I was just walking back to my room from my friend Katie’s room (where she rocked me at Super Smash Bros. and I rocked her at Diddy Kong Racing) and got super introspective on the way. It is really bizarre to think that I live here. I mean, I know it’s what, seven weeks in?, and I’m thinking this way. But I got here, and I have never gotten homesick. … The closest I’ve gotten is kittysick. I just feel super-comfortable and at home here. I even call my room home, which led to confusion when I was talking to Bob. There was no awkward transition. St. Ben’s was just suddenly home.

This opening paragraph isn’t a scene from a reality TV show about anxious college students. It’s an entry from the blog of Kathy Cosmano, sophomore in English Education at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn.

If these thoughts seem a bit personal, well, that’s because they are intended for Cosmano’s friends and family. Cosmano, like thousands of other college students, has discovered that blogging is an affective way to keep in touch with friends and family.

A blog is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles. Blogs range in scope from personal diaries to news outlets to corporate identity vehicles. No reliable statistics exist for the number of active blogs today, but if one blog provider is any indication, the number is huge and growing every day. MSN alone has created 4.5 million blog accounts so far this year.

Cosmano started her blog at the end of her senior year in high school, but didn’t regularly use it until arriving at college her freshman year.

“It’s a good way to keep in touch and see what’s going on in my life,” said Cosmano. “It is easier than calling everyone.”

Reach out and blog someone

Staying connected to her community of family and friends is important to Cosmano, but so is the idea that she is creating a history of her college years.

“It’s nice to be able to share my frustrations or my excitement about what’s going on,” she said. “And my blog is always going to be there, whether I look at it again or not.”

Keeping the blog updated can be a chore, Cosmano said, and some weeks it doesn’t get updated as often as it should. Still, she tries to post a few times a week.

“It distracts me a lot from homework,” she said, “but it’s a good timesaver. I have a lot of people to keep in touch with, so it’s nice to have that one place to go to keep in touch with everyone.”

Blogging does have its downsides, according to Cosmano, so you must be cautious.

“Sometimes people will type in things that make them mad about friends and it gets around and gets made into a big tadoo. I’ve avoided that thankfully.”

She’s aware that future employers may very well find her blog while doing background research during the hiring process, but it is not a concern to her.

“I think it’s crazy and not a thing to worry about when you go out into the real world,” she said. “I use pretty good grammar, and I don’t think I’ve written anything terrible.”

Beginning a Blog

A number of blog providers offer free blog space, including Blogger.com. Once you register, simply select a template for your blog and a blogger profile. Then you are ready to start blogging.
It’s important to remember that even though the blog is being written for a specific group of people, it can be found by anyone who knows how to search the Internet. A good rule of thumb – don’t write anything that could not be shown to a parent, friend or potential employer.