Questionable Quality
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Found on the premises of Johnson-McFarlane and Centennial Halls are what
are supposed to be “convenience” stores. These convenience stores make
their busin...
16 years ago
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Your favorite blog ...
Before class on Monday, please comment on a blog (or a specific blog post) from Time's top 25 blogs that you especially enjoyed reading. First, tell us a bit about the blog. What issue does it focus on? What kind of reader does it appeal to? Then, describe or summarize the post that you enjoyed and tell us what it was about. Conclude by telling us why you liked it and how it effectively communicated with its audience (you individually, but also its intended readership).
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While browsing through the New York Times top 25 blogs, I found a blog (entitled "Freakonomics") especially interesting. "Freakonomics" is a lifestyle blog that writes posts on random everyday issues. It appeals to the middle-age demographic, more specifically your average person looking for something other than your average political blog. With articles such as "Can a Sports Drink Improve Your SAT Score" to "When Are High Wine Prices Justified," one can get the assumption that "Freakonomics" deals with more light-hearted, completely random, yet fascinating, issues. The post that I read in more detail, a weekly post titled "Quotes Uncovered" deals with giving the history and the origin behind popular quotes. This week's quote, "Drinking the kool-Aid," refers to the 1978 Jonestown massacre where 900 cult followers died from drinking kool-aid laced with cyanide. Although I already knew the origin of this quote, I like the idea of this post as a fun way to be more informed and to indulge in little tid-bit facts.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this blog as it veered away from all the political issues that I already hear about on every other news website/blog. Time and time again it is always nice to read something light-hearted that although might not be as informative as a blog on the US Senate, is still a pleasure to read.
I feel "Freakonomics" effectively communicated with its audience by creating not only interesting, but clever blog posts that allow the reader to take something from the blog and apply to their everyday life.
When I went through Time’s top 25 blogs I read the more politically oriented blogs, which appealed to very karotic or timely issues in the political world today, but then I stumbled upon “Slashfood,” a blog focused on useful food tips and targeted to people who want to make healthy choices in their food-lives. The blog post that I read titled “What Can I Get You Folks-Technology at the Table,” specifically talked about technology in the restaurant scene. The author, Hanna Raskin, mainly argued in favor of technology in restaurants by explaining that cell phones are the “restaurant hostess’ best friend” in that they can be used when “diners are trying to corral their parties or call a cab” allowing the restaurant to run smoothly. One piece of advice the author gives to the reader about cell phones at the dinner table is that a server will not be as inclined to take a customer’s order while that customer is taking a phone call. The only form of technology the author finds “unacceptable” at the dinner table is video games stating that she would “hate to imagine how children raised to ignore their servers, fellow diners and the food on their plates will treat restaurant workers like me twenty years from now.”
ReplyDeleteOne response to this post argued against the author by describing an instance when they were seated at a restaurant next to a large family with many kids. The author described how after the dinner the kids pulled out their video games and murmured about each other’s games quietly as opposed to “getting hyper and running around the restaurant” as children tend to do. This author ended their post with the statement, “Forget coloring mats, restaurants should offer loaner hand-held games for the kids.” I liked this blog and this post because it exemplified how people become passionate and contribute to “healthy” argument—one that achieves stasis—over a subject that is less apparent in mainline media.
The particular blog that i read dealt with wellness and specifically how flexible work schedules can benefit peoples' health. Research in the UK, Scandinavia and Canada has shown that primary health outcomes greatly improve and stay in better condition than those of people that do not have flexible work schedules. The US is slow to catch onto this trend but in the future, if the economy doesn't get better, businesses will begin to give compensation in ways other than bonuses or raises.
ReplyDeleteThis particular article is aimed at working class people most likely in their thirties or forties. It does appeal to a broad range of readers though because everyone is going to get a job someday and this information is pertinent for anyone. I liked this blog because it was very informative and was not extremely opinionated. It only offers information and facts about what has been studied and how it can benefit us (the reader). Although it is far from the satirical attitude of Borowitz from the Huffington Post, it is still very enjoyable to read and provokes some good thoughts. It opens your eyes to some new perspectives and a shift that may eventually take place in our country. I do however enjoy reading the more politically oriented ones as well and the ones that satirize certain issues. This blog post was aimed at educating people instead of making them laugh or see how contradictory politicians are. There was no overwhelming voice or sarcasm taking control of this piece. It was very informative and offers good insight into an important issue.
While looking through the list of the 25 best blogs of 2009, the most fascinating blog I found was Boing Boing. That blog is written by a group of young, smart, and curious people, and the blog introduces a new definition and dimension of digital freedom and choice. Boing Boing offers the readers the choice of choosing between what is right and what is wrong, and between the truth and lies. The blog gives the choice by providing the readers with every single information that involved in the issue weather it’s political, scientific or economics. The blog isn’t bias in discussing issues which is the greatest thing about, because that gives the readers better perspective on the issue presented. The writers do a great job in discussing scientific issues and hoaxes which is really cool, because some internet websites will have some pictures of aliens, giant animals, and etc, so the blog discuss those kind of things and clarify weather its true or not. Personally I enjoy reading this blog, it’s so much fun to learn new scientific discoveries and the discussion between the readers are very productive and educational.
ReplyDeleteAfter viewing Time's list of the 25 Best Blogs of 2009, I came across multiple intriguing and strange blogs. The strangest, personally, was the blog entitled "Detention Slip". The title was unusual and got me thinking "What could be blogged about with detention slips?", which first attracted my attention. This blog focuses on the severe circumstances our youth are encountering, executed through education. For example, the article mentions one of the blogs on the "Detention Slip Website" discussed a second grader who brought heroin to the elementary school. The extreme and horrific scenario of a child under the age of 8 having possession of heroin, let alone bringing it to school, is utterly absurd. The appeal to the reader is focusing on preposterous ideas such as this one, and how we need to recuperate back to how our youth once were. But the drama doesn’t stop here; Now the faculty is involving themselves in such ridiculous actions. The idea of schooling our youth successfully, healthily and safely is a main attraction for a lot of parents, but I think it can also appeal to teenagers such as myself due to blatantly bizarre scenarios. A post that I was thoroughly entertained by was one called “School Using Laptops to Spy on Children”. Yes, it is what it sounds like. The principle of an elementary school in Pennsylvania provided laptops for every student in the school, the catch? Each laptop had a webcam installed, used to spy on the students in the their at home lives. The purpose was claimed to be to detect “improper behaviors” at home….but instead backfired on the school and the family who discovered this outrageous story ended up suing the entire school district. I liked this post because it was one of the most appalling stories I could even think to happen, and in fact actually be true. That made it interesting. It effectively contributed to the communication with the audience, I believe, because of it’s absurdities. It does a good job expressing the extreme circumstances happening in education, and student life.
ReplyDeleteIn his blog entitled “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” Justin Wolfers lobbies for a tax incentive program to spur hiring and curb unemployment. Writing to a logical and learned audience, one typical of The New York Times, he argues that a tax incentive is the best thing for our nation, a nation struggling with high unemployment. Not only does he call on the situated ethos of many other prominent economists to validate his opinion, he also appeals to logos, employing simple and reasonable lines of thought, to support his premises. For example, he calculates the cost of a the tax incentive program and divides it by the population of the United States, concluding that “with a fiscal impact of less than $250 per American, [and] with so many people out of work, it’s the least we can do.” Although I believe the effectiveness of Wolfers’ blog is somewhat limited to his specific audience, I liked it because it was very informative and levelheaded. He avoided impassioned exclamations, lengthy rants, or argumentative assertions, yet he clearly got his point across.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading some of Time’s Top 25 Blogs form 2009, I was greatly compelled to look at Lifehacker. This particular blog is very random and obscure proposing many outlandish ideas that are in theory very logical. One of their blogs, for example instructs one on how to cook food in the dishwasher based on the major premise that dishwashers are the same as ovens but with a few extra “gadgets” thrown in. The piece is almost satirical as it provides a detailed procedure by which to use the dishwasher as another form of cooking food. This type of blog is likely to appeal to a very sarcastic and light-hearted audience who has an appreciation for “out-of-the-blue” ideas. The most likely to read these types of pieces are college students and/or select adults who would potentially use such an invention or find the material amusing as it comments on the mundaness of their day to day lives. I liked this post mostly because it was very original and uninhibited. The author provides very valid logos to support a very unique idea that most people would scoff at. It challenges the status quo of life and introduces creativity and abstract thought which I find very interesting and inspirational. Plus, the piece holds a deeper commentary on life and logic which can boost the influence of the post significantly. To me this particular post focused on the way life can become very similar and that people have the tendency to fall into the same ruts and not think of other options to shake up the way they live their life. Individuals forget to have fun and let go a bit. Life has been rather difficult for me lately and a message like this, that reminds me to chill out and appreciate the small things in life and not forget to think outside the box, are priceless.
ReplyDeleteWhen looking at Time Magazine's top 25 blog posts, the blog deadspin caught my eye. This is the biggest and most popular sports blog on the web and it focuses on mainly issues that happen off of the field in the sports world. It's writers blog about controversial issues such as the steroids in baseball and the referees that trow games. It doesn't talk about the actual sports games themselves, there are never posts about specific games, just the news on the players in their outside worlds. This blog appeals to everyone that is interested in sports in general, so a wide variety of people. The post I read was about how the Russians failed in this olympics and how they are going to fire all of their olympic recruiters and organizers. This is interesting to me because it talks about their recently failing hockey program and I am very interested in hockey, as I have played for 15 years. Also the movie Miracle is one of my favorite movies and a big focus in that is the Russian hockey team and their dominant style of play. With the olympics just ending, most readers can very easily find a way to relate to this article.
ReplyDeleteBrowsing through Time Magazine's top 25 blogs of 2009, I found a blog in particular that interested me called "Slashfood". Slashfood is basically the 'Food Network' of the internet. The blog is meant to interest those who love food and being in the kitchen. It also appeals to families who are trying to watch how much money they spend on food. The website will give out recipes and tips to readers such as what to do with left over food. It will also give ideas as to how to save money when feeding a family by only spending $15 on a full meal. This blog interests me because I absolutely love to be in the kitchen cooking, baking, or eating. Food is how we replenish our body's fuel, we need to eat food regularly. It is a great feeling of accomplishment when you make food that is delicious and liked by others. So why not be interested in making the food that you put into your body?
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