Join LaRonda Zupp as she offers food for thought about why deaf people should continue blogging or vlogging.
Transcript:
Hello. I’m curious… Have you wondered, “Should I continue vlogging or blogging, or should I drop it?”
Well, I think my story I’m about to share will help you decide better.
I just finished work and came home to check my e-mail. I discovered one e-mail in my inbox from Google Alert. That’s a system I signed up for that will help the Google search engine recognize my name - “LaRonda Zupp” - anytime it sees my name pop up on the internet. It will notify me like it did this evening. I saw that my name was connected to some research paper. So, now full of curiosity, I followed the link and “true-business”, it was there. It was on a paper written by Mitchell Bacot, a student at NTID/RIT. He wrote this research paper for his Master’s degree called: “Educational Needs of Late-Deaf Learners.”
How cool is that?! He seemed to quote me accurately and give appropriate reference to my articles written in ALDA News. That’s a national newsletter for ALDA (Association of Late-Deafened Adults). He also quoted me from my blog/vlog at Ear of My Heart That’s so cool! He did this very appropriately and the quotes seemed to fit right in his project. I feel impressed! Wow!
Many us us do not have the money to publish books about our experiences, but we know they are valuable. We know there is value when we share our journey, our excitement, our learning, our “ah-ha’s”, or our frustrations, and so on. People will listen.
So, if you’re thinking you should shut down your blog or vlog, or that you don’t feel it’s worth it to keep it going, or if you feel finished, bored or dried up with blogging or vlogging, think twice! Maybe your information is deemed important to someone out there who will quote parts of it and use your experiences for their research. That’s rich!
Again, I’m very impressed and want to thank Mitchell Bacot for recognizing what I have to say has value. It validates that my experiences are worth sharing to educate others.
That so rocks!
Bye (ILY wave)
** Footnote Correction: The name of ALDA’s newsletter is not ALDA Inc. It is ALDA News. I signed ALDA Inc. in my vlog by mistake. ALDA Inc. is the name of the national ALDA organization. My apologies.
What I like about my blogs (The content is for others to decide), is google now has some listings with ‘Acquired Deaf’ in it, that doesn’t always relate to the medical model of it, and the rest lumped under deaf culture, OK it’s in a very small way, you have tostart somewhere to establish the AD individual online. I hope at some future point to see all medical descriptions of us as some sort of sad act in the deaf world replaced or relegated, by people expressing feelings of an identity, which AD’s don’t have in the scheme of things.
Left by MM on January 9th, 2010
HI LaRonda!
It must have surely feel good that your hard work is paid off knowing that the others can benefit certain kind of information that you have contributed. In my case, I have received emails out of courtesy (which is much appreciated) that my b/vlogs are being used as references more than I do from google alert. I can say that we just never know if we were used as references elsewhere outside the internet unless we are being informed. B/vlogs bring to a personal level that are not similar to book and research related materials as people do like to hear experiences as a late deafened person or as a Deaf person.
Happy b/vlogging!
Barb
Left by Barb DiGi on January 9th, 2010
I do the same thing - I use Google Alert to see if anything related to my name is mentioned or used somewhere in the internet sphere. Vlogging or/and blogging requires some time to prepare and unfortunately many people do not have time for that. ;-(
Left by Vadim Milman on January 9th, 2010
At the same time, I applaud ones who are passionate about vlogging/blogging — that should inspire us to get in touch in the internet sphere and maybe do vlogging/blogging. Keep vlogging/blogging!
Left by Vadim Milman on January 9th, 2010
Hello La Ronda,
What a perfect post to look into while doing 6.9 clip for the myth. We have yet to know or appreciate the power and the reach of the internet. Gally U have an you-tube channel now. Videos from our past are becoming more available once their are digitized. What will it do to bilingual education of deaf children 10 or 20 years later?
A big boom - or jump time for the deaf community. Thanks for the tip of google alert. and a good post, La Ronda.
Left by cnkatz on January 9th, 2010
That’s real exciting LaRonda. I have often thought the same thing. Why do I do this? And almost always someone writes that reading my post has helped them in some way, and then I realize I should keep doing it. This is one reason why commenting positively when you like someone’s post is so important I think. Recently I read an article about how blogging is changing the world. Common people, meaning those who don’t have journalism degrees, can write and be heard. The media is no longer someone else. It’s US. I totally agree with you about the Deaf/deaf/HH having a voice now. Keep vlogging. Your opinions are so important.
Left by kim on January 9th, 2010
I am so glad for you- keep up the good work. Never underestimate the positive influence you have on others, your insight is amazing.
Left by Lisa on January 29th, 2010