BLOGGING can serve many purposes especially for students. They frequently use blogs to chronicle their escapades and relieve their boredom. For accounting student Guillermo Francisco II, blogigng is a good break off his daily encounter with numbers.
A blogger for three years now, Francisco first learned about blogging from his friends. He said he started writing about his insights and experiences, and eventually “I learned to express myself.”
But studies and extra-curricular activities allowed Francisco to post entries only once a month. Still, his blog comes in handy when he is having a bad day and needs to relieve emotional stress.
“I don’t tell my problem as it is. I use figurative language. But somehow, other bloggers still understand what I’m talking about,” he said.
A time came when one of his blog entries was misinterpreted by his readers. A friend thought she was the one Francisco was talking about on his blog. The entry became fodder for gossip in the blogging community. He did a lot of explaining following the incident, from which, according to him, he learned to be more careful with what he wrote.
But Guillermo still enjoys writing in his blog (www.coderedwing2.multiply.com) not only because it is free but because it also helps him to develop his writing skills.
“You can train yourself to write and think because your creativity and imagination work together,” he says.
For medical technology student Gian Carlo Zaragoza, writing may seem far from his field but his blog (www.giancarloz.multiply.com) has been his literary outlet for two years now.
“I was inspired by my professor in Filipino literature to write poems,” he said.
Zaragoza writes poems to cope with his problems, through “feel-good” verses to vent his feelings.
“One of the great things of having a blog is that you have your own journal. You can post anything there and anyone can see it,” he says.
Blogging for bucks and buddies
Thomasians also use blogging to make money.
Arts and Letters student Ma. Shayne Zalameda she only wanted a venue to practice her writing.
“I just want to maximize what we pay for the internet and try something online where I can practice my English skills,” she said. This was until she met another blogger who introduced her to Mylot.com: a site where one can post blog entries or questions and receive money when another blogger responds to them. The more feedback the entry receives, the more money the inquirer gets from the site.
Zalameda started posting her own questions and eventually she started earning money with the influx of her readers’ comments. Thanks to curiosity, she earned $80, enough to buy her a cellular phone of the latest model.
“You have to be patient in order to gain a lot (of money),” she said.
But Zalameda maintains that she does not consider blogging a business. She said she uses this site primarily to interact with other people, and earning from it is just a bonus.
Being able to use a username is another reason why she enjoys writing in Mylot because it makes the interaction less personal.
“I am free to ask whatever I want without being judged because other bloggers do not know me personally,” Zalameda said.
John Rosendo Galang, a Biological Science major in the College of Education, uses the student council’s blog (www.cesc0910.multiply.com) to disseminate information to his fellow students.
The incoming student council secretary, together with the public relations officer Rene Reeve Rivera, is tasked to maintain the blog by posting upcoming school activities and announcements.
Galang and other officers plan to improve the site by posting articles on student achievers, college athletes, and students who had won awards and other honors outside the University.
“Our site is not only for information, we plan to make it a ‘virtual home’ for the students,” he said.
No matter how diverse the students’ reasons are for blogging, it all boils down to one thing—love for writing. Ronalyn M. Umali
