Reflection

This is the second class I’ve had to blog for, so I am slightly familiar with blogging. I also went through a weird “I NEED attention” phase in middle school and had a pretty bizarre blog going on at that point. God forbid it ever resurfaces. We used a different website for my other class, so figuring out WordPress took me some time. I still don’t really understand how to make “tags” and I encountered a glitch that wouldn’t let me post my blogpost right away. It would say “schedule publishing at blank time” or something and would never actually publish. I ended up having to use Safari, which was a bummer because now it wont stop trying to be my preferred browser. Safari is the worst.

My strength in writing has always been a more formal style so it’s always nice to write conversationally. In a setting where you don’t know anyone or have to see them face to face it is much easier to express yourself without embarrassment. Although I actually did meet someone from the class randomly at Buchanans! Hello, friend!

I especially appreciated the chance to blog about music in this context, because I often get embarrassed of my music choices and sharing them with others. It was a good step for me to take. I’ve gotten so used to spellcheck that I found some glaring errors in my old posts, which is always very frustrating. I really enjoyed reading others posts and getting a sense of their writing style. It’s a really great way to get ideas on structure and voice, and I definitely found myself adopting some components of others work. It’s flattery, ok.

One thing I noticed about the class blog in general was that tone is often hard to determine. Much like while texting, the emotion behind the words is sometimes hard to read, even in an informal writing style. Sometimes I would read comments and think, “Wow, this person is taking this way too seriously.” But then I would re-read the comment and catch something I missed, that made it a little less abrasive. No offense. I promise I took this class seriously.

I guess another huge part of writing about music and the sensitivities behind that is a lot people get upset when people don’t like their music, or write something they totally disagree with. I know I do. And it’s totally justified. Right to opinion for both parties. This also went the opposite direction of course, because most of the comments on here were very encouraging and uplifting. It always made me happy to see that little orange bell in the corner when I had a new comment. It’s equally as nice to have someone appreciate your music and writing as it is an ego-blow when someone doesn’t. But critique is arguably the most important component of writing, so we should embrace it! Something that comes with writing informally in a small and generally anonymous group is the ability to express your opinion no matter what, and that is invaluable.