The Blogs of War
Letitia McCoy
Mr. Corbett
English 101
11 September 2012
The Blogs of War We have so much curiosity about what is going on in the war and what better way to know besides reading Military Blogs. If you are as curious as I am you wonder what are military blogs, who writes them, what are the pro and cons of military blogs? Well John Hockenberry explains all that plus more in his essay “The Blogs of War”. Blackfive, a former military blogger, say “Milblogging (another name for military blogging) is the result of an explosion of communications technology throughout the military and an increase in brainpower among the lower ranks(Page 95). Meaning when email and other such ways to communicate came about it became easier for soldiers to keep others updated on what was going on with them. And then someone was genius enough to think well if we can let our loved ones know instantly, why not give the public updates on what’s going on from our own eyes. So military blogs are blogs written by soldiers to keep the public updated on what’s going on in the war from their point of view without sugar coating or exaggerating anything! There are many pros and cons with military blogs. One major con is that with the blogs being public access one could easily give up the location of their platoon. Christopher Conway, a lieutenant colonel, explained it best when he said “Before, you would have to shake down your soldiers for matches that might light up and betray a position. Today, every soldier has a cell phone, beeper, game device, or laptop, any one of which pop off with warning. Blogging is just one piece of the puzzle” (Page 93). With that being said we realize that not only blogging is the problem. One of the pros are that blogging is a form of stress relief for some. With the gruesome things that soldiers see and experiment they need some way to deal with it and what better way than to let the world read and visualize what they are going through in the war?
So there
Mr. Corbett
English 101
11 September 2012
The Blogs of War We have so much curiosity about what is going on in the war and what better way to know besides reading Military Blogs. If you are as curious as I am you wonder what are military blogs, who writes them, what are the pro and cons of military blogs? Well John Hockenberry explains all that plus more in his essay “The Blogs of War”. Blackfive, a former military blogger, say “Milblogging (another name for military blogging) is the result of an explosion of communications technology throughout the military and an increase in brainpower among the lower ranks(Page 95). Meaning when email and other such ways to communicate came about it became easier for soldiers to keep others updated on what was going on with them. And then someone was genius enough to think well if we can let our loved ones know instantly, why not give the public updates on what’s going on from our own eyes. So military blogs are blogs written by soldiers to keep the public updated on what’s going on in the war from their point of view without sugar coating or exaggerating anything! There are many pros and cons with military blogs. One major con is that with the blogs being public access one could easily give up the location of their platoon. Christopher Conway, a lieutenant colonel, explained it best when he said “Before, you would have to shake down your soldiers for matches that might light up and betray a position. Today, every soldier has a cell phone, beeper, game device, or laptop, any one of which pop off with warning. Blogging is just one piece of the puzzle” (Page 93). With that being said we realize that not only blogging is the problem. One of the pros are that blogging is a form of stress relief for some. With the gruesome things that soldiers see and experiment they need some way to deal with it and what better way than to let the world read and visualize what they are going through in the war?
So there