Comment Challenge Day 8: Comment on a Blog Outside of Your Core Niche
With limited time in a day and many things to do, we can get into the habit of commenting only on blogs that are related to our niche or specific interests. But this can create a sort of echo chamber effect where we don't read and engage with information that may challenge our beliefs or our ideas. We then fall into the trap of homophily where we are engaging primarily with people who think and believe what we do.
In today's challenge, you're going to find and comment on a blog that is outside of your normal interest areas. If you're not sure where to start, go to the Technorati Topic Directory and click around some of the topic areas you wouldn't normally read. Follow the links to some blogs and find a post to comment on. You might want to check out several blogs and conversations to get an idea of how comment sections in other niches differ from the niches you usually operate in. For example, how do the commenters and blogger interact? How do commenters interact with other commenters? What's the "tone" of those interactions and how do they differ (if at all) from the commenting you usually see.
The blogosphere is vast and there are different cultures of participation that develop in different niches. See what you can learn from these different bloggers and how they engage with their communities. If you blog about what you learn, tag it with the "comment08" tag.
Great idea.
I do seem to only see other blogs from other teachers (and some sports).
Let's see where I can wander...
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin | May 08, 2008 at 05:57 AM
To follow up, I decided to narrow my focus today to blogs in the city where I live -- moving from a global conversation to a local one.
Again, I realize there are blogs in my neighborhood that I never knew existed.
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin | May 08, 2008 at 06:01 AM
Hi Kevin--looking at local blogs is a great idea! I wish I'd thought to suggest that to other readers. One of the values I see in blogging is for cyberjournalism and I've seen some interesting things being done around neighborhood blogging that let's people know what's going on in their communities in ways they won't get from mainstream media. A foray into more local info will probably be very interesting.
Posted by: Michele Martin | May 08, 2008 at 06:09 AM
Hi, Michelle.
That's a great comment approach, for we certainly start believing that our niche's thoughts are the only ones that make sense. Then, we start taking for granted the basics, mainly when we talk about teacher education. I see so many in my group talking about web2.0 tools and we take for granted that most educators around the globe don't even know what this term means, not even what a blog is! So, it's great to go around and see other perspectives.
I'm so involved in my international groups that I think this is a great chance to go locally, back to Brazil and see what's happening with bloggers there! Funny that all my blogs are in English, though my mother tongue is Portuguese!
Posted by: carla arenac | May 08, 2008 at 10:51 AM