Blogging or Studying

Despite the heavy load of reading and writing I have for my classes, I can’t help but do a fair amount of reading and writing outside of school. Sometimes, even when a paper is hanging over my head, blogging seems to take precedent: I read an interesting article in a newspaper or magazine, and off I go to contribute my two cents to the blogosphere.

Maybe I’m just trying to justify my way of procrastinating, but it occurs to me that perhaps it isn’t a bad thing to blog instead of study. Perhaps, blogging is studying, in that it is part of my growth as a student. By responding to current events and provocative op-eds, I am processing my personal positions and sharpening my analytical skills. Maybe grad schools in subjects like government or political science ought to require students to blog, as a disciplined way to keep a diary of what you’re learning and how it relates to what is going on in the world.

Of course, maybe my blog will get me into trouble down the road. By recording my musings over time, perhaps I’ll have some label stuck onto me or I’ll be accused of flip-flopping on an issue. But I’ll take my chances with that and keep on “procrastinating” in this way.