blogging about blogs

I really enjoyed this weeks readings about blogs. I have had a fascination with them for a while by way of some of my favorite beauty gurus.

I love how Miller and Shepherd's article explains blogs and blogging. In all of the articles from this week (miller and Shepherd, Mortensen, Garden, and Shirky) they all agree that there are some key elements that make up the definition of a blog. First is is has to be chronologically organized. Thus each entry is dated. The second is frequent updating. This would make sense because the life of a blog depends on posts beginning constantly added to continue to have it stay relevant. The last is combination of links with personal commentary.

I agree with the article also when it says that across the board bloggers agree that content is the most important feature of a blog. I feel that without specified types of content, and the different versions of blogs, they wouldn't be as popular as they are now. I like how they also go on to say " Content is important to bloggers because it represents their freedom of selection and presentation." As someone who blogs, I find that to be very true.

The article also explains two themes prevalent in blogging: self-expression and community development. In another article by Mortensen it also goes into this idea of community development. The author says " This is part of the nature of weblogs: a personal expression of perhaps not community but an understanding of connectedness. To post online is to declare that you are part of something larger, even if the post is just in order to whine about dinner or about having lost a boyfriend."

Blogs and the content they hold can connect us to someone who shares our same thoughts on video games, or makeup, or anything under the sun and I think it is one of the great things about the internet. It has given a way for people to share their thoughts and opinions with the world in the hopes that there are others out there who share the same.

I think that Garden brought up an interesting argument about whether blogs should be defined as a genre or a medium. In my opinion I think they are more of a genre in the medium of the internet. What do you think?

How do you paint your online portrait?

In our world today we are vastly more connected than even 5 years ago. Thanks to the explosion of SNS's (social networking sites). In this day and age we are a world controlled by our need to access information about the lives of those around us via social media and online connectivity. so what is a SNS? According to Danah Boyd it is "a wed-based service that allows individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connections, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system."

Do you ever feel that you need to make yourself 'seen' online on various social media platforms? I believe that this is a case where the invention of these ideas created the need we have and not vice versa. how can you want to share your lunch on Instagram if there was no such thing before to enable you to do just that? What makes people want to share their entire lives on social media?

Networked narrative is something that aids in the need to be constantly connected to one another. Ruth Page, in her article about the growth of the networked narrative, makes a valid point in that narrating ones life on social media is no longer a solo affair. In order to have a 'presence' online it depends on the shaping of interactive contexts that are built through interaction between people on those sites. The ever growing need to be popular on these sites by connecting to people is shown through the the evolution of the 'like' button. Mainly seen on FaceBook, it is a way for people to show that they agree or indeed like what you are saying when you update your status.

I believe the invention of these things has made us have the need  to paint our online portrait in the most favorable of lighting. By enabling those within your friend network to like and respond to your posts it makes those posting want to put their best selves forward in most cases. There are those few ( I'm sure you have someone in mind now) who post all of their drama and lives on social media and it can be overwhelming to those within their friend networks.

Something that I found interesting in another article was the idea of the social media grape vine. The entire reason you stay so connected to these people you are 'friends' with is to be able to talk about their lives and updates to others in real life. This is why I believe people focus so much attention on making their online portrait as close to perfect as they can.

Memetics and our world

Memes have evolved from something that was originally meant to incorporate things such as fashion, slogans, and phrases in current cultural language (From the article by Johnson). From Dawkins, he looked at memes like cultural genes. They served as ways for us to see how our culture has evolved throughout time. It is very different from what we know today as the internet meme (All pictures in this post represent the internet meme). In one of the articles we read this week Wiggins explains what Dawkins envisioned with memetics as it applies to culture. " He ienvisioned the meme and a cultural unit ( or idea) that sought replication for the purpose of its own survival." [I personally think that cargo pants should never have replicated]

The current meaning of memes takes different form but they all basically say that is describes a genre of cultural transmission. All of the articles this week used different ways to explain memetics from both of these vantage points and how this area of study has evolved from one to the other and I thought it was interesting how participatory culture plays a part in the growth of memetics. My thesis is using participatory culture and I definitely agree that memes survive and thrive because of this online participatory culture. If you don't know what that is it basically is a culture that has relatively low barriers to artistic expression, it has strong support for creating and sharing creations, it has some form of informal mentorship and that is passed on along to those that are new. 

Each article also spoke about how memes are formed and the attributes that make up a meme. In the article by Shifman, I really liked how they state the first attribute is they must be understood as cultural information that passes along but grows into a share social phenomenon (Such as forever alone).

The second attribute it discusses is that they reproduce by various means of imitation. This is basically they have an original, and the memes that are just pictures are normally more viral because it is easier to replicate and change, and anyone can use the 'formula' of that meme and change it to something they create. This then makes them into the viral, genre that they have become known as and helps us to further understand how these funny images can help us learn about our culture.