Becoming a Blogger - My Thoughts

This week, I had the pleasure of reading one of our assigned articles, Becoming a blogger: Trajectories, norms, and activities in a community of practice. I really enjoyed this reading and found myself thinking to my own experience in the world of "blogging". 

One of my favorite hobbies is powerlifting. As I'm currently baking a baby, I haven't been able to progress as I'd like to, and I miss it terribly. A little over a year ago, I decided to start "blogging" my experiences on Instagram. If anyone is interested, I posted under @liftingcait. I haven't posted in a while because I'm having an even harder time finding my space in that world now that I'm pregnant. I've been hesitant to share this page's info with my peers because I feel such a great fear of judgement! I wonder if everyone can relate to that? When I was actively posting, I was looking at my page all the time trying to figure out if I had what it took to be a ~*famous*~ insta athlete. Being a female powerlifter feels like such a small space until you're actively participating in that space... then it feels like everyone is a female athlete and, worse, everyone is a better female athlete than you. It's daunting and scary and truly hard work to thrive in an online/blogging environment! 

The article shared this week had a lot of really interesting content that I'd like to talk about. To avoid making too long a post (by my own standard), I'll just hit on a few big pieces. The first was section 6.2. Mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire. This section discusses how critical these three elements are to the blogging, or any, community of practice. As I read this section, I really thought critically about my own experiences. The discussion of mutual engagement and shared repertoire really highlight the amount of work it takes to be a successful blogger. This is my greatest struggle! I, personally, have a very hard time putting the time it takes into blogging successfully. To be completely honest, this class might be what changes me in terms of making time and dedicating myself to interacting with peers online.  The second section I'd like to discuss is 6.3. Community trajectories. I liked this section simply because it helped me identify my own trajectory. As much as I'd like to say I am a Case 2 (Observe, comment, and then blog), I am more of a Case 6 (Remaining Peripheral). What pushed me to create my liftingcait account was definitely participating in the powerlifting community on Instagram. However, as I've mentioned multiple times, now, it requires a lot of time and energy and dedication to really be successful. I've had a hard time finding my space and that's what has kept me in the peripheral. I related heavily to Morgan, from the article. I can't seem to find a comfortable spot for myself. That's not to say it will never happen, but I just haven't gotten there, yet. 

Anyway, I know this was a long one but I hope you've enjoyed reading! I really liked that article and it helped me understand my own blogging presence in a way that I couldn't before.