Anonymity can be a very useful, but harmful tool on the internet. It is a complicated topic that has proven to enhance things like participation, but also encourage more hateful comments. Today I would like to discus both the advantages and the disadvantages to anonymity and how it may or may not be useful for a website.
The first great thing about anonymity is that it encourages participation. Maria Konnikova states that “forty per cent of people in the eighteen-to-twenty-nine-year-old demographic have posted anonymously” (Konnikova, 2013), as this disconnection between a person’s identity and text allows users to feel less fear about what they say since it can’t be tied back to them. Anonymity can also support freedom of speech on the internet which can be very helpful in getting people’s voices heard. However, the lack of repercussions and judgement that comes with anonymity encourages more hate speech on the internet and increase the cases of online abuse. It can also lead to the spread of misinformation due to how easy it is to lie, which means we are generally less trusting of information we find on the internet.
Regarding a blog or any public social media account for that matter, anonymous comments are very likely to occur, but there are some things to do about it. According to The Gaurdian“Some say it is simple – “Don’t read the comments” or, better still, switch them off altogether. And many have done just that, disabling their comment threads for good because they became too taxing to bother with” (Gardiner et al., 2016). Unfortunately, it is not always this simple as not all comments are hate comments, and enabling comments increases the response from users. The creators of online content (include myself for my website) must decide which is more important to them – user participation or not receiving hate. An alternative – which I might apply to my website If I start noticing comments – is to filter out any hateful words or statements so that they can’t be posted. This way, you can still receive user response, but your comments are less likely to be hateful or triggering.
As an up-and-coming blogger, improving my SEO or Search Engine Optimization, will have a huge impact on my website’s success, especially if I plan to monetize my content. Having a good SEO means your website is geared towards search engines, thus appearing higher up on the results page. Our readings this week emphasize the importance of building your SEO, to widen brand reach and website visibility, as most consumers don’t look past the first few results (Hollingsworth, 2021). Until now, I have been focusing mostly on creating content and finding my footing building a website–something I have never done before.
But, this inspired me to test my blog’s SEO. When looking up “Fridays with Frosty” directly in Google, my site came up first! Thanks family and friends for that boost. This is huge for my site, as our readings say, “If you’re not on page one, you’re not winning the click” (Hollingsworth, 2021).
But, when you change the search terms, even slightly, to something like “Fridays Frosty” I disappear right off the first page of results. It looks like I still have some work to do.
This week, I used google analytics to try to improve my SEO. It says that 92% of my site’s viewers come via a direct search and are located in Canada. (Shout out again to the fam jam!)
But, 88% of the viewers on my site come through desktop, something I wasn’t expecting. This posed a problem for the way I integrate videos into my blog. My site isn’t user-friendly enough when you are on desktop. This had to change, because good user experience improves SEO. Our readings talk about this, stating “Google has learned how to interpret a good or unfavourable user experience, and a positive user experience has become a pivotal element to a website’s success.” (Hollingsworth, 2021).
My issue is I have been making my videos on TikTok, then saving them to my computer before posting, rather than just embedding the TikTok directly. This means that on mobile, watching the videos is fine, as they are already sized to fit the screen. On desktop however, the video size and vertical proportions are too big for the screen. You can’t see the entire thing. You have to do quite a bit of scrolling to even get to the bottom of the video. It doesn’t making watching easy. So, I needed to fix this for my larger desktop audience and hopefully, it would boost my SEO.
I had to redo all my video blog posts and embed them directly from TikTok. I decided I could also improve my website’s marketability at the same time, by creating a Fridays with Frosty specific TikTok. Up until now, I have been posting on my personal TikTok account. Once I reposted all my videos to the new account, I uploaded them to my blog as TikTok’s. Although it was frustrating to have to post everything again, it was worth it. My site looks way cleaner, and I have a head start expanding my brand over multiple channels (Check out my plans for that here).
Learning about SEO made me realize that I may have been using tags on my posts incorrectly. I have been treating them like keywords, and have since learned they aren’t the same. I decided to enlist ChatGPT to help me improve this. I imputed my most recent post, about Caitlin Clark (She’s awesome, check it out here!), into ChatGPT and asked it to generate tags for me (and it came up with the tags for this post too). It came up with some basic stuff, like “Caitlin Clark”, “Iowa Hawkeyes”, and “women’s basketball”. But it also came up with a few things I hadn’t thought of, like “basketball records”, and “TV viewership”.
I’m anxiously waiting to see if AI can help improve the traffic to this post, and my SEO, through improved tags. If it does, I will be going back and getting it to come up with tags for all my older posts.
The readings did demonstrate a few things I have been doin well in terms of SEO. They say good SEO “offers users the information they are looking for in fewer clicks, quickly and easily,” and “builds trust & credibility” which a positive user experience is part of (Hollingsworth, 2021). By splitting up my content into written and video sections, navigation is easier, making content faster to find. I have also made decisions about comment modifications that will foster a positive user environment. Read about those decisions here!
In the future, there are many things I could do to improve my SEO, with the help of analytics, like improving code so my website loads faster. But, those changes seemed daunting at this point and I would be way out of my depth. If I continue my blog, it will definitely be something to think about. Until then, I’ll just keep telling everyone I know to check out “Friday’s with Frosty” and hope it boosts my SEO.
Works Cited
Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 9). 15 reasons why your business absolutely needs seo. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close
In the past few weeks I have previously been focusing on user accessibility and using design and marketing to encourage people to visit my blog. However what I haven’t thought about is what they see when they do visit my blog and how I can make it more intriguing. To do so, this week I changed the titles of all of my process posts to a summarizing statement that gives information about what content is in the post, rather than “process post x”, which is what I made my titles before. Even though my process posts are just for PUB101, I still wanted to make it a little more interesting for whoever may read it, as an actual title might bring more people to the post as a sort of ‘hook’ that intrigues the reader.
In this weeks reading: Pokemon as Transmedia Storytelling, the author discusses how Pokemon is still so popular after so many years, and how transmedia storytelling is part of the reason for that due to its marketing possibilities among multiple age groups. This evidence of such successful transmedia storytelling represents how useful interrelation can be, and how it can be implemented across many different areas. To apply this technique to my website, I think I would start including more visual aspects to my blog as most of it is currently just text. I could include photos, videos or even graphics to present information and hopefully enhance the transmedia storytelling of my website.
We are now in the second last week of the course and I’m feeling good about what I’ve created so far in terms of the content as well as just the website as a whole. I think when I started the class I had a lot of creative visions of how to personalize my website and I tried some of them over the course of the semester, most of them didn’t work out or came with sacrificing accessibility. Overall I think with all the problems I’ve had since day one I’ve made tons of changes and tried all sorts of different ideas to make my blog what it is now and while it’s simple it’s pretty effective in my opinion. This week’s prompt is about transmedia and unfortunately I couldn’t access the reading. It pops up saying the content is blocked so i’m not sure what it was about. Instead I thought I could find another article online related to transmedia and use it. I think transmedia is an interesting thing to talk about from the context of a blog, specifically one like mine that is really informal and kinda random. Transmedia seems like it would make more sense in something that is telling a story. That being said, I think if I were to use different forms of media for my content I would do short videos that go a little more in depth about certain topics in my blog. I think this would work best because some of my posts are fairly informative and I think short videos are the best form of content to help people stay engaged and interested in the topic while learning something in a short amount of time. I have recently tried some new forms of content such as images and content focused on the reader but I don’t think there was enough time given to do anything more unique for content posts each week. I would have loved to do a video style content post but it would have taken easily twice as long as writing it. In the future if I decide to keep posting on my blog when there isn’t a due date on posts I might try something more unique.
References
Jenkins, H. (2007, March 22). Transmedia storytelling 101. Henry Jenkins. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html
This week I added a lot more to my about section of my blog. I added one of the main reasons I started my blog and the goal I had with it as well as a little more about me personally and what readers should expect from the blog. Since I didn’t want to add an image of myself I decided to add images of topics I’ve written about that way there’s still some images which I think are important. I took an idea from Victor, who I did my peer review #3 on, and put these images under a “gallery of topics” as I think it is a good way to visually understand the topics. This week’s reading was all about search engine optimization and why it is super important for reachability as well as the importance of mobile optimization. In terms of mobile optimization I believe I have that down as my site is just really easy to use and friendly for mobile. The navigation is all in a menu, the spacing of all the text and images work well, the font is readable and big enough, and overall I’m happy with it and dont think I’ll change anything anytime soon. As for SEO, I’ve thought about it for a while and I don’t think I really want to optimize my website for this. I really want my blog to be personal and connect to readers by using informal language and overall just a laid back tone. I don’t want to change titles or change wording in my content to be more friendly for search results. Basically anything that takes away from the actual content to be more optimized is out of the question for me. That being said I decided to add relevant tags to my posts as I don’t feel it takes anything away from the actual content but would help it appear more in searches.
References
data.ai. (2022). Posiel.com. State of mobile 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://posiel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/dataai__state_of_mobile_2022__en.pdf
I got some feedback about my website’s design and decided I’m going to stick with this for the rest of the class. I’m still a little bit behind on assignments but slowly catching up as I’ve had a break from midterms being over. I just noticed that I was supposed to have an about me section since week 1 and so I added that, it’s very small as I didnt know what to put and didn’t really want to put an image of myself. I might add more to it later on if I can think of anything but otherwise I’ll probably just leave it really short and simple as I want my content to speak for me anyways. I’m starting to run out of ideas for what to do for content and it’s making it really stay motivated. That’s pretty much all I’ve changed since last week. The reading/podcast this week talked about digital footprints or breadcrumbs which are essentially the details we leave behind when using the internet. I think It’s actually crazy how much information gets left behind just by browsing google. I have this app on my computer that searches for and removes trackers, essentially it just cleans up your computer. I run this program about once a week and every time there’s at least 1000 trackers it detects which is just insane because I know for a fact I’m not on that many websites in a week. The reading explains how the information collected on us is used to advertise products that we might be interested in. Their solution is to use ad blockers, a VPN and browse on a more secure browser. I think ad blockers are a great way to help with targeted marketing by just simply removing the ads that you see but it doesn’t fix the actual issue at hand it more so acts as a bandage to cover it up. The idea of a VPN would be great but I have yet to find a free VPN that works well and I’m definitely not going to spend money on one. For the point of using a more secure browser it’s a good idea but for someone who has been using chrome for years I really don’t want to switch. Overall I think the podcast brings up some good points about this problem but needs some more in depth solutions to it, for me personally I’m just going to continue to use this app that removes trackers as it works well enough for me.
ReferencesDigital Breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us. Pod Academy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2023, from http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/
I’ve still been trying to figure out how I want to design my website but I think I’ve found something that I like and works well in terms of accessibility. I finally figured out how to add a navigation bar at the top that stays for every page so now you can get back to the home page. I went back to the first design I did with having all my content posts on the home page laid out in a way that they continue to the last week’s post once done reading this week’s. I thought about also removing all the buttons to get to all the posiel stuff but I thought it might get confusing to know which week is which so I kept it the same. The colours I went with are pretty simple with an off white background with black text but I also added a dark mode option that changes the background to a dark blue with white text which I think looks really nice. The reading this week by James Bridle, Something is wrong on the internet is pretty interesting to me. A few weeks ago I did a content post on ways kids have gotten rich quickly (essentially outlining some get rich quick schemes and saying what I thought about them), one I did not include was content creation on social media and predominantly Youtube. The reading talks about this indirectly but people have found ways to create content that generates a lot of clicks sometimes by using AI and they upload them to Youtube to generate money. This can be very effective because they target their content to children, who have a massive presence on Youtube and have lots of time to watch. The problem is that sometimes this content is very disturbing especially for children. I think this is a huge problem and think that Youtube has a responsibility to better monitor these videos being labelled as for kids. The reading about wikipedia was also very interesting because it made me think of a dilemma. In a class I had last semester the professors praised Wikipedia, not because they thought it was all amazing truthful information but because the purpose of the site was to provide a way for people to present their findings and knowledge for free and allow others to access this knowledge for free. Obviously with it being accessible to everyone on the internet some people are going to make up fake information or change things because it is funny and they can. Essentially what I’m trying to say is that wikipedia doesnt deserve all the hate it receives because its intention is good and if you know how to use it properly it can actually be extremely useful at providing information or sources very quickly. I thought that the other readings this week were good but nothing really piqued my interest and I mostly agreed with the points they brought up.
References
Bridle, J. (2018, June 21). Something is wrong on the internet. Medium. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2 Tone, S. (2022, July 11). She spent a decade writing fake Russian history. wikipedia just noticed. #SixthTone. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1010653/she-spent-a-decade-writing-fake-russian-history.-wikipedia-just-noticed.-?fbclid=IwAR3XFmfyFxVcZSNuxS9HSXqZG55mnN29vkX8E-LuR7-MEvnq0tK4ZK6Lo7A
This week I will be reviewing Kathy’s blog, Lucid Dreamer (uderrated.com).
First Impressions: Kathy’s blog does not have that much content, however, her About page gave me some insight into the type of content she is trying to convey! I enjoyed that she has a picture of herself because her blog is personal, where she talks about her dreams and (book) recommendations. This is a great way to market your blog, as when someone looks at the About page they will know this is a personal blog about her, and not about any other sort of content.
By posting personal recountings of her dreams, she is presenting herself in a vulnerable way that we don’t see often online! In Hollenbaugh’s article, Self-Presentation in Social Media: Review and Research Opportunities, they talk about ‘self-disclosure’, “Self-disclosure, the revelation of personal information (i.e., thoughts or feelings) to others (Derlega et al., 2008), is distinct from self-presentation, yet it is an essential tool for those attempting to present their actual or ideal image” (Hollenbaugh, 2020). By talking about her personal life, and her dreams, she is practicing self-disclosure, which is rare online.
Marketability: Kathy has not yet worked on many aspects of marketability. It is a little bit confusing navigating her website and the content that she is actually posting, which makes it harder to market to a specific audience. I would recommend having her “Dream Diary” as the first thing you see when you open the site. On top of that, I would recommend some more pictures or icons that allude to the type of content she is posting so that the audience knows what kind of blog it is!
Unfortunately, she has not posted any recommendations, as this would be where the marketability aspect can come from. If she started recommending some manga or books, she would be able to market that type of content to have her audience looking at the stuff she is recommending. This part of her blog could be pretty easy and laid back too, she wouldn’t have to go into detail but maybe just have Pinterest board-like grid of different manga, board games, and card games that she likes!
Conclusion: Unfortunately Kathy does not have enough content on her blog for me to make a good and accurate assessment of her content, however, I gave several recommendations and things I would like to see from her blog!
Citations
Hollenbaugh, E. E. (2020). Self-Presentation in Social Media: Review and Research Opportunities. Review of Communication Research, 9, 80-98. Retrieved from https://www.rcommunicationr.org/index.php/rcr/article/view/71
This week, we learned about the importance of media across multiple channels. A classic example is Pokémon, which kevinbrittenylauren labels as “transmedia storytelling”. To create a “coordinated entertainment experience”, Pokémon is reinvented to be independently interesting in varying mediums: playing cards, television, video games, and more. As someone who grew up consuming Pokémon content, I can vouch for its success through effective transmedia innovation. I have countless memories of watching the cartoon with my brother before school, opening packs of cards and slotting them into plastic sheets in binders, and playing video games on my Nintendo DS and later on my iPhone when Pokémon Go was the biggest craze. While melatonin gone missing surely does not have the marketability and consumer potential that Pokémon does to shape-shift into different forms of media, I wonder what my blog look could look like across multiple channels.
An App
A melatonin gone missing app certainly feels like the most conceivable and relevant channel that melatonin gone missing could thrive on. Like any news app or blog app, users would be able to browse the app to read posts, comment and interact, and consume visual media on a more consistent and higher quality platform than in a desktop or mobile browser.
I imagine designing this app would be really fun. It would be open to regular revamps, giving the site more ways to grow. If I ever chose to expand melatonin gone missing, I would definitely go for an app first.
A Podcast
In grade 12, my best friend and I had a podcast to commemorate our final year of high school. It gained more traction than we expected, as a good chunk of our grad class and other close friends who went to other schools listened and supported our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other platforms. People were even asking us to appear on guest episodes, which was awesome. With this experience on how to record, edit, and promote a podcast, I have faith that melatonin gone missing could be great in podcast form.
I envision it would just be me and sometimes a guest, discussing various topics that would definitely be in a content post. Spending 30 minutes to an hour chatting about things like Taylor Swift, TV shows, celebrities, and everything and anything else would be fun to record and hopefully a fun listen for loyal site visitors who wants an eyes-free, hands-free, giggle-infused version of the blog.
Plus, to keep it on theme, episodes could be recorded late at night, to really capture the half-delusional essence of melatonin gone missing.
Social Media
Lastly, if melatonin gone missing were to truly thrive outside of its browser domain, social media accounts would be crucial for online presence, legitimacy/trustworthiness, and overall growth- both in and of itself, and to new audiences. Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok would probably be the main three social channels that could effectively promote the blog (and the app/podcast!) and gain a fanbase, sponsorships, and general public interest. That is to say, melatonin gone missing would blow up the internet!
As Bryce J. Renninger says, users “[choose] a platform informed by their personal tastes as well as wider social trends and practices”. So, these social media platforms clearly reflect current trends around how people communicate and share media online, and would therefore be very effective in contributing to audience outreach for my blog.
So to wrap up, if my blog lives on past the end of PUB 101, keep your eyes peeled on Spotify, the App Store, and your favourite social media platforms for the evolution of melatonin gone missing!
References:
Renninger, B. J. (2015). “Where I can be myself… where I can speak my mind”: Networked counterpublics in a polymedia environment. New Media & Society, 17(9) 1513–1529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814530095
Whippersnappers, B. is for. (2013, November 21). Pokemon as transmedia storytelling. kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/
Photos:
Kee, E. (2023, February 7). Download now! free android & IOS apps of the week. NextPit. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://www.nextpit.com/free-apps-of-the-week-6-2023-a
Podcasting 101: Getting your podcast out there. West Vancouver Memorial Library. (2023, January 27). Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://westvanlibrary.ca/event/podcasting-101-getting-your-podcast-out-there/
Staff, S. (2022, August 17). 1044% increase in social media account hijacking. Security Magazine RSS. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/98185-1044-increase-in-social-media-account-hijacking
Web and multimedia blogs. BLOGS | Touro GST. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://gst.touro.edu/Blogs/Pages/wmmBlog.php
As someone who is starting, and interested in content creation, our contemporary period makes it a little bit harder with the existence of hate comments and online harassment. Especially in the last few years the emergence of cancel culture and the lack of media literacy makes this an even harder topic.
Thankfully, my small blog for a class does not receive hate comments or anything, but if I do want to pursue content creation, I should learn and talk about it.
“The Psychology of Online Comments” by Maria Konnikova talks in depth about online comments. My favourite study that is highlighted in the article is, “When people don’t think they are going to be held immediately accountable for their words they are more likely to fall back on mental shortcuts in their thinking and writing, processing information less thoroughly. They become, as a result, more likely to resort to simplistic evaluations of complicated issues” (Konnikova, 2013).
This brings up a point I have been trying to make for a long time, the lack of nuance, understanding, and most importantly media literacy, when it comes to these anonymous hate comments. For example, most hateful comments I see on TikTok are from someone who didn’t understand the video correctly, and instead of taking the time to understand, they just leave a hate comment instead.
As well as hate comments about political issues or other complicated issues, which the hate commentators have no education about these issues.
Spilling the Royaltea has gone through quite the journey throughout eleven weeks of consistent posting. As my process posts come to an end, it’s time for one last blog design update as the fourth and final installment of the blog design process post series.
Additions and Deletions
At Spilling the Royaltea’s inception, I created a category called “the chronicles of Harry and Meghan” with the hopes of writing documentary and book reviews. At this time, Prince Harry’s book, which took the media by storm had just been released, and Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary had come out just a few months prior. They were a huge topic of discussion all over the news, social media, and just about everywhere else, and this was basically my motivation for creating the blog.
However, as the semester went on, I found it extremely difficult to get documentary episodes in, or find the time to sit down with a book that wasn’t an academic journal or textbook. Therefore, as the other categories started filling up, “the chronicles of Harry and Meghan” stayed empty for over half the semester.
Because I didn’t see myself having the time to watch the documentary or read the book, I decided to switch this category to a “ranked” one. The ranked category is exactly how it sounds: it ranks all things related to the royal family. I created this section because sometimes, I need to be shallow and fluffy. My “hot takes” and “news” sections are usually more critical and thought-provoking in nature. They involve topics like racism, sexism, sexual assault, and much more. While these topics are what I want to shine a light on the most, many royal family followers (including myself) enjoy some lighthearted material from time to time.
Preview of a blog post in my new “ranked” section
Therefore, this “ranked” category discusses some other things that weigh a little lighter on readers’ chests, like fashion, or Prince Louis’s antics, or even just an informative post on the late Queen’s grandchildren, who always steal the spotlight at any event featuring the royals. It also includes a Fashion, FAST! segment, which featured quick hot takes on royal fashion decisions.
I felt a little disappointed that I was unable to watch the documentary or read the memoir, especially because these two pieces were the main motivators in the creation of my blog. But at the end of the day, Spilling the Royaltea as a digital garden is supposed to represent me and my interests. This means that I have the room to make changes when things don’t work and learn new things from these changes. So creating the “ranked” category to add a different perspective on the site wasn’t a bad thing at all. It just allowed me to share another side of myself with my audience and it worked out pretty well, in my opinion.
Consistencies
Aside from “the chronicles of Harry and Meghan” which turned into “ranked,” the other sections on Spilling the Royaltea stayed the same. “Hot takes” provided opinion pieces that aren’t really broadcast in the mainstream, like the fact that Princess Charlotte has all the characteristics to become the future Queen, or the fact that the royal family is a racist institution that needs to do better. Further, “news” followed the things that were in the mainstream, but provided critical takes on it, like the fact that royal titles recently changed for a bunch of royal family members, but not Lady Louise due to sexist, patriarchal protocols.
And of course, my predetermined PUB 101 content and categories remained pretty much the same throughout the semester, with the simple addition of the “essay” sub-category, for, well, my essay.
Revisiting my Audience
At the beginning of my blogging journey, I imagined my audience and wrote content directed to it, as suggested by Hollenbaugh. I envisioned my audience as royal family followers. These were not necessarily people who loved them, but also included the people who love to hate them.
This meant that I was going to try to write content that didn’t purposefully portray a pro- or anti-royal family stance. Instead, I was just going to try to write about my own opinions, and I don’t think this could be even more true after eleven weeks.
The most important thing for me when writing my blog was making sure I didn’t become the right-wing, conservative Daily Mail, who endlessly supports the royal family and endlessly hates Meghan. So I included some more Daily Mail-type content, like the fact that Archie and Lilibet shouldn’t use royal titles, but not because I just wanted to hate on Meghan. I actually thought they shouldn’t use their royal titles. But I also included some pro-Harry and Meghan content, like my second mini assignment, written from the perspective of Princess Diana, who defends Harry and Meghan’s decision to step back from the monarchy.
Excerpt of my blog post, “Piping Hot Take: Archie and Lilibet Shouldn’t Use Royal Titles” which takes a critical stance against Prince Harry and MeghanExcerpt of “Mini Assignment 2: Love, Princess Diana – Messages from Heaven” which supports Prince Harry and Meghan’s decision to step back from royal duties
The Future of Spilling the Royaltea: Transmedia Integration?
This week, we learned about transmedia integration, or repurposing our blog content for multiple platforms.Renniger explains that certain social networking sites are especially suited toward addressing counterpublics. Aspects of certain platforms help communicate messages that deviate from the mainstream, or the dominant “public.”
Spilling the Royaltea could be considered a counterpublic of royal family followers who are more objective (i.e. both critical and supportive) in their stance, which is a pretty uncommon thing. Therefore, I could move more of my content on TikTok, where small creators with minimal reach can most easily become popular. I could make videos using small segments and keywords from my articles and create slideshow-type TikToks, which help tell a story. Or I could narrate stories while pictures and videos show up behind me using the green-screen effect.
I could also move to Twitter and post short previews of my posts, and then link my blog so that readers could learn more. Or I could create longer-form versions of my TikToks and post them on YouTube, or even post my TikToks on YouTube shorts. The possibilities are endless.
Hollenbaugh, E. E. (2021). Self-presentation in social media: Review and research opportunities. Review of Communication Research, 9, 80–98. https://doi.org/10.12840/ISSN.2255-4165.027
Renninger, B. J. (2015). “Where I can be myself … where I can speak my mind” : Networked counterpublics in a polymedia environment. New Media & Society, 17(9), 1513–1529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814530095
I really like the current layout of my website. I tried to make it as user-friendly as possible and also functional for myself. My PUB101 content will live on the page “PUB101”, organized under the categories “Process Posts”, “Mini Assignments”, and “Peer Reviews”. My content will be separate from my assignments for PUB101 under the page “Content”. I’m not sure if I will have different categories for this page yet. I’ll decide on that once I start posting more content on my blog.
As I’m reading the article “Calling My Attention Back” by Craig Mod, it’s making me reflect on my own online habits and how glued to my phone I can be on a day-to-day basis. In the age of 10-50 second content on Tiktok, has it affected our ability to pay attention? I find myself gravitating back to my phone even when I’m streaming a movie. In fact, I’ve gotten distracted by my phone about 5 times while writing this. Also, when I’m out to eat with my family or friends, almost everyone is on their phones, and only glancing up and talking periodically. Honesty, I don’t think that I could be offline for a whole month. I think that I’m too reliant on technology to do that. Here are some examples: I need the internet to access my assignments on Canvas, I communicate with most of my friends online, and I watch movies, tv, and Youtube during a lot of my free time. But, that’s not to say I couldn’t cut back on my screen time. Perhaps cutting back and spending more time meditating and reading could really benefit my mental health. It’s definitely something that I would seriously consider attempting.
This week, our focus has been on various types of media and trans media storytelling, a concept that has gained a lot of popularity recently. Social media has become an indispensable part of our lives, serving as more than just a means to connect with friends and family members. It has now become an impactful tool for businesses and individuals to showcase their brands and engage with their audience.
As a social media enthusiast, I found this idea to be particularly fascinating. In this blog post, I will share my thoughts on the subject, and also discuss how I use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok for different purposes. Furthermore, I will delve into the reasons why I haven’t shared my transformation journey on any of these platforms yet. So, let’s explore the topic together!
Recently, I have been thinking about sharing my website as it is a part of my online art portfolio. As someone who aspires to be a UX/UI designer, I want potential employers to see my characteristics alongside my projects. Furthermore, by sharing my story, I hope to provide insight into my self-development and the journey I have been on. I believe that posting blogs is an excellent way to achieve this, as social media platforms are not suitable for long-form writing.
While transmedia storytelling is often associated with large corporations, brands, or franchises such as Pokemon, Harry Potter, and Star Wars, it also exists on a personal level through our involvement in the social web. Social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and personal blogs, provide a platform for us to share unique narratives about ourselves, our interests, and our passions.
Building digital legacies involves accumulating tweets, status updates, and blog comments, which tell a story and are fed by our social media outposts. Adopting social technologies is driven by the compulsion to seek out those who share common ideas and beliefs (Lynch, 2021).
As a content creator, how we tell our stories can have a powerful impact on our audience. Using multiple platforms to share our content and weave a coherent narrative, we can reach a wider audience and connect with them on a deeper level. However, it is also crucial to find a balance between the different platforms we use. Each platform has strengths and limitations, and we must adapt our storytelling approach accordingly.
For instance, Instagram may be great for visual storytelling and building a personal brand. At the same time, LinkedIn can help us showcase our professional skills and connect with potential employers or clients. Similarly, TikTok is an excellent short-form video platform that captures attention quickly (Social Pilot, 2021).
Of course, creating content for multiple platforms can be challenging and time-consuming, especially for someone who is just starting. But I believe that the benefits of transmedia storytelling outweigh the costs. By investing in our personal brand and online presence, we can create opportunities for ourselves and achieve our career goals.
In conclusion, transmedia storytelling is a powerful tool for individuals who want to build their personal brand and share their stories with the world. Using different platforms to showcase other aspects of our lives and interests, we can create a more complete and compelling narrative that resonates with our audiences and helps us achieve our goals. So, if you’re looking to transform your online presence and tell your story in a more engaging and effective way, I encourage you to explore the world of transmedia storytelling and see what it can do for you.
To conclude this post, I would like to encourage you to take a few moments to watch a comprehensive video on social media strategy. This video has been a great help to me in gaining a better understanding of the subject, and I hope it can provide you with valuable insights as well!!
Bibliography:
Britten, K., & Lauren, L. (2013, November 21). Pokémon as Transmedia Storytelling. Kevin Britten & Lauren. https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/
Patel, N. (2018, April 3). How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan: The 6 Step Framework. Neil Patel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaMx2pG3LJw&t=561s
SocialPilot. (2021, April 22). The Power of Social Media Storytelling: Why It Matters and How to Do It Right. SocialPilot. https://www.socialpilot.co/blog/social-media-storytelling
Lynch, M. (2021, March 1). Which Social Networks Should You Focus on? 5 Key Questions to Help You Decide. HubSpot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/which-social-networks-should-you-focus-on
Analytics (Google, Facebook, Twitter etc.) is a very valuable tool for building your audience. For content creators, knowing how your reader behaves on your website can help enormously with developing the best content, posting at the right time, and developing the appropriate engagement strategies. On the flip side, for the reader or user, it can be tiresome and even worrisome knowing you are providing data trails every where you go online.
I find it easy to get mesmerized by the analytics of the people viewing my content. My first exposure to this side of being a content creator was a couple years ago when instagram provided its users with the analytics of their following (age range, gender, etc.). As a content creator it’s nice to have access to this information, as I find it helps to know your audience so that you can provide them with the best content you can.
A few weeks ago I installed google analytics on my site. I’m still figuring out everything that it tracks, but what I have particularly liked knowing is how far my website has reached. According to google analytics people in Canada, the United States, American Samoa, and France have visited my site.
Another important piece of information I received is that of those who look at my site 70% of them access it from their desktop. This is beneficial to know as I will now focus my attention on how my site looks on desktop versus the mobile.
I am both a content creator and a content consumer. I benefit from the likes of app tracking, but when I find myself on the other side of the data it’s hard to know if the benefits outweigh the costs. Apps monetize the digital breadcrumbs users leave through their use of media platforms. In the article Digital Breadcrumbs: the digital trail we leave behind us they talked about how media consumers play a hand in their data being used from their use of location tags and the usage of contactless cards people. Companies pay for this data as it helps them know how their targeted demographic lives their lives.
It’s frightening how much information these companies can get about a person. Through this data collection they can find out “each shopper’s consumer behaviour, demographics, home address, occupation, estimated salary, as well as the websites they visit are all recorded” (Digital breadcrumbs, 2016, para. 56). I don’t like how much information is collected about individuals through the use of apps. I think it’s sad that that’s the cost of getting apps for free.
The time has finally come. Artificial Intelligence is taking over. I have always been a skeptic of AI and its capabilities, but I can no longer deny how far technology has come. Although I think it is amazing all that AI’s like DALL-E2 and ChatGDT can do, it does frighten me a bit. Used as a tool, I think these AI’s can do a lot of great things, but I think there’s a fine line between what we should have the AI do for us, and what we should do ourselves. As soon as the AI starts thinking for us, the use of AI is wrong. People have fought for centuries to have their own voice, and by having AI’s write papers for us and tell us what we should think on a certain topic we start to give them the right to our own voice…what’s to say we’ll get it back?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers a number of advantages, including:
Efficiency: AI can perform tasks faster and more accurately than humans, reducing the time and resources needed to complete complex tasks.
Consistency: AI systems can be programmed to consistently perform tasks to the same high standard, eliminating the risk of human error.
Cost savings: AI can automate routine and repetitive tasks, reducing the need for human labor and saving on labor costs.
Decision-making: AI can analyze large amounts of data and provide insights that can help humans make better-informed decisions.
Innovation: AI has the potential to create new products, services, and business models, driving innovation and economic growth.
Safety: AI can be used in dangerous or hazardous environments, reducing the risk to human lives.
Personalization: AI can be used to create personalized experiences for individuals, such as recommendations for products or services based on their preferences and behavior.
Accessibility: AI can help overcome barriers to access for people with disabilities, improving their quality of life.
Overall, AI has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives, from healthcare and transportation to education and entertainment.
These benefits to using AI were generated by ChatGPT. I could easily pass its ideas and or its writings as my own, but I will not do that because I still believe that the principle is of utmost importance. For that reason I will never try to pass the AI’s work off as my own. I still see the value in my own voice even if I am not able to go through the entirety of the internet to generate my opinions or ideas. AI is no doubt going to play a huge role in our future and I see no problem in that, but I do think people need to be taught how to use it as a tool rather than a crutch.
As I was showing one of my friends my website on her laptop, I noticed that the layout looked a bit different and the size of the pictures on my homepage did not appear the way I had arranged them from the perspective of my computer. I had thought that my website would not appear the same on all mobile devices as it also looks different when I open The Fashion Daily on my phone, but I was not quite sure how to go about fixing this. I had tried to alter the design of my homepage by changing the size and spacing of the images to see if that would make a difference in the appearance on other devices than a macbook, but then the homepage didn’t look right on my computer. So to sum it up, I am still working on making my website accessible for all viewers and hope to try and achieve this by the end of the semester.
It is important to consider how your audience is going to be viewing your website, especially if your content is directed to younger Gen Z viewers. According to State Of Mobile, a statistical article we read for class, 7 of every 10 minutes on mobile was spent in social, photo, and video apps in 2021 (2022). On top of this, the average daily time spent on mobile devices was 4.8 hours per user, which is ⅓ of the average total daily waking hours (State Of Mobile, 2022). With this information, we can infer that users spend a great deal of time on their phones and rely on them to get their information or search the web more so than other devices. With this in mind, it is safe to assume that a good portion of my potential viewers could find my website while browsing on their phones, especially because my content and theme cater to more of a late teen – young adult audience. Based on my Google Analytics, the majority of visitors to my site are using a desktop, with only a few using a tablet. Nonetheless, it will be important for me to make my site more accessible to viewers using all platforms as I would like for everyone to be able to have a good user experience, and be able to view The Fashion Daily in all of its entirety.
Growing up, posting and social media in general always made me nervous. I specifically remember in Grade 8 when we had a presentation on social media and the presenter said something along the lines of, “I could find any of your past or present posts, snapchats, etc. What if I pulled some of them up now?” I was completely freaked out. I had nothing to hide in my digital footprint, but the idea of anyone being able to see my social media presence seemed really scary to me. It’s safe to say that I began to use social media much less after that presentation, and I actually boycotted Snapchat for almost two years! However, while it is still unnerving to never really know who is seeing your posts, snapchats, and whatnot, I did begin to get back into social media as I got older. While I’m still cautious of my online activity, I nowhere near as fearful and anxious about being present on social media as I once was, and I have become more willing to share parts of my life on these platforms. When I first joined this class, I was super excited to be able to have the opportunity to design my own website, but having a public domain was a bit daunting. On my social platforms like Instagram I am usually just sharing pictures of myself and the things that I get up too, not necessarily opinions, ideas, and knowledge that I would be sharing here on The Fashion Daily. When I am writing, I try to keep my posts as real and true to myself as possible. I use this platform as a personal self expression outlet for my love of fashion, and I try not to let the idea of this being a public domain affect or restrict the things I am wanting to share and explore.
I figured that my website probably wouldn’t reach a wide audience over the semester, and I honestly never intended for it to. My goal was really to design this website for myself. When I added Google Analytics to my site and could visually see how many visitors had been on the page, it was kind of nerve-wracking. The majority of users are friends and family members that I have shared my site with, but the number of visitors to my site tell me that a few strangers (maybe classmates as well) have stopped by too which was cool to find out. The first few times I checked my Google Analytics and saw that I had gained a few viewers I was a bit stunned and nervous at the idea of it like I mentioned above. Now however, I find it really cool and check my analytics quite frequently in hopes of finding that my site has gained more viewers/visitors!
I think a part of the reason why I no longer shy away from using social media and other platforms such as this website is because I realized that in this day and age, it is almost impossible not to leave any “digital breadcrumbs” behind, as Pod Academy would describe it (2016). Throughout this article, it describes how we both intentionally and unintentionally leave digital footprints or “bread crumbs” of ourselves in our everyday lives. Whether that’s sharing your location on your phones, searching something on Google, or even using debit or credit cards to complete our everyday transactions. Activities that we engage in daily gather information about us and our movements, and there is not much that we can do about it. With this in mind, the thing that we can control is how much of our lives we share online or how many “breadcrumbs” we leave behind. This realization allowed me to feel more powerful and in control of how I share my life online, and also helped put my anxiety of sharing my online self at ease. Nothing that I have posted or shared online is anything that I really need to worry about or feel the need to hide (except for maybe some embarrassing photos and videos I posted when I was 10!). I have always given thought to what I share online, and like one of the interviewers stated in the article in regards to the possibility of being watched by cameras through different technology devices we use, “ When I first heard about it, I got really nervous, I was like, “this is so ridiculous!” we’re being watched. But then as the days go by you just don’t notice it anymore and you just take it for granted that you’re being watched every single minute”( Philip et al, 2016). I don’t necessarily take it for granted that my every move is being watched, but I do just tend not to think about it. Doing so allows me to just continue living my life and focus on what is within my control, like being present and enjoying the moments in life that only my eyes are seeing; with no cameras.
Overall, The Fashion Daily is a larger “breadcrumb” that I am leaving behind in my digital trail, and I am proud to do so. This website is evidence of hard work and displays my love for fashion, which I am more than happy to talk about as well as share with the world. This week, I encourage you to reflect on the digital breadcrumbs you have left behind in your life so far. Think of instances where you are proud of something you have left behind in your digital footprint like a post for instance, and some moments you maybe wish you didn’t share. If you would like to read more on the idea of these “digital breadcrumbs” that I have been mentioning, you can check out the article here: http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/
I was at a social event for a club and we were put into teams of 4 for a game show. Out of the 3 people I was teamed with, I had only met 1 before during another event. As some of you know, I post on my Instagram stories whenever I have a new blog post up. I post a cute little picture and link my website, show the location of the restaurant, and add a little caption saying “check this out!” or something along those lines. It hadn’t been long since I posted, but the funniest thing was when the 1 girl I had met previously once before said “Oh Tara, I saw your blog on Icy Bar”. I’m not going to lie, it made me feel good. People actually saw what I posted and READ it. I wasn’t just posting and hoping people would view it, but I posted something and people READ it.
As I said, I post my newest blog posts on my Instagram stories (@tara.jacksonnn btw), and for the past month whenever I post, I get people liking my stories. Again, not lying, this makes me feel good. It makes me feel like people are supporting what I’m doing and actually like my work. THIS IS NOT BRAGGING AT ALL, BUT I have had so many people respond to my stories about how impressed they are with my website and how much work I put into it. They like my design, my comments, and even said they’ll check out the places I went to and that THEY would give me recommendations.
“Transmedia storytelling is a process. Elements of a fiction get dispersed across multiple media for the purpose of creating a coordinated entertainment experience” (Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com, 2013). As I am able to post pictures and link my website to my stories, it allows me to disperse my blog across different medias (Instagram and Facebook). This allows for access to an audience I never had before. Without these medias, I would be a singular blog with maybe around a total of 50 people who viewed my website and 40 of them being me.
I am grateful for the experience I have had with this website. Being able to legitimately create my own platform that I haven’t been afraid of. I can post whatever I want, whenever I want, and most of all, I don’t have to care what people think. Although I may get some unwanted comments (not yours mom!), I am able to filter out what I want and don’t want to create my own food-loving platform.
Reflecting on my site, my purpose is to create a safe and welcoming community. Therefore, to keep that statement I have come up with reasonable guidelines for users on my site to follow.
The list is as follows:
– Refrain from hateful/negative comments
– Consider appropriateness (my site is for all ages)
– To respect and support others
– Plagiarize of any work is not accepted
– If you want to borrow any content from KeptCollexion, you must ask for permission and acknowledge the original author.
– Don’t forget to share this space with your friends and grow the KeptCollexion community.
I think that the guidelines mentioned above are necessary as it moves the direction in where I want my site to go and how I want users to interact with each other.
We all know that the internet can be a dark place. In “The Psychology of Online Comments,” it stated that many users on the internet post anonymously and freely (Konnikova, M. 2013). This gives freedom to anyone to say anything online which can cause harm in some cases like online bullying. But it also stated that removing comments doesn’t really create a solution towards anything as it affects the way how people can connect, and takes away the motivation to build a community (Konnikova, M. 2013). Like how the article mentioned removing comments, I still want my audience to speak freely and share their thoughts as it drives engagement. Although, with that privilege comes limitations. I want KeptCollexion to provide a safe and positive space for users to share things they love, and I plan to keep it that way.
I plan to implement such actions by adding a small section on my site displaying the guidelines or publishing the text beneath my “about me” paragraph.
– Eliza (aka Peanut)
Reference:
Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The psychology of online comments. The New Yorker. Retrieved March 31, 2023, from
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-psychology-of-online-comments
Today I was getting frustrated with the lack of accessibility that I had with customizing my website’s appearance. There was no way I could edit the colours of some parts of my website, so I decided to use ChatGBT to help with the CSS code to edit the appearance.
It took some playing around with but eventually, this made it possible for me to edit the colour and the opacity of my menu colour:
This was so useful and helpful, and I will definitely use it more to play around with the appearance of my blog so that I can have exactly what I want even with the limitations that the themes place.
