Blog Response

Amsterdam: Sathi Maiti
http://sathimaiti.blogspot.com/

This blog has an interesting mix of casual and formal content. Typical conventions in punctuation and sentence structure are followed, but capitalization is used more loosely. A blog is a unique medium because it has elements of familiarity and a relaxed atmosphere, but writing in a blog for a school assignment creates a conflicting mix of two different attitudes: the formal writing style which is expected for assignments with the casual, conversational style usually taken on a blog. I know Sathi from high school, so I thought it would be interesting to look at her blog. This gives me a perspective that mirrors the conflict found in a blog: both familiar and formal.

Sathi picked the third template and didn't change the presets on the appearance of the blog. This could be seen as a lack of personal buy-in on the blog, because there wasn't a lot of time spent to personalize the structures of the blog. Her name isn't capitalized in any of its appearances on the blog, which may say something about her self-perception, but also might be because of the “coolness” of not capitalizing in online media. There is a progression in the titling of the blog posts from formal capitalization to non-capitalized and more “train of thought” blog titles with a couple of humorous titles thrown in. Additionally, the posts become longer and more casual as time goes on. There are more references to personal feelings and attitudes, with questions written out in the paragraphs, several at a time. This could be construed to be Sathi's increasing familiarity with the blog and with posting in it.

My favorite post was “i hate pants,” where Sathi wrote about a study on herself. The first part has the formal observation of herself, which could have been written by an outsider. Then she writes a somewhat self deprecating, sarcastic and funny personal explanation for what's behind the outside appearance. This was a good reminder for me about research in general. There are a lot of observable attributes of a study, but then the personal story behind it is always much deeper than what is said or seen.