SWA #4 Blogging vs. Social Networking

David Friedman’s blog is geared towards people who are interested in finding an alternative to air conditioning, preferably something more environmentally friendly. Friedman is an academic economist who writes short blogs to spur discussions on issues relevant to our world today. Looking at my friends’ facebooks, their writing styles and rhetorical situations are very different the Friedman’s blog. On facebook, people are writing to let people know about themselves and to socialize; they aren’t necessarily writing to start a discussion or make people think about current issues in our society. Blogging and social networking can be two very different things; they can also be two very similar things.
Differences in these two online forums vary in each case, but these are some of the differences that are true for most of these forums. After reading different types of blogs, I found that the format is usually similar to that of an essay or article. On social networking sites, the author tends to format it however they want with no real format. Blogging tends to be for more mature people who want to share their thoughts and opinions with the world. Social networking sites are exactly what the name says; a place for people to go to keep in touch with friends and colleagues while expressing themselves however they want. The audiences of blogging and social networking also differ. In blogging, the targeted audience is usually an audience that has an interest in the subject the author is writing about. On social networking sites, like facebook or MySpace, the targeted audiences are usually the friends of the author.
Even though there are some differences in these types of sites, there are some similarities. The first main similarity is that both of these types of sites are on the internet. The topics the authors choose in both blogging and social networking are usually to inform the readers. These topics could be that the author got a new haircut or have read an interesting article in The New York Times and want to share the article and their opinion of it with the readers. On a blog site, such as blogger.com, the user can create a profile and post a photo of them so the reader can see and learn about the author that wrote the blog they are reading. On a social networking site, the user also creates a profile with information about them and can post a photo (usually more than one) for the same reason. The user wants the reader to know who they are and what their background is.
Readers can find many differences and similarities in any sample of a blog and facebook. These are just a few that apply to the majority of both kinds. Just because they’re on the internet, it doesn’t mean they have the same characteristics. Blogging and social networking each have special characteristics unique to that type of forum on the internet.