If someone looked at all the sites I update, I am pretty sure they would think I do it as a job. Because, I don’t think any sane person would spend this much time online, if they weren’t getting paid for doing so. :S
I think it is one of these things where you do it because you enjoy it. I mean, I have already talked about people who blog for money, realise it isn’t as easy as they thought, and they give up. A big thing on the internet, is that for you to be deemed ‘successful’ you need to have a lot of people following you on various sites. I am one of the ‘old school’ internet users, where to get any access I had to go to my local library, so any time I had online I spent constructively. When I say that, I mean, I was productive on sites, rather than playing follow the leader. Mostly because I didn’t know when I’d next have an internet connection, so I ended up putting in content and that’s it.
The thing is, I started using the internet properly, when I got my own connection (about 4 years ago), and I found myself going on more sites. And I kept up the same ideal as always, and I would spend time on sites updating various things, and trying to communicate to others, who had similar interests to me. The only issue is, that now I have got A LOT of sites which I need to update regular, and if I don’t it takes me a LONG TIME to catch up. The main culprits for stacking up of work are deviantArt and YouTube. I love them both, which is why I spend so much time on them, but sometimes I take a few days away and my inbox is filled to the brim, and I get annoyed with how much I have to catch up on.
I hear you now, with your ‘why do you do it then, it’s not like they pay you’. -.- This is where I say, these sites are my hobbies. I like viewing other people’s creative output, and think that it is THE best thing about the internet. So, although I may moan, I love that I can chat to people, and they respect my opinion. That is the most wonderful feeling in the world, that someone respects what you think.
I am in the midst of reading a book called The World Is Flat, by journalist Thomas L Friedman. It is a book on how globalisation has flattened the world as we know it.
I know that, as an initial concept, most people think, but the world is round, Christopher Columbus was wrong. But I am not talking about how the world is geographically shaped. I am talking about how people and businesses can work freely, on a levelled out playing field. This does seem rather bizarre at first thoughts, because every country operates individually, no matter where it is in the world. Before the days of high speed internet connections and outsourcing, this maybe was true, but not so any more.
Internet connections meant that people could communicate with anyone, no matter where they are. Send someone an email, and within 5 seconds they have received it. To understand how this happened, you need to know more about the history of the internet, something which I may cover at a later date, but not right now. Billions of pounds was spent on running cabling from country to country, so that the world became interconnect, hence it being dubbed the World Wide Web. This connected people together from all corners of the world. You can be sitting in your house in Glasgow, and playing Call of Duty through your X Box with someone in Australia. It is crazy, when you think how easy it is to now contact people. Especially when we think of the little bubble of communication people had before the internet. Before it was free to talk to people all over the world and share ideas. People began to learn how others lived, and realised that maybe people weren’t all that different.
As well as allowing people to become closer to others, the internet also became a major assets to companies. Initially, in the early days of the internet, companies were able to put several computers and offices on networks, where they could easily transfer information from one place to another. It was more cost effective than physically sending the information to the required person, and it was easy to manage. As the internet became more wide-spread, more commercial, more global, rather than just communicate between offices, companies were able to communicate with people in other countries in the same way. This lead to countries like India and China being used to complete work for Western companies, for a cheaper rate than what would be paid in their home country. Everything from manufacturing to remedial accounting was outsourced. Whilst there has been a lot of negativity about outsourcing, in that it is giving away work to other countries, etc., it is not entirely negative. When a British company opens up a 24 hour customer service line, it may be a financial struggle, due to the fact that UK based workers would require extra pay for working ‘unsociable hours’. So by getting in contact with an international outsource agency, in say Bangalore, they can hire workers to work these ‘unsociable hours’ without costing too much money. This saving allows the company to expand in other areas, and focus it’s local workers on more taxing tasks, where the people abroad get the remedial work. To a company, that means they can get more out of their staff, and get their money to work for them more.
It also has educated people in countries where outsourcing is popular, so that they can start working for themselves. So it actually becomes beneficial for their country. And in manufacturing, where US and European companies send products to be made in China, the Chinese learn how to successfully manufacture, and can then do it themselves. They can then create their own companies, which can compete with their Western counterparts.
It is giving more people the same opportunities. It is levelling out the world. No longer is the West were the power is, where the best manufacturing is. At the moment countries like America and the UK are the designers, soon, very soon, it will be China and India doing the designing, and what will we do then. I don’t know if the Western world is ready for such a shift in power.
As I sat in front of my TV watching the tenth documentary show this week (yes, I keep count), I had a think about the purpose of media in society. As much as we use various types of media on a daily basis, not much thought is put into it’s actual purpose.
Most of the forms of media that we use regular (television, radio, internet, newspapers, etc) were originally created to be a way of telling people information. It was to educate people about things like news-worthy events, or to get messages to other people. But somewhere along the line, media became less about communicating messages, and more about entertaining the masses. The dictionary definition of media is-
‘The storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data. It is often referred to as synonymous with mass media or news media, but may refer to a single medium used to communicate any data for any purpose’
It is a way of communicating which comes from cave paintings created by cavemen. And postal services started from as early as 500BC, and became a crucial way of communications in the Persian and Roman Empires.
Times have changed, but still people feel the need to communicate to one another, now with the help of technology it is easier than ever. Rather than send a letter to loved ones and wait weeks for it to arrive, you can send them an email or call them on the other side of the world in seconds. These advances have mostly come within the last 50 years, and the world is better for it. When a news breaks, it would sometimes take days to get to all corners of the world. Now, within 30 minutes, newsrooms all over the world can be reporting on the same story. The rolling news networks (Sky News, Fox News, BBC News 24) are probably the best examples of media in it’s current form. No matter what time of day, news is constantly being reported, and it never stops. There is always something happening somewhere, and media helps a normal person see what is happening outside the borders to their country. Media doesn’t stop anymore. Rather than waiting to buy your newspaper in the morning to get updated in current affairs, you can flick onto a TV channel or switch on a computer. Everything is online. And online services really can be updated at any time of the day. Everything is posted as it happens.
And whilst you would think this would empower people as they have a wider scope of knowlege in front of them, it doesn’t. Rolling news hasn’t had the effect one would think. People are constantly feeling the need to switch off from their lives, and now use media to escape. If they have worked hard, they don’t want to be ‘snowed under’ with the rest of the world’s problems. So rather than watch the news or documentaries, many more watch TV talent shows or play computer games.
And working for a media company, I feel I notice this more. You can see the things that people want to spend their money on, and it isn’t news or documentaries, it’s movies and sport. The leading methods of escapism. Something where you can shift your focus away from what seems ordinary, and fixate your attention on something else. As nice as it is that people around the world can see whether Manchester United or Chelsea win the Premiership trophy, I find it unsettling that people would rather watch that, than be educated. I touched on education a few days ago, and I feel that is the most important resource we have. To learn how things work, and what happened on this earth before us. To learn how countries were formed and fought for. To me, that is exciting, that is what media is about. It is about being educated, not just in formal documentary format, but to educate on how others around the world live. Is that not the biggest selling point of the World Wide Web, that it connects the world and shows how other people live?
Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe the purpose of the media is to give deluded writers a forum to express their mislead views and opinions? I don’t know really. I like to think that all this technology has a higher worth than football and computer games. But, I guess that’s me. That is what I want to take from the media that surrounds me. Not everyone is like that.
This is something that doesn’t happen very often. The worlds of Vlog and Blog unite and kind of cross-reference each other. Yes, I shot a video a few days ago about people writing in ‘text speak’ and due to me just editing said video, I decided it is too important a topic for me not to mention it here.
I do talk about writing a lot, because it is something I am really passionate about, and I feel that everyone should make effort in the way that they present what they say, because it says so much about you. As I talk about this with other people, I do discover that this is just personal opinion, and most people don’t seem to care what a person thinks of them, because of their writing ‘style’. But, maybe because I spend a lot of my time writing, I do tend to look between the lines a little. Sorry for the pun.
The thing is, if you know how to write properly, and can at least attempt to spell words right, why on earth would you purposefully write badly? Is it because it is some new young thing, that I have missed out on? I think it is. It started of with text messages. Where you could only fit so many characters into a message, so people started shortening words. The easiest way to shorten words, with them still being semi-legible, is to remove vowels. Which irritated me then, and it was not a thing I did. As more and more people started to use the internet to do things, this manner of miss-spelling found its way onto other platforms. And on these other platforms, more people can see how you write in private. Well, except it isn’t really in private anymore. This is where the people pre-Facebook and people post-Facebook tend to differ. Before Social Networking took over the internet, the main sites used by people, where blog sites and forums. Now, on theses sites, a person had to be able to express themselves properly, because most were there to share opinions, and get to know people. When Social Networking came along, particularly Facebook, it changed things. People came online to talk to people they would have texted. People that they already knew. So the mentality of text messaging moved online.
I know I said that the main reason for typing in ‘text speak’ was to make messages shorter, but ease was also a big factor. Why type in 6 letters, when you can type in 3? That is laziness. This is the generation of people who have to work so much harder to get a job. How can they be expected to work well, if they can’t even muster up the energy to type up a work on their keyboard. And then, you discover that it isn’t just on computers and phones ‘text speak’ is used, and that kids are handing in school reports in this poor state.
I think kids like wasting their education and making themselves look stupid because they have no pride in education. To them, it is something they are forced to go to everyday. Although most of them will go onto some form of higher education, they won’t take pride in what they are learning, and they think of it as some kind of chore. But in some countries, countries which are stricken with the harshest poverty we can imagine, education is a gift. Education is not everything every child gets, so those who do get it are so proud. Education to means everything to some children in Africa, who may walk for 3 hours to get to school. Just so that they can learn how to read and write, to earn money to help their family. How many UK kids would do that. Those who do have pride in their education, are often bullied by the stupid masses.
Seems harsh, but it’s true. I guess, a lot of people won’t realise what they had, until it’s gone. I know I didn’t. I probably didn’t study and work as hard as I should have. But writing is one thing that I have always enjoyed, be it writing an essay or reading a book. To me, I always felt that having good writing ability equalled intelligence. I know now, that other things make a person intelligent, but proper grammar is still considered a desirable quality. It was always said that a person’s shoes, show a lot about them. Well, I feel that the way a person writes, says a lot about them, A lot more than the words that they have written.
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I know that I am not the perfect writer. That is not the point I am making, the point is about the lack of effort people make. And yes, I do feel that if you don’t make any effort with writing, you are dubbing yourself an idiot. It is better getting spelling and grammar wrong, but trying, rather than not trying at all.
I have been recently trying to find some new blogs to read. Since blogging is one of my favourite pastimes, I like to draw inspiration from them. Like, you can get ideas of how to make a blog interesting and keep things going. But, I am finding that there is becoming more crap to filter through before I can find anything worthy of adding to any RSS feed.
What it is, I think, is that some of the most visited sites on the internet are based on a blog-like layout. Where page design is simple, things are posted on a regular basis, and people can read through entries and things. This is good, if you have something valid to say. The most popular blogs on the internet have something to do with fashion, technical news or celebrities. And I am going to be harsh and go through each one, and say why most blogs on those topics are rubbish.
Tech blogs
Tech blogs are a bit hit and miss with me. It’s ok, if someone is showing their thoughts and reviews on a particular web browser release or something, but most of the time, people repost articles and review what is said in the article. That doesn’t really make your blog focus on technical topics, it is more like you are critiquing pieces of writing you found on the internet. People know that by posting and mentioning popular websites, they will get some ‘side-traffic’. Visitors that search for information of that particular site your post mentions. If that makes sense. So, in short, a lot of tech blogs don’t post about actual tech news written by themselves.
Fashion Blogs
One person becomes a professional writer through her own fashion blog, and I swear THOUSANDS of ‘fashionistas’ think they can do the same. -.- Whilst it is undeniable there are really good fashion blogs out there, but some are just a bit dull. Why show the same fashion that every magazine and every other fashion site blabbers about. I mean, playsuits make most women look horrendous, and they really don’t need to be the colour of my gran’s curtians. But, every single fashion site features them, because suddenly every woman should want to look frumpy. Who knew? People who can talk about fashion well, are people who stay away from the catwalk, and use their blog to highlight some little Etsy shop they like. They look for inspiration outwith the magazines found on the newstands. But again, like tech bloggers, a lot of people just copy pictures from some other site, and just re-word someone else’s opinions.
Celebrity Blog
Ever since Perez Hilton started a Blogger account to report any kind of celebrity gossip going, mere mortals have tried to follow suit. Unfortunately, mere mortals don’t know famous people, and a part from meeting some local footballer, there isn’t much reliable gossip. So again, this is another topic which relies on other sources. Yeah, you might find a certain ‘fanbase’ by blabbering about Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers, but most of the time, it is stolen images and usually stolen words. Unless you actually have some contacts (an money), there is very little chance of you getting any story first. And with gossip, it’s who bursts the bubble, who gets the attention.
So, there is my thoughts. The main reason people start up blogs in either topic of interest, is mostly because it looks easy money. I mean, how hard can it be to post regular about something, and then you can get sponsorship and make money… Actually, no! No matter how popular blogging becomes, you need an average of 1k views A DAY to even think about getting sponsored. So if it is money you are looking for, go an look for something else to spend your time on. If however, you are passionate about what you talk about, it will show. You will get comments that will mean a lot to you, and you feel honoured if just one person reads what you have to say. Copying information from elsewhere will never make a good blog, no matter how much you try to disguise it. And following popular topics will also not make you popular. Remember, those topics are only so popular because some writers have put a lot of time and effort perfecting their own craft. Maybe rather than copying their ideas, you should work on your own.
Ever seen something that seems to hit a relevance somewhere beyond it’s intended target audience? It happens frequently with cartoons, comics and computer games. And what ever it is, takes on a life of it’s own, and gets a following so much better than the original product itself.
Well, anyone paying attention to anything I have posted within the last few months on the various sites I frequent, would have picked up mentions of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. A cartoon series aimed at young girls, produced by American Kid TV channel The Hub. Which is getting attention from adult males, so much so that they call themselves ‘Bronies’.
Lauren Faust, who worked on The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, was signed up by Hasbro, for their new reincarnation of My Little Pony, after they saw her fan art on Deviant Art. After almost 2 years in production, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was launched on The Hub, and the rest they say is history.
The story is, that Unicorn pony, Twilight Sparkle and her helpful assistant, baby dragon Spike, are sent from Canterlot down to Ponyville by Princess Celestia, Twilight’s mentor. Twilight is sent to discover friendship, as she is a bit of a bookworm and needs to learn that ‘life isn’t all in books’. Whilst in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle befriends 5 new ponies.
Hardworking Applejack, an earth pony who works in Sweet Apple Acres, growing and harvesting apples.
Playful Pinkie Pie, another earth pony, who is little Miss party planner, and is always bouncy and full of fun.
Tomboy Rainbow Dash, who is a show off pegasus pony, who is a skilled flier and aims to be a member of the Flying Team the Lightning Bolts.
Vain Rarity, a unicorn who prides herself as the premier clothes designer in Ponyville. She is an old fashioned type of girl, who is looking for prince charming.
Gentle Fluttershy, is always caring about the animals in and around Ponyville. She is a really quiet pegasus pony.
The series documents the adventures of the 6 ponies, and what Twilight Sparkle learns, is fed back to Princess Celestia at the end of each episode. This sounds a bit flat, but the stories and can be really funny without resorting to toilet humour, like most kids shows these days.
The main interest in the series in a meme sense, came from 4Chan, an image board. One user posted a video of the show, and people started to watch and the crazy started and the show quickly became one of the fastest, most popular Memes on the internet. With screen shots, animated GIFs and fan art quickly becoming extremely popular. The makers of the show, including Lauren Faust, are aware of their unintended audience, and have approached the Bronies. With people on the show posting on the /co/ (comics & cartoons) forum on 4Chan, and thanking the people there for their part in making the show such a success.
Without the Bronies and 4chan, the series would have not been as successful as it has been, and it would be questionable if the series would have continued. In fact the first season was split, because there was a chance not all the episodes would air. But the internet, gave the series a life of it’s own, and it became more and more popular.
On Saturday, The Hub showed the last episode of series 1, which coincided with a statement from Lauren Faust, saying that she is stepping down as executive producer. People were shocked, but with the mid-season split because of uncertainty, you can see that the show was maybe only planned to run 1 season. So because there is a season 2, changes had to be made. With season 2 in development (expected to air in December), and the fandom going from strength to strength, this is a meme which isn’t going anywhere.
Why are blogging sites only used when people ‘remodel their website’?
Now obviously, this is not the case for most people who spend time learning how to blog and actually get something out of doing so. This goes to the people who use blog sites for nothing more as a stop-gap, till they get their new website up. Now, there actually isn’t really wrong with this, but as someone who considers herself a blogger, I find it insulting.
Why should I feel insulted? Because it feels like the person doing so, doesn’t care enough to write a proper blog. They don’t think of a site, such as Blogger or LiveJournal, as anymore as a temporary space. But why? Why use a blog site when you obviously have no idea of how to actually use one? Its because it is free, because it is worthless. And that is what it comes across as, like you don’t care.
What will a client think, when they see that the only time you updated your ‘blog’ was that one post when you opened the account, and a new one saying that you are going to use it now whilst re-designing. Of course, you need the mandatory 5 posts a day, to make the blog look active, and pretend you actually use the thing. But after a few days you’ll get bored, and you won’t even share a sentence, never mind a few of your thoughts.
And if you can’t even update something that costs you nothing, what’s saying you’ll deliver on something you are paid to do? You obviously aren’t as passionate about the internet as you so claim, are you? That’s what a client will think.
If you do use a blog, or even think you are going to use it for anything to do with business, then update it. Even if you are going to do it once a week. It is something. And shows you have long term interest in things, that you don’t get distracted. Also, don’t underestimate the power of opinion. If you wax lyrical about a particular topic, and are passionate, people will listen. The thoughts in your head are what will REALLY sell you, not some pixels shaped into a website. If you can convey those thoughts well, people will approach you for work. Trust me. That’s how I get a lot of work.
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Felt like writing this after seeing 6 people I know doing this in one day. I think highly of blogging, so got a bit upset. :S
Do you ever stumble upon a new website, and you just end up spending all your time on it?
*puts hand up*
I have. I have came across VYou this week, and I have been playing around on the site all week. The concept of the site, is that it’s a little like FormSpring, where you answer questions that other people ask you. The difference is that on VYou, the answers you give are short videos. It is a new site, and from what I understand it is still in Beta format, so there are still improvements to go. It is one thing to bare in mind when you use any new sites, go in there with the knowlege that there may still be some niggles around.
But to be honest, after playing around on the site solidly for the last few days, I can say that it seems pretty flawless for me. But saying that I have only answered a few questions, myself. It seems a lot of people have been introduced to the site by watching various Youtubers, I for instance, heard of it mentioned by Alex Day (Nerimon) and then saw other people who I follow on YouTube (Hank and John Green & Wheezy Waiter) so I watched a few of their responses, and decided to start my own account.
The ideas is that people ask a question in the comment box below the video, and if the user has already recorded the answer, you get played that video. If there isn’t an answer, the question gets sent to the user, so they can film a response.
Its pretty simple, and should stop the same answers coming up again and again (something formspring doesn’t have). When you start watching other peoples replies and start filming your own, it is easy to start using the site a lot. There is no nastiness, and it seems to be bring about the community feeling that has been lacking in a lot of social networking sites recently.
So check it out, you don’t even need to have an account to view answers or start asking questions, but it’s a lot more fun when you do sign up. Head over to VYou now, and check it out.
I am slightly biased when it comes to Firefox, as have been an avid user for years. This latest release, has the browser going into Chrome territory, with a very minimalist look. But where Mozilla has it right, is where within 30 seconds, a user can locate how to add that menu bar to the top of their page. Also, Firefox is known for the thousands of add-ons that can be used on the browser. Everything from news-tickers to colour-pickers. Also Firefox is still customisable, with the user being able to select a skin for their browser, again with thousands to choose from. This new version is taking Firefox back into the forefront of the browser-battles. It runs a lot smoother and faster than previous versions.
Chrome, like Firefox, is very fast. But it loses out when it struggles on sites which contain video, it becomes very glitchy, and this can happen when the browser deals with anything Flash. I feel that Chrome is over-simple, where there are no options to add a basic menu bar, which is handy when you have to appeal to people like my parents. Maybe there are options, but after half an hour of playing around, I can’t get the standard menu bar. It seems like Chrome is shunning the older web community, who may look for the familiarity of that File, Options, etc all at the top. Even IE has that. You can be as fast as you want, but usability should always be number 1 priority.
Opera, used to be on my Nokia mobile, which I think is where it is strongest, on mobile platforms. It brings everything up ok, but lags slightly behind Chrome and Firefox in regards of speed. The layout of Opera 11, is very similar to that of the new Firefox. It is clean, but not too basic, and you can easily add more options to the menu if needed.
Safari is different from the other browsers, in that the standard browser comes with a toolbar up and ready to go, with the user being able to easily further streamline the browser, or add basics, like the menu bar. The one thing I do want to mention about Safari is that when you open up a new tab in the browser, a selection of most popular sites visited pops up. It makes it easy to find certain websites, which I feel is a nice touch. It runs slightly slower than Opera, but people familiar with Apple software, will find comfort in the stylings of the browser.
And IE. Poor IE. I am running IE 8, because I don’t have the newest version of Vista or Windows 7, so I can’t download the RC for IE9. I don’t know if having the newer version would make any difference, but I hope it would. IE took several minutes to load, before it shut down. On second attempt it did start up ok, but was very slow compared to the other browsers. As basic as IE comes, it is very easy to add, or take away toolbars and menus as you require them.
But one thing to be said, is that all browsers are beginning to look the same. This is mostly due to the high success of Chrome and it’s simplistic layout. I know that I seem to have focused on finding the menu bar a lot, the reason is because I know older people (like my parents) who rely on that toolbar, because it is there in whatever software they are using. So when it is taken away (Chrome) they do get a little lost. And I know that is why they stick to IE, because they know their way around it.
sueriot.com 