by Vi Burgess, executive editor
So what’s your blog title?
Uruguayocarlos; I just made it. It was an assignment, so I didn’t really think about it, and I had a Uruguay shirt on so then I was like “Yeah, that sounds cool” so I kind of liked it. It’s where I’m from and my name.
What has your favorite post been so far?
Probably the one about the Syrian Refugees that we had to write two weeks ago, or my ancestors one, because that was pretty funny. We had to write about our ancestors and then I was like “No, that’s boring” so then I wrote about evolution and the history of evolution and how I evolved from a little tiny cell. I found it pretty funny, and other people too. And then the Syrian one, our blog post was to write about the Syrian attacks and current events and I wrote about the Syrian refugees and how we should let them in and how we should treat them. So pretty much, they should get fair treatment and all that.
How do other people respond to your blog?
I have like 10 people who actually read it when I post it and then there’s other people that read it because every six weeks one of the assignments is that we have to go and comment on people’s blogs. Usually, people are like “Oh, I liked your blog post”; I have a few people in my English class and I’m like “Oh, thanks!”
I spend quite a lot of time, depending if I like it. If it’s something which I don’t want to write about like Gatsby, I’m just like “Okay, whatever, I’ll write it like in one minute” but if I actually like the topic like the two I mentioned, I spent quite a lot of time on that. So yeah, people like them for the most part.
Do you like writing in general?
Yeah, I would say so. My dad, he writes, but in Spanish, so no one here can really understand what he writes. But yeah, since I was young, my dad really encouraged me to write and read because you can express yourself, and I like the blog post because it gives you topics that I wouldn’t have written about that stuff, because I’m like “No one will really care what I say”, but then since we have to write it and other people do, they just check out your blog, so yeah I like that about it.
Do you feel like your personality changes when you write on your blog?
Not really, because like during class, I like to talk really loud, and I talk a lot, and people probably already know my opinions, and I just reflect them in my blog. So for the people who don’t have me in class they can actually see what I think, but I’m pretty sure people who do have me in classes like already know what my opinions are, and like a lot of the posts that can be satire and kind of funny I make them funny, because I like making a lot of jokes.
Are there things you’re uncomfortable with writing on the internet?
Not really, because just the people who are going to read it are the ones that are in our class. Like obviously I’m not going to write something really offensive, I’m careful about what I write because it’s there forever. But I’m not really worried, because if I would say it in person I would put it online, and I try to be as careful as I can when I’m talking in person, so I try to have the same attitude when I’m writing my blogs.
How do you feel about reading other people’s blogs?
Well it sort of helps me understand what they’re like. I mean some people, it’s kind of annoying because they put in zero effort, so I’m like “It doesn’t really teach me much about you cause you wrote like one sentence”, so I’ll see how much they wrote, and if they wrote a lot, I’ll read it. I did learn a lot about some people because one of the blog posts was to write about your flaws, and then another one was to write about the things that you’re good at. Usually those blogs I try to read as many as I can, because it helped me understand a lot of what people think, because they usually won’t say it in person. Like if you told someone in person, “Tell me all your flaws,” they probably wouldn’t do it, but since it was an assignment for English, they sort of had to and it helped me understand a lot of people.
Is there anything you want to add?
I feel like it’s a really good idea to have these blog posts, like we didn’t have them in English II, but I think it’s a really good idea because some people won’t write because they feel like “what I say doesn’t really matter,” but then when you have people go and comment on your stuff like “I support you,” sort of like connect with people that have similar ideas. Some people wouldn’t really think about writing about their flaws and putting it online but just the fact that we have to do it as an assignment gives people ideas and things they can write about that they usually wouldn’t think about it.
Check out Carlos’s blog at uruguayocarlos.wordpress.com.
