blog post 1

1. How does the tool relate to the topic of the week?
Blogging is the topic of the week. Blogging is a type of social media tool that allows people to express their opinions and views on certain issues. I think that blogging can be very useful for people who are looking to find other opinions on things. I have never blogged before, but after creating this blog and posting to it, I feel like I will use it more often.

2. What functions does the tool serve?
Blogging allows people to voice their opinions and beliefs either by using their real name or by going anonymous. Some people may not want others to know who they are, but others may want everyone to know that they feel very strongly about certain things. People who may not have many friends or aren't very connected to their families may use blogging as a way to feel close to others. Some people may use blogs as a diary of their life and daily happenings. Other blogs may focus on specific events. Overall, blogs main purpose are to inform other people of many different things from personal to worldwide events.

3. What did you find most interesting about the tool?
I thought that creating this blog was very cool. It allowed me to customize the blog to exactly what I wanted. This is what I thought was most interesting about it. The customization allows the user to make the blog stand for something more than just a page with posts on it. It lets them create their own little world. On my blog i was able to put a picture that i find very inspirational and hopefully others may feel the same about it. I think this is awesome. I can share things that I enjoy with others.

4. What did you find the most challenging?
This was the first blog that I ever made so everything was new to me. What I found to be the most challenging was putting widgets on my blog page. For some reason i just struggled to get the widgets that i wanted. I ended up putting an e-mail widget that allows people to receive my blogs straight to their e-mail when I post them. Another widget that i used was a counter that tracks the number of views that my page gets. The final widget that i used was allowing pictures to be posted on my page. It took me a longer amount of time to put these widgets on my page than anything else. After the third widget I used it started to become easier to get them. I just need to get used to how everything is set up.

5. How does the tool help or complicate communication?
I think that blogging helps and hurts communication in different areas. It helps communication because it allows people to be more connected with others. People can post blogs and feel closer with others based on their responses. Blogging hurts communication because users can't talk face to face. Everything is read and understood through text and not emotions from others. People can't really type words and use the emotions that they are trying to get across.

6. What is your critique of your experience?
I think that making this blog was a good idea. It allows me to utilize more social media tools. this is very important because social media is taking over. So many more people use social media than before so this allows me to be able to use and understand yet another tool. Overall I think that I will use my blog after this class and post my opinions on different topics. I am still not 100% comfortable with everything involved with the blogs, but eventually I will understand them more and be more comfortable.