Who just “starts” a blog? What kind of noob doesn’t do academic research first? Here are some takeaways from my scholarly blog-perusing. 

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Four Particular Takeaways:

Star Wars and Business Stuff

I learned some things to do from this, and also some things that are maybe un-ideal. I like that They’re taking a topic that’s kind of boring, and making it about something that I find engaging! That makes it a lot more palatable for the reader, and probably also the schmuck who wrote it. However, it also felt a little bit like, “hello, fellow kids.Y’all like Star Wars, right? Well, here’s how you can make business fun with Star Wars!” And, as someone who’s not even very much of a Star Wars nerd, even I couldn't stop thinking that the Jedi system is a little flawed and maybe they aren’t the best group to imitate. However, I think that these issues could have been fixed with some well-placed self-acknowledging humor and sass.

Please Don’t Plagiarize

Speaking of well-placed self-acknowledging humor and sass, here we are. The first thought I have about this post is less its content, and instead, more its online social implications. Bloggers help bloggers out (sometimes). Even though blogs tend to be run independently, and aren’t really based around users having conversations, this is a blogger addressing fellow bloggers, who is trying to help them step up their game. And the information it contains is definitely something that a lot of bloggers need to hear, seeing as it’s (unfortunately) common practice to steal images. Or, to just post really bad images. There’s gotta be an option in-between those two, right? Well yeah, this post is basically just correcting those errors by providing bloggers with better sources. And, to help people actually read/remember its content, it’s written to be funny.

Texans

The previous blog I talked about felt relatable because it was funny. But, there’s more than one way to be relatable, as man cannot live by sass alone. (That was terrible, I know.) Bad jokes aside, it is, surprisingly, possible to be relatable to an audience by being heartfelt and genuine. It still has little splashes of humor, but that’s not what sold it for me, so much as that it felt honest, displayed character growth and reflection, and, well, I relate to it. In fact, when discussing blogs in a college class (this being one of them), I noticed that pretty much everyone who spoke up related to it in different ways. This shows that even if a story is not identical to yours, it’s easy to latch onto certain themes and go, “haha, I’m like that.”

Books and Brews

In the first blog I mentioned, I was repelled a little bit by the stiff way it discussed pop culture. Here, we see how to engage with pop culture right: genuine enthusiasm. There’s no attempt to relate the subject to anything business-related, but regardless of how you’re talking about pop culture, the only way to seem real is to actually care about it. It also begins with a remark about spending too much money on books, which goes back to the discussion on relatability (if you’re addressing an audience who reads.) I heard everything the blogger wrote in a jittery, jumping-up-and-down voice. And because I sensed excitement, and also because she seemed confident in her own opinions, I was extremely inclined to agree with everything that was there and was even convinced enough that I’m probably going to read some of the books listed.