My take on Blogs or Journals

Blogs, a contraction of web logs, have become very popular over the last 10 years. They are part of the Web 2.0 phenomenon which promotes information sharing. There must be millions of blogs on the Internet these days. Many of them are very transient while others have lasted for years. I don’t like the term blog, so I call mine a journal.

The Wikipedia states that blogs are “usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.” The writing style is usually very informal.

There are several types of blogs:

Personal – resembling a diary
Corporate – used for business purposes
Question blog
Genre – political, fashion, news, project, education, etc

I chose the personal journal for http://www.bruceslutsky.com/ . Let me quote again from the Wikipedia : “Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read by anyone but them. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art.” I like to use my journal to try to remember what I did and when I did it. I understand that not everyone cares if on January 18, 2007 I ate at Uncle Bill’s diner. If I was to write a formal autobiography, I would not include that. I use this journal to reach out to people I know and to strangers. I don’t expect everyone to read every entry. I have been told the people enjoy reading about my memories of growing up in Rego Park. I don’t expect all readers to be fans of Bob Dylan or oldies radio. They can skip those entries if they prefer.

My other journal, http://njitbruce.blogspot.com/ is a corporate journal even though a university is not a corporation. I like to use it to document work experiences that are out of the ordinary.

On the other hand my good friend Dave DuBrow’s World Journal File is mostly a news journal. Often there is a story that I missed, but I find it in Dave’s Journal. He also reports on Saturday Night Oldies and Mark Simone. Dave also keeps a personal journal which is less active.

I am certainly welcome to receive any constructive criticism from readers of this journal.