The Dangers of Blogging (especially for men)

On the topic of blogging, this TED talk given by Yassi Vardi, an ‘investor and prankster’, examines the dangers of blogging, especially for men, amusingly labelling it 'local warming'.

TED talks are great. Like the one mentioned above, most of them are interesting and entertaining, many are also thought provoking, and quite often, as well as being informative, they are funny. As you can, or will see if you watch Vardi’s talk, even the ones that seem to be just for amusement can raise some very interesting questions. I have no doubt that at least a couple of males will begin to worry about resting their laptops on their laps after having watched this. I myself am now thinking about my posture.

What's interesting in regard to the gender talks we've been having lately is in comparison to Yossi Vardi, Mena Trott, ‘the founding mother of the blog revolution’ (who also gives a talk on blogging) discusses her emotions about blogging, while Vardi discusses (and jokes about) the actual act of blogging. Trott's blog itself is about her personal life, and is implied to be written in a confessional, or diary form, which the first lecture suggested was common of female authors.

In relation to the readership of blogs, Trott also mentions how startled she was when she realised how many people- strangers- were actually reading her blog. She goes on to discuss blogs that she follows, and how emotionally connected she becomes to the authors of those blogs, and her concern and curiosity about their stories. Through her realisation of her readership, and her following of other blogs, Trott illustrates the potential of blogs to connect people from all around the globe.

As mentioned in lecture one, blogs are a medium that people often seek out. I wonder then, how many readers will our collective blog attract outside of our class, and how many of us will actually go over to our sister blog and read the stage 2 students' entries?