Thoughts on Blogging

I'm feeling very "meta" after this week's reading, so I thought I would pose a question about reading and blogging:

My dad and I were talking about the way that academics use blogs. He was telling me that, at his seminary, students are getting into theological debates on a class blog. The quality of their discussion, however, is far below what they produce as written texts. I would posit that that is true of most things posted on blogs, facebook notes, myspace, etc.

Thus my question: Why is internet writing that is often much more widely disseminated than our classwork usually so sub par?

My first thought is that the act of producing a physical text creates a form of ownership for the work. Having to submit an actual piece of paper that exists in the physical world and not simply the electronic world forces the writer to take responsibility for the paper and its contents. I also wonder if the fact that blogs have a much looser structure (ie. no MLA conventions on how to set up the document, etc) allows the writer to treat the text as if it is inconsequential.

Thoughts?

Movie Viewing

For those interested in a class viewing of To Sir, With Love- We can get Kimpel 310 (the A/V room), and Wednesdays seem to work best, sometime around 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. Which date sounds better: Feb. 25 or March 4?- Jake