colleen's channels of communication

I found the AVC article to be rather interesting, because it very closely explained my responses to the blog questions. Last semester, I upgraded from not quite a smartphone to a Blackberry. I noticed a change in my communication behavior right away. With my Blackberry, I can bbm my friends with real time results, which is less frustrating than trying to text in some locations on this campus. I enjoy being able to know if my bbm contacts have received my message, or if they are in the process of responding. I can receive and respond to emails immediately, a feature which helps greatly with my work. I am definitely one of the readers described who consider email "serious messaging"; I utilize it mainly for work and school related matters. However, because I can receive and send it so rapidly, I find myself at times treating it a bit like instant messaging (especially when communicating with others who are emailing from, say, their iPhone). I can update social media with essentially two clicks. When taking a photo, the main option defaults to send/share, and following that is send to facebook. And, seeing as it is a telephone at the end of the day, I can text and place/receive phone calls. I definitely use texting as a method over calling, even with my parents. It tends to be more convenient, and allows me and whoever I am communicating with to be doing other tasks since it doesn't require constant attention like a phone call does. In fact, I almost find myself to be annoyed when someone calls to have a casual conversation because I feel like it cuts into my productivity. Overall, I really utilize these various channels of communication constantly.

The one method of communication mentioned in the questions which I do not use (aside from this class) is blogging. I had a very brief tumblr career, and have been considering returning to it, but I really question whether or not it is really necessary to me. I'm not quite sure if what I have to say would interest other people, or if I would want people I knew personally to be aware of what I had to say. This week, I read my friend's personal blog everyday. She is very active on tumblr, blogging quite a few times a day, and live blogging during big events or show premieres. What I found most interesting is that this is her second blog- she took her first one down because people she knew were creating situations based off of the personal experiences she would mention. Over the course of my following this week, she actually had to create a third blog, for the same reason again. To me this is interesting because it makes me question a great deal about blogging and social media. Who do authors of blogs write/create blogs for? Are some mainly for personal expression? If so, have blogs led to the extinction of diaries and journals? (Why?!) Just because you have a platform to reach others with all of your thoughts, should you? Overall, I think some blogs can be informative, others entertaining, and others just relatable. Do I see myself entering the blogosphere in a greater capacity than this class's blog? Currently, I do not forsee the need for any other avenue of communication besides those which are offerred to me easily on my Blackberry.