The art of blogging is nothing new to the Internet realm. With newer, sleeker platforms, blogging is either here to stay or will be shoved into a closet with all of this century’s other neglected trends.

Sophomore Abby Lee Hood is not new to the blogging scene.

“I’ve always been a reader, and I’ve always had opinions,” Hood said. “Sometimes it’s hard to share with the people around you, especially when you’re in high school.”

Vincent Brewton, director of the Honors Program, requires his students to keep a blog.

“A blog allows us to use the web tools that are available and allows a student to write for an audience that’s larger than the instructor,” Brewton said.

The most important writing is usually being shared publicly, Brewton said.

“Social media revolution has made sharing writing very common,” Brewton said. “Now it just makes sense to use the technologies that are available for blogging. Students can read each other’s work and other people can read their blog.”

Brewton would rather his students keep a blog than a journal.

“It pulls a better effort out of the student knowing that someone other than the instructor is potentially going to read it,” Brewton said. “They’re going to do a little bit better work and be thinking about an audience differently than they would if they were writing in a private way just for an instructor.”

Hood previously ran a blog for Style Quirk magazine but now focuses on keeping up her Tumblr, she said.

“You have a wider audience online and you kind of get to discover yourself.” Hood said. “It’s a way to get a little exposure, it’s a way to express yourself and I really do look at it as an art form. It’s just like painting a picture you’re just posting it online, it’s just as much art as it is anything else.”

Freshman Sam Erhenede said her Tumblr is her personal journal.

“My main blog is Tumblr I use it as a form of expression to show what I find interesting,” Erhenede said. “It consists of me reblogging different photography from different people.”

Hood thinks you should save your private information for a diary.

“If you want to write about your sex life I would say keep a journal, but for your political opinions I would say keep a blog,” Hood said. “You shouldn’t post inappropriate things online because then you’re going to be getting attention for the wrong reasons and it’ll come back to haunt you later. As long as you’re keeping it appropriate I would definitely advocate for blogging.”

Despite changing trends in society, blogging will remain popular in the future, Brewton said.

“People have a desire to share their experiences publicly, especially the millennial generation who have grown up feeling that it is natural and normal to share your experiences publicly,” he said. “I think sharing in some form is going to remain popular.”

Hood also thinks blogging is here to stay.

“I think we’re going to see blogging in a different sense take off,” Hood said. “A lot of things about the journalistic world right now are changing and formulating into what they’re going to be in the digital age, things are really going to change and then settle down and find their niche.”