Lloyd has some interesting things to say about weblogging and writing, in particular: “Among many other things, writing a daily weblog is different from writing a daily private journal in that hypertextuality defines this medium. It’s a simple but profound fact: never before in the history of the human species and of human civilizations has writing of this sort—hypertextual communication, for lack of a more elegant and pithier phrase—been possible. Ever.

That’s one of the appeals for me too, the instant connection to someone else’s space or thoughts. I just can’t imagine that in the near future we’re not going to require our students to produce hypertext research essays and papers as more and more valuable and useful content goes online. I wonder if it’s not possible right now for a high school student to do 90% of what he or she needs in terms of written research on the web. And now with weblogs to facilitate the process, what’s stopping us? I think it would be worth taking a serious look at in a composition or creative writing class. Maybe even as an assignment for Media class.

Lloyd also writes about Chris and his efforts to separate different writing into different weblogs: ”Mostly a challenge of having to separate out or compartmentalize various things about one’s life; and to constantly have to make distinctions about which writing belongs where. Maybe for Chris it might mean the distinction between ‘professional’ and ‘personal,’ or that between ‘worklife’ and ‘artlife.’ But for me, I don’t think I’d be able to make that distinction, or if I tried to, wouldn’t be able to sustain it.”

I struggle with the same issue, because many times there are things of a more personal nature that I would like to get down in my space. Problem is I don’t know if it’s “appropriate” for my “audience”, and I don’t really know how much I want to share publicly. I put in a picture of the kids last week and felt kind of unsure about it. Yet, I do feel motivated by the idea that people are reading what I write. So my “professional” topics elbow out the “personal” ones, since I feel some strange sense of duty to it and to “them”. Weird. But it helps me understand what it might/must be like for my students too.