Apologies in advance for the excessively long post. I realize what I’m about to raise has been discussed before and I suspect that it happens to most bloggers at some point but… I’m thinking of giving up the blog. Another assistant soc prof blogger caught some flak from his/her department for a post he/she wrote — if you read the blog, you know who I’m talking about. If you don’t, I’m not going to pile more attention on him/her and it really doesn’t matter anyway. The point is that it made me really nervous and got me to thinking. To be clear, nothing bad has happened to me and, to my knowledge, no one in my department is even aware that I have a blog. The anonymity is mostly to avoid google-ability, but it’s not tough to figure out who I am if you put your mind to it. I figure it’s only a matter of time…
On the keep going side:
1) I love blogging. I don’t know if I am ‘good’ at it, but I like it.
2) It keeps me productive because of the track words thing — on a whim, I also tracked the number of non-blog words I write and the number of blog posts/comments I do in a day. They are positively correlated so there is little evidence that blogging takes me away from work. For me, blogging tends to go together with productivity.
3) I like the sense of community it offers and was very excited at the prospect of meeting my frequent commenters in person at ASA.
4) I learn through the posts that I write and the comments they produce.
5) Blogging helps me process the emotional costs of starting a new job (and the degree to which I am managing my emotions has always been strongly related to my success at any endeavor).
6) Pardon the hubris but I’d also like to think the blog helps others, if only by making themselves feel better about their success in a new job in comparison to me. I’d also like to think that finding someone else who is going through the same thing is helpful.
On the stop side:
1) Most importantly and related to #5 above, I would be emotionally crushed if one of my colleagues or graduate students were hurt or angered by something I wrote. This would most definitely interfere with my work and transition to my new job and I am loathe to risk it. Anytime I write anything about students (grad or undergrad), I usually portray a collection of experiences with different students as happening with one. The idea is that, if they read this, they assume it isn’t about them. This offers some protection to them but probably not enough.
2) A good friend summed it up, “It’s not a problem until it is.” He meant that I would never be able to figure out what would offend/hurt anyone until it was too late. Having read my blog and knowing much more about what I think about things than I say here, he can see how careful I am but the problem remains.
3) A specific example: I recently wrote a post about feeling uncomfortable listening to faculty talk about graduate students because I just recently was one. The post was actually written in response to listening to some faculty members talk really positively about a particular student. It was also written long before the departmental review of graduate students. I would be appalled if a hypothetical student who got negative feedback as a result of a departmental review thought I was talking about them on my blog.
4) You might argue that I should just stop blogging about being a new soc prof. As much as I like blogging about junior, I have no interest in doing a “hey, isn’t my kid cute” blog or a “gee, ain’t politicians stupid” blog or anything else along these lines. You might also say I should just be more careful — I think I have been (but would love to know if you see places where I haven’t) but the “it isn’t a problem until it is” issue remains.
5) Finally, this whole thing about blogging being a waste of time. Despite my empirical evidence above, blogging is thought of as excessively time-consuming by non-bloggers (including me, before I became one). Said friend above also noted that if I “work at home” one day and decide to watch TV, no one knows. If I blog, everyone knows I produced 400 words while I was ’supposed’ to be working. I actually do most of my blogging at night (and on a non-university computer) when I might otherwise be watching TV or knitting or whatever but certainly wouldn’t be working. It’s my way of decompressing. Though it looks like I write blog posts every day, I actually have 5-10 drafts of things, write on Sunday nights, and post them one-by-one over the course of the week. The problem is, bloggers know this about blogging. Non-bloggers do not.
I’ve been offered a chance to blog on my substantive area in a public forum, under my own name. This also comes with some risk, but the substantive spin of the blog would preclude me from writing about the kinds of things that are most likely to get me into trouble. I’m excited about the prospect. I’m also saddened because the aforementioned problem posts are exactly the kinds of posts that I learn the most from writing.
So, thoughts on any of this? I don’t ask this because I want a bunch of positive comments on my blog. I’m especially interested in those from people who read blogs but don’t write them. If you read, why don’t you blog? I’d also be curious to know how other asst. prof bloggers have handled this. Perhaps I am weak/emotional/too risk-averse but, in the end, I’m unwilling to risk a pissed off colleague or hurt graduate student at this stage of the game. And, yes, I considered this before I started one but life’s a learning process and you don’t really know until you know. Anyway, no firm decisions yet but I suspect that, much as I enjoy it, newsocprof is on its way out.
I think, so far, you’ve played it relatively safe. You haven’t insulted your chair / dean / students. I mean, compare your posts to Angry Professor’s posts (which usually crack me up, but gosh, she can be merciless!
). Even when you do substantive posts, you do go on on rants. So, I don’t see where the problem is.
I think more and more, blogging activity should count as positive contribution to the discipline as far as tenure review is concerned. After all, soc bloggers contribute to public sociology (hey, we don’t get big book deals and appearances on the Colbert Report like Venkatesh, but we slug away anyway!)
And dontcha dare turn your blog into a “my kid is cute / a genius / …” cuz if you do, I’m outta here!
Obviously, you’ve used a general blogging strategy and safety measures different than mine (I don’t really blog about academia and certainly not about my college) but if it works for you, then fine. As for me, blogging about content helps me find new materials that I can use in class, new visuals, etc.
So, when are you moving to the new blogging digs (congrats on that!)? I guess that mention in IHE finally paid off!!
Blogging has been nothing but beneficial to me. Largely because it offers me that sense of community. I’ve learned a lot about the discipline through blogging, and made connections to people all over the world.
I think the rewards outweigh the risks.
Getting involved in blogging has definitely been a time sink for me, not the writing, but reading everyone else’s blogs and obsessing about comments. I already had a bad email habit. So I’m going to have to learn how to keep the internet & email off for big blocks of time or I will never write again. Not saying that is your problem, but it definitely is an issue for a lot of us with the “time” thing. Someone who already has good orderly work habits and compartmentalizes things is much less likely to get hurt by this than someone who does not. And then there are the “presentation of self” issues for the folks who think that assistant professors ought not to have any leisure activities — some can be hidden better than others. (I’m not in this latter category btw, just saying.)
Although younger people feel more vulnerable (well, are more vulnerable), I think the older and higher ranking you get, the more things you cannot blog about without hurting someone. There are lots of little stories and events on my mind that I cannot even mention because it would damage someone else or my relations with someone else. You are not even thinking about the problem that you can’t blog about your children once they are literate. My children can read what I post and their friends can read what I post, so I can’t talk about what is going on with them in any serious way, either, without breaking confidences. It seems to me that this is the constraint on the type of blog you are writing, where you reflect on the “getting going” issues. Your posts are great, by the way, but at some point you run out of philosophic issues and what is left are the personal issues that run the risk of hurting or alienating someone.
Blogs about issues & ideas keep going, as do blogs about quirky events in life. But it does seem that there is a serious limit on blogging about what has happened within one’s family or workplace.
First, I just have to say that I’m constantly impressed by how nuanced and thoughtful olderwoman’s comments are. There’s just no denying that blogging is a double-edged sword that must be handled carefully.
Second, I hope you don’t close up shop, newsocprof. Your blog was really the one that convinced me that it would be “okay” to join in the conversation. It seems to me that the internet is now allowing us the chance to have the kind of collegial conversations about ideas and life that things like status and personal neuroses get in the way of in our own departments. I’d be sorry to see a great contributor to that disappear.
The blogging community provides me with additional information about academia, teaching, and research that I might not otherwise have access to. Therefore, I share Anomie’s sentiments regarding the benefits and sense of community blogging provides.
Your blog is wonderful to read BECAUSE of your “newbie” status (faculty/recent grad student perspective). I always look forward to your posts and find your blog one of the top three I go to first! While I don’t post very much, I have to agree with olderwoman–reading the words of others is time consuming. I had my own blog at one point and joined forces with Anomie because of time constraints/paucity of posts.
Could you join this new blog in your substantive area AND occasionally guess blog with another (still get the positives you enjoy)?
Whatever your decision, I wish you nothing but the best!
I’ve started several blog posts that contain nuggets of some of the issues you bring up here. I’ve been on the fence about continuing to blog lately too – because I’m too hesitant to dive into some of the more important career socialization stuff I’m figuring out and have thus been writing more about babies and random news bits than I ever intended to. Ultimately, I’m probably going to keep at it for awhile, simply because I’m enjoying it. And because the writing momentum factor you describe so well really works for me too.
I’ve benefited a lot from the posts and comments that have been floating around here, so thanks. Selfishly, I hope you continue this blog (or turn it into a group one where SEVERAL newbies contribute!), but totally sympathize with your reasons for taking it down.
Sorry to hear of the struggles. I have been dealing with the same issues lately. It is fun to blog as part of a group and you are more than welcome to join our team.
A very thoughtful post, as always, NSP. (And thanks to Olderwoman for her always-wise thoughts.)
I have decided to continue blogging. For me, the pros far outweigh the cons. The key is to be careful about what one says, of course, but the bottom line is that I’m not willing to walk on egg shells for the next five years. I try my best to be measured and thoughtful in my comments in the department — I’ve been told my several senior faculty that I do an excellent job here, and if anything, they wish I would speak up more often — and I try to do the same on my blog. But that doesn’t guarantee that someone won’t get ticked off by something I say. We all come from different social locations, and reasonable people just have to learn to disagree reasonably. If that doesn’t appear to be the case, I’ll go some place else or find a different line of work. Life is too short to be cowed into silence and complicity just because my title begins with “Assistant.”
Last, I think there’s a considerable difference between what you (and I) write and blatant criticism or gossip about a department. I see nothing wrong with writing, “I’m new, I’m struggling with this, and here’s why.” If you do it with respect and senior faculty still lash out about it, then that says more about them than it does about you.
It’s been a frustrating week, but I’m confident I have the support I need to go forward. I hope you will, too.
I only recently found your blog, newsocprof, from a comment you left on a post at the crime blog I maintain with my collegues. I find myself in the same position as you — I enjoy blogging about professional issues more than I ever thought I would, but sometimes worry excessively about my “presentation of self” even though I am extra careful to (I hope) avoid posting controversial, hurtful, or unprofessional material.
For what it’s worth, I really enjoy reading blogs written by other soc/crim faculty (especially recent grads and new faculty), and hope that you will continue blogging. (I’ll even add you to our blog roll!) That said, I can understand why you might decide to close up shop. It’s uncharted territory, this blogging thing!
Good luck…
While I think the internet as a whole has been a clear and obvious net drain on my productivity if what went on my CV was the only thing that mattered to and for me, I don’t think writing blog posts is really that much of a part of it. Monitoring my blog and reading other blogs takes more time.
I hope that you keep blogging. You’re good at it.
I found it a tremendous drain on my time — the reading and commenting (as olderwoman and jeremy metion), not the writing and decided to stop in an amazing fit of tears — very very hard for me, but what was interesting (and I do hope you continue blogging, so I hope this doesn’t sway you…) was how easy it was to stop after the first week. Now I read and comment on blogs about 20 minutes a day, and I only very rarely miss my own writing. I do plan to go back, because I enjoyed it as a hobby, but when I can afford to…productively speaking.
This, however, is more about me than about you, since you seem to still have no problem (I’m sooo jealous) with your legitimatized and mandated professional writing
On the privacy issue – I think this is a very real concern. You might consider starting a new blog and leaving your discipline unnamed, while emailing your regular commenters to let them know where you have gone. The concern doesn’t disappear completely, but it’s far reduced, IMHO. You can also protect yourself by never mentioning to students/colleagues, etc. that you blog. I mentioned it once to a student who knew me very well (she was a student, mentee, and my son’s nanny — she REALLY new me) and the little stinker actually was able to find me in a matter of days.
[...] 23, 2008 by newsocprof Thanks all for the thoughtful and generous comments on my last (excessively long) post about blogging. I made a concerted effort this week and stayed off the blog (with one late night [...]