19 January 2005
the fragile academic psyche
I can't believe how lame I am. I check my blog more often to see if anyone has posted a comment than do I log on to post something new. This must be some deep need for a relationship to readers that is as different as possible from editorial boards, list serves, and others in the real axis of evil. Again, though, the whole internal point of blogging for me is to free myself from obsessiveness and paranoia about writing. (the external point is to join this strange community of anonymous academics who I am surprised to find myself caring more about than most of the colleagues I share a hallway with).
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6 comments:
I see it as joining a community. So when you are new, you want to keep checking back for feedback to get a sense of whether or not you've been accepted ... and to figure out more about the members of the community, to figure out whether it's a community that is a fit for you.
I surf blogs the way I would work a room at a conference or party. I'm an extrovert so of course I love comments -- and people who link to me!
You ought to get a site meter. Then you can obsessively check to see how many people are reading you ....
You're probably right. Of course, a site meter will likely open a whole new set of insecurities.
It still stuns me how I'm wishing I could trade most of my colleagues for a lot of you academic bloggers. I like your style and your humor better.
Of course, you're also not debating curriculum revisions or course assignments with any of us, either. ;-)
If I could only get them to stop being so self-oriented to debate such things. Or to even care about others' curricula.
There is just a whole world of neuroses that can be fed and nurtured with the blog. :)
Thought experiment: If you were staffing a department in your discipline, who would you want as colleagues? (And, more difficult, who would you want as department chair?)
Your thought experiment is a great way to feed some more of those neuroses. I actually work in one of those disciplines that has no standard curricula (which makes it odd to call it a discipline).
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