My experience with blogs

My experiences with blogs have been really limited. I have never have a blog or started a blog. My experience with blogs have been limited merely to just reading them. I find politics very interesting. I am not interested in getting involved with politics but I look at it as more of a spectator sport. So, my exposure to blogs have been just reading a few politic blogs.
Due to my lack of exposure, I cannot say that that I have had any problems with them. I due see a rise of teachers using blogs to integrate into their curriculum. I see many teachers, much like this class, requiring students to keep a blog for units or novels that they are reading. This would greatly have an affect on students' reading and writing abilities. I guess, you can compare this to keeping reading logs, which I still use in my class. It seems that all of the writing skills that are being taught in schools are going to technology. I also think that this technology will cause a decline in students handwriting skills. This is fine and all but how does this play for lower social-econimic students who might not have access to computers at home? This might create problems for this demographics of students.
Looking at certain blogs, specifically political blogs like Fire Dog Lake and Talking Memos, it seems that what makes a good blog is the side that they take. I am not speaking about whether you agree with their viewpoints or not but that they are consistent on their viewpoints. These blogs come off as being news site but are merely commentary on top of the news that they are presenting much like the news cycles they are on cable networks nowadays. Like news articles in the newspapers or online publications, blogs' articles are at the same length; being 500-1000 or more words. This is an attractive length due to Americans' short attention span lasting no longer that a 10-15 minute sound bites. I think people who get much of their information from the blogs want to have access to information and opinion fast and at the tip of their fingers and are not interested in reading pages and pages of regurgitated information.
As mentioned before, it seems that blogs are going to be, if they already have not become the new media. If you look at the impression that blogs have made throughout the world. It seems that the world of information has become more open than ever. Meaning, just like the internet in general, anything that you want to find, you can with a touch of a button. You don't even need a computer anymore due to Smart Phone becoming for advanced and becoming cheaper in price. Much like this, blogs will allow everyone and anyone to put their voice out there in the world for anyone to who wishes to read. Who knows what else blogs will lead to next. Cannot wait to see.