Enthusiast Blog Post Write

1) The title of my blog is View from the Outside. The blog focuses on autism, more specifically autism awareness. I currently work for an organization that provides services to adults and children with developmental disabilities. I work one on one with children, as apart of a home based therapeutic service. Prior to working with these children, I did not know much about autism; I had my beliefs and stereotypes. These were completely broken down once I got the amazing opportunity to work with these kids and see how unbelievable they truly are. It was the change in my attitudes about autism that guided my decision to write this blog. I want to help others have a change of heart or at least see autism from a different perspective.


2) I can’t say that there is necessarily a rhyme or reason to the organization of my blog. I want to give people a mix of both facts about autism along with personal experiences dealing with the children. I think that this mix is important for the message that I am trying to give out because I want people to realize how prevalent autism is and the figures behind this disability in our world. However, in order to truly get someone to have a change in attitude, telling personal stories can really capture the emotion of the reader and allow them to put themselves in another’s shoes.


3) I think in my first few entries my personality tends to be more serious. Typically I write with some sarcasm and satire, but I think with the nature of the blog and the fact that I feel so strongly about the topic, this made it come out with more of a serious tone. I think this personality really shines in my first entry when I talked about what autism means to me. It got pretty personal, which is probably something that I should stray away from when talking about something so controversial. However, because I am so passionate about the topic, it got difficult for me to hold my personal views back.


4) I can’t say that I have really fallen into a particular blogging style. Before this class, I never really did anything with blogging or social media in general. I actually don’t really like blogging, so it has been hard for me to have a certain style. If I am passionate about something, I usually like to go act on it; I can be rather impulsive. I guess I feel like my blog won’t reach out to the people I want, so I have been pretty hesitant about the whole idea.


5) I actually picked a template that has colors representing the organization that I work for. It worked out really well that there was already a pre-made template on the blogger site that had these colors. I also included a picture of a child with autism riding a bike. I thought that this picture was important because the child actually looks like a normally developing child and he is performing an activity that every child does.


6) I think that my blog would change pretty drastically. I think the reason that I have not expanded my blog beyond what it is now is because I do not know anything about computers. I would like for my blog to come to life with videos, a larger burst of colors, more interesting fonts, and more pictures. If my job did not require such a high amount of privacy, ideally I would like to include pictures and videos of the kids that I specifically work with.


7) Honestly, when I have compared my blog to other students in the class, I feel like mine is pretty boring. I guess I really would like to learn how to change it to make it more interesting. I think the part of my blog that could use the most work is the aesthetics. I have seen people with videos and personal photos on theirs. I have never considered myself the creative type, so I feel like any colors that I would pick might just look weird in the context of my particular topic. I would say that the strongest part of my blog would be the entries, and even these I feel like could use some work. The hardest part about writing my entries is the privacy issue. I have to leave out names and certain places making some of the entries seem pretty vague. This is something that has held my creativity back a little.


8) Because of the fact that I am so concerned about the improvements of my aesthetics, I think suggestions from my group on how to improve them was the best feed back I got. Along with this, I thought it was really important for me to hear that the topic of my blog was interesting. While I know it is not something that everyone will want to stop and read, my group members informed me that it actually was interesting because they were pretty unknowledgeable about the subject.


9) In another class, I actually was asked to describe blogging to an older woman in the class. As an assignment we were asked to incorporate some sort of social media into our projects. The woman was really hesitant because she had never used any social media before. I told her that I felt like it was a diary; a way for someone to write down how they feel about a particular topic; a way to provoke some sort of emotion and allow readers to feel what you feel. As I described this, another student intervened and proceeded to attack my views on a blog, telling me that it is not a diary, but an information provider. I guess we all have different views on the actual purpose of a blog. Blogging allows for a huge array of people to access your writings and indulge themselves. It allows for people from all over the world to share their views on the same topic. I think that this is what is truly interesting about writing in the electronic environment. There is such a diverse group of people that can read your writings whenever they want. Blogs allow for dialogue; a place for people to converse back and forth about how they feel about something specific.


10) While I can’t say that I like blogging yet, my views about it have actually changed. I have heard the term “blogging” in many of my business classes. I seemed to attach the meaning of a blog to a business atmosphere. However, blogs can be so much more personal than simply for business matters. They allow for a sense of connectivity and networking that I never really realized prior to doing this project.


11) I think I would really like some feedback on how to improve my writing so more people would be interested in reading it. How can I work around the fact that because of my job I have to keep a lot of things private?