Reflection on Blogs and Blogging

I have been looking for blogs addressing adjunct teaching for my blogroll. One of the few I've found, Invisible Adjunct , went dormant two years ago. There are plenty of blogs created by academics, many of whom use their real names, but what they describe isn't part of my experience since I'm not on the tenure track and don't know that I'll ever get there. I'm also interested in locating other interesting blogs, that is, something other than a daily report of one’s life.

From what I’ve noticed, there seems to be more women than men who blog. I can’t draw any generalizations regarding the reason for such a gender disparity. Female bloggers, I’ve noticed, also generate a lot of traffic, particularly if they reveal intimate details that appeal to those voyeurs who seem to find satisfaction at knowing when Lucky Lucky Star and her husband have had sex or when she gives her husband oral sex because of what he did to earn it. Some things are best left private. Most of all, I‘ve noticed how young many bloggers are. I remember when I was 28, and I certainly don’t want to relive that year.

Since I’ve added the Site Meter that appears lower on the page, I discovered that people in other countries have been using my blog as a resource. When someone in Poland googles Michal Urbaniak, when someone in England googles Frederick Wyllyams, when someone in Japan googles the Bothy Band, my blog comes up in their search engine. That recognition, even though the visitor doesn’t explore my other pages, makes me very happy. I can’t think of many other reasons to maintain a blog than to address some of those things that interest me or that I know something about and to have someone else utilize the material when conducting a search for information. Having regular readers who post comments occasionally is a special kind of pleasure, particularly since I haven’t succumbed to describing my sex life in detail, and lets me know that more than the occasional visitor cares about what I post, no matter how quirky or how odd the subject.