We are taking the blogosphere by storm! Blogging -- the new scrapbooking, journal-writing, memory-keeping craze.
Last year, I don't remember exactly what family function I attended but afterward my uncle made a point of telling me that I could check out his pictures on his blog. What? You have a blog? I was in awe at how cool he seemed.
He mentioned that I could have a blog, if I wanted. He'd even help me set it up. Hmmm, a blog. All of a sudden I feet insanely cool and wonderfully original. A blog! I could upload pictures of my exciting life and write about my crazy adventures! If I had them.
Long story short, I created a blog and tentatively took to "blogging." At first I would only blog about major events and mainly just post pictures. However, I soon began to post just to post. I blogged my feelings or what my particular mood for the day was. I learned the hard way, but the important thing to remember is that your blog is yours. It is completely and solely yours. Don't worry or care what others think of it. You don't even have to invite anyone to read it. It can just be a snazzy journal online if that's what you want it to be.
I would like to think that my blog is a reflection of myself. I write about my life and mainly about myself. My blog is more or less a photo journal. It contains pictures of events and people and places that I want to remember. I look back on things I did last summer, for instance, and I have a detailed account along with pictures of what I did. It's a digital scrapbook that I can access anywhere I have a computer.
Blogs can be used for basically anything. I have one to log my service hours for school and write reflections on. My other blog is just my personal blog with pictures of friends, family and events. But others create blogs on cooking, crafts, work, school and just for fun. Your blog is yours and you should make it so.
Now, I did make the decision to keep my blog private. When you are creating a blog there is a little box that you can press to allow anyone to view your blog, or you can check "private" which means you must send an invitation to the e-mail address of whomever you would like to read your blog. That person can either join on as a 30-day visitor or install an account and become a "follower" of your blog.
It wasn't until a few months into my blogging phase that I realized I really wasn't that special. Pretty much everyone has a blog. I am not an expert on blogs -- far from that -- and I know that it is not some new craze that is sweeping the nation. Blogs and blogging have been quietly going about doing their own business for years, and myself being completely oblivious, has just realized that.
Whether you write your blog for an audience or you decide to remain anonymous and write purely for yourself, blogs are pretty fun.
The website I used to create my blogs is found at www.blogger.com or www.blogspot.com. Check it out and you might just be the next blog master!
Lynette Randall will be a senior at Clearfield High School this fall. She loves river rafting, rock climbing, wave running and reading. E-mail her at climber174@yahoo.com.
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