HW 9: Applying Graff, Chapter 4 to Waldman or Huffington

After reading the two different articles written by Waldman and Huffington I decided to direct most of my attention to the internet with Ayelet Waldman and comment on it. I found this interview to be extremely interesting and even a little bit shocking. It is sad to think that someone’s own “personal laundry” could be opened up and ready by so many people online. More importantly, is the fact that she was so willing to explain everything that was going on in her life. Waldman confesses that she had never kept a journal or diary before and that even when she does write, it was usually for an audience. The main point or focus that came across in Waldman’s interview was how blogging is a crucial and positive thing for women to do, and it often connects them with one another and encourages them to be better mothers, wives and so forth. She states, “I think that there is something about the blogoshphere that lends itself to a kind of snarkiness.” (Kline and Burstein 310) I agree that putting yourself out their on the web, even through your thoughts and personal opinions can be detrimental because my experience writing posts on my own blog confirms it. What is hard for most people to understand is that we all have different ways of expressing how we truly feel, and that sometimes, their needs to be a resource or outlook for people to be able to let out what they’re feeling inside. I also disagree strongly when she says, “When you are a novelist you take personal experiences and you sit on them until they fester into something totally different.” (Kline and Burstein 311) Isn’t that the same for blogging though? Waldman’s claim that blogging is not the primary source for writing rests upon the questionable assumptions that you most likely need to be a novelist, or someone with such writing ability in order to inhibit the same amount of attention and feed back. Blogging is a great opportunity for people to write one thing and have many different responses come back in return. It often even sparks more intelligence and further discussion on the topic.