among people everywhere.
“I look back and I can see how I’ve grown,” Martin said of her blogging experience. “I like it in that aspect. It’s kind of like my little journal and I can just look back on it anytime and learn.”
– mandy.m.morga@aggiemail.usu.edu