In my first post last week, I wrote about my hesitancy in signing up to guest blog. On the one hand, I wasn’t sure how comfortable I’d be with such a public sharing of such nascent thoughts. I tend to be more a writer who ruminates, revises and reworks before sharing and later publishing. I’m sure I was attracted to academia in part because of the slow and deliberate pace of legal scholarship. And while I always welcome constructive criticism of my work, I also feared how I’d handle the lurking “piranhas” as Orin dubbed them. Not to mention that I already had plenty of ways to spend the limited hours in my day.
But I decided to give it a try because I couldn’t shake the feeling I was missing out by not being a part of this virtual law school. Some of my blogging colleagues have assured me that it’s not only useful but fun and addictive. They thrive on the ability to throw out a still-forming thought and crave the immediacy of the feedback. I also wanted to blog because I think the time will come when law blogging will be a pseudo-requirement for our job much like going to conferences and presenting papers. After I noted in my last post that I felt some self-imposed pressure that this was something I should be doing, our Dean and several tenured faculty members sought me out to assure me that they didn’t give one whit about whether I blog or not. I should only do it if I enjoy it. I believe them that they don’t care and that it won’t make the slightest difference when I go up for promotion and tenure (although apparently they’re all reading PrawfsBlawg!). But I nevertheless wonder about the near future. As the percentage of bloggers on tenured faculties grows, so most likely will the perceived esteem of blogging. It’s only natural for us to value what we ourselves have done.
Whatever the importance of blogging to the young law professor, I’m giving it a try. And while I’m here, I’m offering to be a blogging guinea pig for all the other reluctant bloggers. It’ll be hard to know how many of you there are because, by definition, you won’t be posting and commenting. But I’m going to assume you’re out there and wondering, “Is this something I’d enjoy? Is this something I should be doing?” At the end of the month I’ll let you know my thoughts, because that’s what we bloggers do.
Posted by Sonja West on November 10, 2008 at 10:41 AM