The use of a constructed blogging identity has recently become high fashion in the computer world. With computers between the faces of those who converse online, we can create a veil to conceal the truth, a mask to construct a new truth, or a magnifying glass to focus in on whatever we please. In this paper, I will discuss the nature, use-value, and appeal of a constructed blogging identity. With references to two specific blogs, I will talk about how bloggers perceive their personal blogging identity, how it constrains them, and what it tells us about the nature of internet communication.

"A Document inMadness, Thoughts and Rembrance Fitted."

-Shakspeare: HamletIV, v, 155

Recently I have become interested in another topic that Iknow little to nothing about. Over the past few weeks, my Emerging Genres classhas been studying a modern phenomenon: the blog. The more I read about blogs,the more I felt like I had seen something like them before. It wasn't longafter that I realized how closely the modern blog, especially when made tocreate a community, resembles the Bryn Mawr College Backsmoker Diaries.

Marina Gallo

Professor Dalke

Emerging Genres

Paper 3

April 26, 2008

Blogs as the Downfall of Paper Media.

We first stumbled upon the topic of “The Science of Romantic Love” when we saw the Time Magazine cover from January 28, 2008. This was Time Magazine’s topic of choice for their annual mind and body special issue. At first, we were unsure if the science of romance would be a suitable topic for our Neural and Behavioral Sciences Senior Seminar because of its pop culture nature. However, the topics we encounter in daily life and in pop culture, such as love, can serve as very stimulating topics of discussion in an academic setting as well, and we believe we chose a interesting, controversial topic quite fitting for our seminar.

Ecstasy, or MDMA, has been around for nearly a century, and it’s popularity in the media has waxed and waned for the past 30 years or so as the issues around it come and go. It is important to know where ecstasy came from and all the places it has been in order to better understand where it is going. And due to its potential for therapeutic benefits, ecstasy is definitely going somewhere…

“Why do we fall in love?” is a widespread question in society. From the popularity of this question, and the lack of sufficient research to answer it, our presentation topic was created. We felt that this topic involved all aspects of the NBS concentration (and what it stands for), and would lead to an interesting, informative, and thought-provoking discussion stemming from the many un-answered questions of love. The first half of our presentation offered current evidence for why, and how, people may fall in love. While there are numerous theories that attempt to answer the question of why we fall in love, evolutionary theory seems to point

To explain the proliferation of personal blogs as a new genre, it has been suggested that "the generic exigence that motivates bloggers is related less to the need for information than to the self and the relations between selves" (Miller, Shepherd). In other words, people write personal blogs because they are interested in getting to know themselves by writing and by communicating with others through writing. The blog, then, is an antidote for two different kinds of alienation. On one hand, the blog brings diverse people together in conversation, expanding what Kate Thomas described to us as the "Incredible Shrinking Public Sphere." On the other hand, the blog brings writers closer to