How the Blogs Have Kept Us Together During Quarantine

by Jack Holder

     During this period of unexpected isolation, finding ways to interact with people outside of your household is essential to not not being bored. For this, the blogs serve as an excellent tool for keeping in touch with our classmates and staying entertained during isolation. The blogs do this in a few main ways.

1. The blogs serve as a way to express yourself

     Making a book review post may seem boring and pointless (I wouldn't know, I never make them), but doing one shows what kind of books you read, what your personal style of reviewing is, and how you like your ideal books to be. These things are all a part of your that doesn't get expressed much, so even when we weren't is isolation it still was a good tool for self-expression. This way of the blogs helping us keep in touch is very broad, so the next reasons may have some overlap.

2. The blogs let us respond to each other in fun ways (eg. Wes and Cameron). 

     After someone does complete a book review or other type of post, there are always comments with disagreements, which is natural considering people have different opinions. During isolation, most of these comments are the only way certain people interact with others who they aren't friends with or have classes with. This makes it so that the person looking through the comments of blogs can remember their classmates, especially if the comment is written in a very informal way with their voice really coming through. Occasionally, the poster or other commenters might even respond to a certain comment if they felt themselves burning with a desire to do so. This creates a sort of casual discussion that is missing from online classes. 

3. The blogs are something to do if you don't have anything else

     If you're someone who enjoys writing, the blogs can be a fun exercise to keep you entertained during a boring stretch of the week. Take some book you've read semi-recently and review it. If you do it as a very in-depth review, it can take up a good portion of time. Or (even better) you could come up with some fun topic related to the blogs or English class and have some fun writing about it. These can also take up a good chunk of time and are, in my opinion, more fun to read an write than a book review. 

On these 3 notes I will leave you, perhaps not to return for a long, long, time. Farewell, and many bolognas to everyone!