I started my blog shortly after we got internet access at home*. I had been reading a handful of blogs (FSP, Sciencewoman's old blog, Am I a Woman Scientist, Dr. Shellie, Ms.PhD, Jenny F. Scientist, PropterDoc) at work. I'd do like I do with email -- I'd keep a few blogs open and refresh
Once I got internet at home, I started following a much greater variety of blogs. I found new ones by moving laterally from my favorites and by checking out blogs of people who commented here. I really appreciate the community of which I've become a part and all the latent mentorship I've received through blogs.
Now I subscribe to many blogs (>90; I'm sure many of you read plenty more than that). I still read a few during work breaks, but only in my feed reader and I almost never take time to comment until I get home. It can be difficult to keep up with them all, especially when I miss a few days. Sometimes I get confused about who said what where. Yet, I'm constantly finding new blogs. I like getting to know new people plus I want to support new bloggers the same way that people so generously supported me by visiting and commenting when I first started (and still do!).
I feel torn about my anonymity, too. Sometimes (like after election day) I want to talk about where I live and other times I'd really like to say more about my work. I'm not too concerned with other bloggers or regular readers knowing who I am, but I don't think I want everyone I know to have access to the thoughts I share here and I certainly don't want this page to come up when someone googles my name. I know, same shit everyone says. On the other hand, I sometimes want to share the treasure of the women-in-science blogosphere with colleagues who I think could really benefit from the community. But I hesitate because I don't necessarily want them to read my blog.
So anyway, that's what I think about blogging right now. How about you? Has the way you use blogs shifted over time?
*Can I tell you how pissed I was when I had put off getting home internet because we were on such a tight budget and I thought it would be really expensive (at least $60) and then it turned out to be $17/month? I waited so long to save $17?!
17 comments:
Well, happy blogiversary anyway.
Happy bogloversary!
It's not even my one month blogoversary but I really hear you on this one. I can't express how much I appreciate this community - I can put my honest thoughts out there without fear of repercussion...sometimes the response I get is really validating and other times I get people telling me to "sack up"...but always in a supportive way.
Blogging has become a really cathartic and even academically helpful pursuit for me...hope I'll still be at it a year from now.
PS - this is as good a time as ever to de-lurk...hope you don't mind that I've added you to the blogroll over at my place. Keep up the good work.
Thanks!
Welcome, Ambivalent. I'm glad you too enjoy blogging. And I don't mind at all that you linked to me. :)
Happy day!
I too am torn with this pseudoanonymity... but I don't want my name to be googles with my blog (at this time anyway). And I reall really don't want my work place to know that I am writing about my science. They are testy....
so, all in all - I agree with you that I am so happy to have found all the female scientists' blogs. I read some others too. But it is the FSB that makes my day. Makes the smaller obsticles even smaller and the large ones, well smaller or at least not personal as much as general.
Happy Blogiversary! I just started mine in May, so I guess this is about my halfiversary...
The biggest change in my habits came with Google Reader. I now follow some 250 sites and blogs. The Geoblogs are the first I read each day, then astronomy, then humor, then off to deal with hundreds of news posts. I have come to realize that I don't get counted as a visitor unless I go to the post to comment, but the efficiency of the system is wonderful for me. On the other hand, I have subscribed to too much, I'm afraid. I was hoping for a drop off in volume after the election, but I'm not really seeing it. My own blogging is not happening, because I'm reading too much (if that's possible).
Happy Blogiversary!
I just realized that I started my blog about the same time you started yours. (I'm a bad blog keeper.) Your blog was one of the first that I started reading and I'm looking forward to all the great posts next year!
Happy blogiversary, ecogeofemme. You have a great blog. I subscribe to about 50 blogs and don't think I would be able to keep up with more than that. My own blogging habits are seriously on and off. I often don't have the energy to blog myself, but slip into reading and lurking mode. I spend up to an hour writing a blog post and that's just not the kind of time I have on a busy work day. I probably also spend at least around an hour a day reading blogs. I don't know if my habits have changed all that much since I started two years ago (actually I had another blog before that, which suffered from the same long stints of no writing).
My belated congrats on your blogiversary. :) Of course, I understand what you're saying about the whole anonymity thing... although you so rarely (if at all) post anything particularly incriminating. Not like me, telling retarded stories of my coworkers (which I have been trying to move away from).
This past weekend, I was actually thinking of trying to write a post on what I get out of blogging and how my reasons for doing it have evolved over time. Hopefully I'll get to that sometime this week, because it's worth reflecting on. I know that my reasons for starting were certainly different than my reasons for staying.
Happy blogiversary. I really enjoy your blog.
I, too, wonder sometimes about the anonymity. The field I work in is quite small, and I'm just not sure I'd feel comfortable with some people reading, but those people probably wouldn't read a blog, anyway.
I thought I might go public after about a year or so of blogging, but still feel conflicted about it. It's a different world, in a way, than the "real" world of meetings, somehow. The context is different, sometimes, and many topics are different than ones I would discuss with many people I know in the work world.
Also, MOH wouldn't like being "known" - and I think his right to privacy is important.
I use a reader much more than to begin with, when I also left pages open for hours (sometimes I still do going back and forth between blogs). I sometimes use your blog as a gateway to many that I haven't yet subscribed to, because I don't know if I could handle that many subscriptions!
Happy blogiversary!
I know what you mean about the blog posts getting backed up. I've actually cut back on the ones I subscribe too after I moved back to the west coast, and then a few more after I started my new job. But I know I can always find them again linked through sciencewomen.
Happy blogiversary!
I am with you on the whole anonymity thing. And on sharing with other people on blogging and blogs.
I created my blog almost as soon as I started reading blogs (I like making webpages, so I couldn't help it), but it took some time to figure out what I was actually going to blog about. Having the supportive community is by far my favorite about this whole blogging thing, so I wish you many more blogiversaries!
Happy one year blogiversary!
We started blogging around the same time, I think. And yes, I'm with you on both the community and anonymity issues. Blog reading takes up so much time that I try to limit the number of blogs I read--but interesting new ones keep popping up! (yeah, I'm also referring to you, there, ambivalent academic!) I often don't blog much because I'm too busy reading and commenting on other blogs... And yeah, I often leave pages open for hours at a time, just as background on the computer while I'm doing something else. People with sitemeter might think I'm a freak...
I subscribe to way too many blogs. And being a to-do list freak, seeing all those unread posts in my reader makes me antsy! I unsubscribed to a few over the summer, but then, like you said, kept finding more and more good blogs. It's a problem!
Please do keep up the good work here though!
Happy Blogiversary! I have the same problems keeping up and commenting- I always end up 3 days late on a hot topic.
Wow. There's no way I have time to read that many blogs... I like to read books, too, you know? And I have a stack of papers I need to read every week for work.
And you may have noticed that lately I'm only doing blog-things on the weekend.
It comes and goes. And yes, the anonymity thing is frustrating, but for me the problem is the dichotomy of things I'd like to tell people about in my real life, but I'm worried about overlap with my blog and vice-versa.
Right now I'm struggling with deciding whether or not to blog about a book I just read, that's very relevant to the whole YFS concept and science in general, but also really important to something I want to do in real life. I think I might blog about it and then not run the post for a while, just to get it out of my system but to keep the temporal separation, you know?
Happy blogiversary! My feed reader is out of control too. But I don't have time to read them all, so I just like knowing that I can easily read them when I have time. I try to come and check in on my blog friends every once in a while!
I too am so pleased with the blogging community for women in science. Such great support and mentorship!
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