In a society that is obsessed with Google and Facebook-stalking, it's no wonder that online blogging has become so popular. Bloggers like Perez Hilton and Julie Powell have turned into overnight celebrities simply by finding a clever way to capitalize on their interests, opinions and witty ways with words.
Online blogging has ushered in a way for virtually everyone with opinions to publicize their thoughts to the world and earn a little recognition for something that they are passionate about. While many embrace the freedom of stream-of-consciousness blogging, four Tufts students have created blogs that possess a bit more character and focus. Whether it's used as an outlet to share one's college cooking adventures or stories of peace amid social conflict, or as a space to display conceptual artwork or take a more journalistic approach to fashion, blogging is a platform that fosters creativity and values one's personal voice.
‘crunk-nasty, collegiate cooking'
College food is usually terrible, but sophomore "foodie" Chris Poldoian is hoping to change all of this with his food blog — or "flog" as he likes to call it — "So Fraîche, So Clean," which documents his culinary travails in a college dorm room.
Whether it's teaching readers how to properly beat egg whites or giving a recipe for whoopie pies, Poldoian's blog is all about making college cooking simple and delicious.
"It's important for me to make everything seem really approachable and to appeal to people who may otherwise not be as into cooking as I am," Poldoian said. "I really enjoyed cooking, and I thought that starting a food blog would be a good way to share my culinary pursuits with my friends and document my cooking."
Poldoian has always had an interest in food journalism, and he began his "flog" this past July after realizing how much he missed cooking while living at college.
"Some people get homesick, and I got kitchen-sick," Poldoian said. "It's very therapeutic to be cooking, writing about it afterwards and taking photos along the way. I love writing, so it's a great marriage of my interests."
Poldoian draws inspiration for his flog from food magazines and similar food blogs that focus on cooking in close quarters. Poldoian has learned to maximize the limited cookery and space in his Wren Hall kitchen, allowing him to become more adventurous and original in his cooking.
"I graduated from cake mixes to cakes from scratch, and more advanced and elaborate dishes [from there]," Poldoian said.
Although he has tried to move away from sweets and take on more challenging savory dishes, he realizes that people can be a bit more finicky with savory foods than a sugary sweet treat.
"The blog is to document all of my cooking, but a lot of the cooking I do here is sweet as opposed to savory, just because when I'm sharing food with friends, baked goods always go over well," Poldoian said.
And while some bloggers hope to amass huge followings, Poldoian is a bit more humble in his expectations. "I hope it appeals to college students, but I don't have any illusions of grandeur with my blog and it somehow being turned into a movie like ‘Julie and Julia' (2009)," Poldoian said. "With my blog, more than anything, it's for me. It's an opportunity to grow as a writer and as a cook."
‘lal gulab:' finding peace amid conflict
Junior Brittany Sloan's blog, "Lal Gulab" (Hindi for "red rose"), isn't just another abroad blog documenting her day-to-day musings and whereabouts. Sloan has traveled everywhere from Belfast and Israel to Kazakhstan and the Galapagos Islands, devoting her studies and her blog to conflict resolution and social repair.
"I intended [the blog] to be [about] any stories of humanity," Sloan said. "Some of my stories are about the broader themes of pluralism, and others are about me being accepted as an outsider into the community."
Currently studying abroad in Dublin, Sloan was inspired to start her blog after a very specific moment in Ajmer, India during a Tufts Exposure summer workshop devoted to photography and human rights. Sloan spent a morning following a group of young women as they picked flowers and tried to teach her Hindi. One woman gave Sloan a bracelet and told her it was to "to protect her from the thorns," and that's when Sloan began her adventures of sharing her stories of the "lal gulab."
Sloan's blog is about the embodiment of the "lal gulab," which is both her inspiration and a metaphor for the moments of hope and peace she finds among zones of conflict in her travels. According to Sloan, it's about "moments that people sometimes don't see in conflict zones."
These moments of which Sloan writes are often overshadowed by the pain and destruction that journalists focus on in conflict zones. "We're so caught [up] in the fact that there's conflict that we don't realize there are these beautiful moments of humanity and acceptance," Sloan said.
Unlike most abroad blogs full of random fodder and touristy pictures meant to make friends back home jealous, Sloan's entries aren't typical day-to-day blog posts. Sloan takes the time to thoughtfully craft each piece, viewing them more as stories than blog entries.
"I love having this outlet that I didn't realize that I had before. It was my desire to share with people," Sloan said. "Because it's so difficult if you're in a situation of conflict to appreciate these moments of beauty, finding them and writing about them in my blog really made me realize I should do it more in my daily life. It's been really cathartic in that way."
a picture is worth a thousand words
School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA)/Tufts dual-degree sophomore Coorain Devin originally created his blog "Get bored constantly" as a digital portfolio of his work. Devin uses his creative eye to "write" blog entries mostly through collages of drawings and photographs rather than text.
"Because I'm such a visual person, it's just how I reflect on the world," Devin said. "It's a collection of my work to document what I'm doing and what I'm saying, and a way for me to define who I am."
Although he found the public nature of blogs a bit shocking at first, Devin has grown to enjoy the exposure.
"At first it's like, ‘Oh, wait, anyone can look at this.' But if someone saw me drawing and asked to look at my sketchbook, that wouldn't be weird at all for me," Devin said.
Blogging also gives Devin a way to reflect and see the progression of his artistic style.
"I found that looking at something I made a year ago can be really informative," Devin said. "I can see my thought process and understand how I was feeling to get a better picture of who I was."
Recently Devin has been thinking about how relationships currently exist in our "media-set society" where humans want to be touched and loved, but everything is digital and at a distance. He draws inspiration from conceptual artists and the idea that now that there are cameras, art is no longer about making a perfect drawing.
"Conceptual art is the idea that art can be more about thinking than an art object," Devin said. "Art can be for anyone, and sort of what my blog is about is that you don't have to buy this [artwork], you can just have this [blog]."
A passion for fashion
Sophomore Rhianna Jones blends Audrey Hepburn's classic style in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961) with the fresh innovation of Barneys New York to create her fashion blog, "Breakfast at Barneys." While most fashion blogs include a smattering of images of beautiful people wearing beautiful clothing with barely any text, Jones hopes to inject more seriousness and analysis into her fashion blog.
"I wanted to do something that was a bit more commentary and analysis. I write about the patterns I see, designers — their implications, where they came from and where they're going — and how it's affected the industry as a whole," Jones said. "It's more journalistic in a sense. I'm trying to represent fashion in a form that's more pertinent and relatable to people."
While Jones admits that she has always been a dreamer who looks to young, fresh designers like Alexander Wang and the latest French fashion blogs for a bit of inspiration, she also emphasizes how fashion is universal.
"A lot of people see fashion as something untouchable, but in actuality, subconsciously or not, fashion is something that affects everyone because everyone puts on clothes," Jones said. "People's street styles are really beautiful to me because everyone's so different."
So why blog?
While blogging helps people fuel and ruminate on their personal passions, it's also a way to for them to have their voices be heard by others.
"The reason blogs are popular with people my age is the same reason why Twitter[.com] is popular," Poldoian said. "It's the thought that other people care about your thoughts."
As society relies more and more on the media, blogs are the latest form of interpersonal communication. Jones explained why she believes blogging has become such a global phenomenon: "It's something that can bring so many different people, ideologies and cultures together, and I think that's what gives it such an appeal."
