What College Students Can’t Get From Blogging
May 22 2008 
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When it comes to college students, a lot of us don’t blog even though we should. I can definitely state that I’m part of the handful that do and it can be a tad infuriating when you see the benefits that your peers don’t. The benefit for me is being able to see both sides of the coin. For college students, it all comes down to this question: What do you want from blogging? Well, here’s a look at what we want, and what most of us aren’t likely to get.
Money
There’s just not enough money in blogging for college students. This correlates with Meg Robert’s point about college students not having enough time to blog. With so little time to actually put into developing a successful blog, the chances of making money are slim to none and slim left town last year.
Attention
College students love attention and with blogging that’s not going to come immediately nor is it even guaranteed within the first 6 months of blogging. Low pageviews and low stats equates to no love for college students. While those who have been in the business and understand that patience is required, patience is a virtue that not many college students have.
Job/Career
There are plenty of sides to this coin. However, ask any college student how many of their friends got a job through their blog. My friends would mention me. I wouldn’t mention anyone. Once again, with a lack of time to put into developing a successful blog how can one possibly think to get a job?
Instant Gratification
Oh how we love instant gratification. Blogging is a long-term thing. If you’re not going to be in it for the long haul, I’d advise you not to join it at all. We like instant gratifications in order to keep our affections and attention. Without this, blogging is a lost cause for college students.
Long-Term Gratification
While instant gratification is fine, as college students we eventually start to think about the long term benefits of things. Although is stated that blogging is a long-term thing, or at least it should be, there are no guarantees that it will work out after a year or even several years. There are other benefits to blogging long-term that college students are not interested in at this point in time.
Not Enough Rewards
In the end, it’s all about rewards and incentives when it comes to college students. While we may do a lot of community service, blogging isn’t the same. What we do with our spare time is in some way, shape, or form beneficial in the long run and we see it right away. Blogging isn’t like that. It’s too uncertain for us, which only contributes to why a large majority of us don’t blog. Though having more teachers that accept such advancements in technology and also promote blogging could help where incentives don’t. It’s not that we can’t get these things, it’s just that they are more uncertain than the current economy at this point in time.
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Hey, this is basically a reposting of a comment I just made on the first link in your story, but I am interested in as many views as possible :)
Your call to blog (and its potential benefits) is something I have been reading more about recently, and my interest has definetly been piqued, to the point where I have started writing down ideas – however, I am hesitant about the potential pitfalls. I am a final year computing science student, and I have been wondering, for a start, whether or not those in the computing business, especially those at the more traditional business end of the market, would like the idea of hiring someone who blogs? I know the snazzy web 2.0 twitterers in the IT business would probably, or at least possibly like the idea, as it shows you are passionate about your field; but might not many other companies find the idea of someone who is used to broadcasting what they think and know unsettling, given the tendency for secrecy in business?
I am also scared I might say something I would later regret, or possibly something which people might infer to mean something which was not intended. Do blogs allow you to delete your posts? :) Even so, it might get cached by search engines and just stick around… I don’t know, is there any encouragement you could offer?
Cheers
P.S. what does “Veryify my post” do? I just left it unchecked.
Very important point: “This correlates with Meg Robert’s point about college students not having enough time to blog.”
Interesting post Corvida. I can tell you that I ALWAYS look for evidence of something special, intelligent and passionate in the online presence of the people that I hire. And to be honest, if the first I hear about someone is when they hand me their résumé, I'm unlikely to hire them. There's just no excuse in the era of social media to not have developed “brand you.”
I would disagree with the above comments
Its all about exposure and experience
How on earth do you know the skills and / or contacts you make will not lead to anywhere
People read blogs , it does not cost much and its certainly no worse or expensive than a night at the frat house , movie or bar
There are plenty of excuses. Not everyone is aware of how these things work. Meg Robert pointed out some very good points in her post. Not everyone is into the web like that. Sure they're on Myspace and Facebook, but it's for an entirely different reason and not to establish a professional brand but a personal one. It's why my Facebook page is private and I don't own a myspace account. It's not for my professional life.
I just happen to be interested in the internet and social media in particular. Others aren't and you can't penalize them for that. That's not their fault it's of no interest to them. We can't control what's interesting and what's not.
While your fears are valid to have, I don't think they'd be an issue. Most companies will let you know whether or not you can talk about certain things the company may be working on. If they have a problem with you demonstrating your competence through words and being able to properly and effectively explain things to the common user, then that's their loss and you shouldn't worry about them or be with a company that is that restrictive. ;)
Start the blog and go for it :D I'd love to hear your thoughts. Why not talk about some projects that you might be working on personally? You never know what could happen until you try. :)
“Verify my post” just means that you sign up for Disqus to keep tabs on comments for articles that you've commented on that uses the Disqus commenting system :) You should check it out when you get a chance.
Nicely done. I guess I should just shut down my blog now and go outside and play. (And on top of that I could never get your commenting system figured out for myself. There's like five different places to link. Wow!)
Hey Corvida, I'm going to disagree with jobs and long-term gratification. You and I both managed to get an internship via blogging (not actually a job, but work with me here). Do students not get blogs because they're blogging nonsense, not blogging at all, or is it truly not a viable option for employment? I just read and blogged about someone in the UK who got hired on Twitter! it's a crazy world of opportunities right now!
I don't know how long-term you're referring to, but my “proper” blog has only been up for about 5 months and I'm feeling very gratified. True my subscriber count is in the double digits, but I know there's a small community forming that's very supportive and encouraging, and that's all the gratification I need!
Good post… I once tried to start a blog ..then instant gratification came into play. 12 posts and zero comments later I just stopped. And I think many other college students suffer the same fate.
Seeing a blog with an extremely active community really encourages you to start your own.. then when things dont go according to the plan you devised you just stop.
so yeeeeyup blogging is definitely a long-haul thing.
While we have had success, it all depends on so much. I had a great support foundation when I started, the topics I'm talking about also happen to be really popular even if the field is crowded. Plus, as a student who took the spring semester off, I had a lot more time to stay on top of these things.
Too man factors come into play when dealing with the job and long term part of the equation and those factors can become daunting to college students who are short on time and new to blogging.
Yeah, I figured that it wouldn't be a problem once you got a job, as you can just use common sense and/or instructions to decide what you can write about. I was more worried about not making it passed the resume/covering letter stage, especially when everyone appying has the same degree and no experience, as it is little things like that which could tip the balance either way. I'm gonna check with the careers service at uni before I start, just in case :)
Blogging is fun but do not neglect the essential and objectives of studies.Take blogging as a stepping stone to gain experience before graduation. What seems hard to get can be gotten later.
I encourage all bloggers to register in ilounging.com and blogg. Thank you very much.
College students are better off investing time in a personal homepage than a blog. A nice, clean homepage with CV, a resume, and some personal anecdotes is more than enough to get your name out there. And unless your name is Jason Kottke, it shouldn't be too hard to get yourself hi up in Google's search results.
Classroom blogging is a means to keep fellow classmates informed of happening, events gossips etc. Blogging can be very time consuming but can also be very addictive. You either love it or hate it. Of course, if you are serious blogger and your blog is generating some revenue, it will spur you on.
Classroom blogging is a means to keep fellow classmates informed of happening, events gossips etc. Blogging can be very time consuming but can also be very addictive. You either love it or hate it. Of course, if you are serious blogger and your blog is generating some revenue, it will spur you on.
Classroom blogging is a means to keep fellow classmates informed of happening, events gossips etc. Blogging can be very time consuming but can also be very addictive. You either love it or hate it. Of course, if you are serious blogger and your blog is generating some revenue, it will spur you on.