Tag: internet

Initial Aspirations

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

When I started this blog, I had many ideas and thoughts of what I would use it for. It would be a creative blog, where I would post images of what I had made, and use it as a promotional tour for my business. In retrospect, I think I aimed a little high.

Firstly because being at college, and struggling through a few years of forced creativity, has lead to me going from one artistic mental block, to another. Secondly, I just am far too scatter brained to make my blog about one thing. I maybe should organise it better, but nothing in my life is very organised, so it maybe wouldn’t reflect ME if it wasn’t a bit of a mess. Some excuse, right?

I have always been an over thinker. A person who seeks importance in the most stupid and trivial things. My interests in things can get intense, but will also suddenly wane after a short period of time. I want to express my love and experience so many different things, that I always find myself looking for ‘something else’. Whilst some things such as favourite bands, movies and books will stay with me, I can’t exclusively care about a favourite thing. I think that liking new things can be a challenge, a challenge that should be welcomed.

Because I try to be interested in so many different things, I find that what I want to talk about changes every day. One day I will want to talk about Benji Madden sneaking into Scotland without my knowledge, the next day I’ll be talking about some political land mine. Whilst this leads to me being very sporadic, I like the idea that I have a place to express my thoughts in a accessible manner.

So whilst my initial plans for this blog haven’t come true, I still am happy with it. I have made this blog my online ‘home’ for the last few years, and I have become very attached to it. I find that WordPress is a great blog host, and find that is the best managed blogging site on the net. Trust me, I have tried almost every blogging site going. I like everything from the multiple platforms you can blog from, to the twitter feed. I think that the simplicity of using the service, has been crucial for me staying here for so long.

I guess I am feeling very retrospective. Whilst the majority of people I know say I waste my time writing a blog, I will always scoff in their faces. If a person has the freedom to express themselves without fear, no matter how they do it, they will never waste their time.

Check Your Sources

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

In a world where news is dominated by what is on the news overview onGoogleand the trending topics on Twitter, it is becoming harder for more traditional news outlets to remain relevant. Do people have to pay for what they want, or is free news part of a person’s rights?

I have just watched Page One: Inside The New York Times, which as someone with an interest in media and it’s progression, was something that I have been meaning to watch since it came out last year. It shows a ‘behind-the-scenes’ look at one of the world’s most established and popular Newspapers. It was not what I expected. It showed that the Journalistic giant had made mistakes, and that it was struggling in the world of modern day media. But for a printed paper, created in 1851, the fact that this publication can still sell over 2,000,000 copies in a day, is phenomenal, no matter how you look at it.

The one thing that was highlighted in the documentary, was how the drop in advertising revenue, and the reader’s want to get free news, was damaging the paper. It is said, that papers who print, lose money with every copy of a paper that they publish, as the cost of the paper needs to be affordable, for people to buy it on a daily basis. In the past, this loss was covered by the money that advertisers paid to be included in publications. As the Internet has become stronger over the last 10-15 years, companies began to start up their own websites for promotion, which was cheaper and began to lean less and less on the traditional printed media. In a world, where profit margins are becoming thinner and thinner, you can see why companies would follow the path of self-promotion.

This caused a problem for newspapers, like the New York Times, which found that their main source of revenue was disappearing. It meant that changes needed to happen, and the paper and it’s journalists would need to be more interactive with it’s audience to try and stay relevant. This involved an introduction of a website where journalists could record corresponding videos with their articles. Readers were invited to comment, and share their views, and the company began to catch up with it’s competitors in other media, such as TV. This way of publishing stories helps newspapers get a broader, even worldwide audience. Whilst this seems like a more affordable way to spread the news, but there was still a big gap in revenue, due to advertising loss. This is where the site installed a ‘paywall’, which would ask heavy users to pay a fee to continue using the site. This model has proved very successful for many online services. And has helped plug the gap in revenues, created by the drop of advertising.

And that is what a lot of people have a problem with. Why pay for something when you can Google the news for free. Google is a site, which like the way newspapers used to operate, is funded mostly by advertising revenue. The issue with advertising revenue, is it gives the reader the belief that they are viewing something that is free. Accept, it isn’t really free. Google gets paid by how many people use the service, as advertisers will pay accordingly to feature under certain searches. When up to the ‘top 10’ of results you get on google, have paid for that high ranking, you begin look further into what you’re using. That every click that you make on a google site, is collated and sold to marketing companies. You then begin to wonder, are sites like Google really free?

Another problem with the internet, is that the source is not as important as it used to be. You search for a news topic online, and will click on the one with the snappiest headline. More often than not, the photos and story may come from a single source, a source which be mentioned somewhere at the bottom of the article, if you’re lucky. And this mixed nature of ‘search engine news’, means that all sources and all work just becomes a big muddle. Where as in print, you can sometimes say, ‘I’ll read the Daily Star, because I want to read nonsense’. Or the Independent for more serious news. That definition between different publications isn’t so relevant when you Google search, and just pick one out of hundreds of results. It’s like written journalism is losing its definition.

Where this causes a problem, that whilst the bigger publications like the New York Times and The Independent can sent journalists to specific areas to cover important stories, smaller, less serious publications can’t. This means, that you can get ‘piggy-back reporting’, where smaller outlets will rehash another publications story. They report news and events, without any first hand coverage. This leads to second hand stories, which can lead to inconclusive reports and no checked sources. The only way that true, first rate articles can continue to be published, is if people start to pay attention and pay for what they read.

Because when all the newspapers go under, a loss in advertising for Google, could send them down the pay route that News outlets are currently used for. Nothing in life is free, especially not the Internet.

So check your sources, and help them, or they will stop being reliable.

Hating the Beautiful?

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday an uproar was caused by yet another Daily Mail article. This time, 41 year old, Samantha Brick, complains the trials and tribulations about being beautiful. She claims other women hate her because of it, but she gets what ever she wants and people should be happy for her. That is a pretty vague idea, but to read the article, just employ Google to search for the article in question.

Now I do not think for a second that Ms Brick is a bad person, just a little shallow. She has today posted an article where she doesn’t understand why people are hating her and calling her ugly. If you are going to write a couple hundred words on how pretty you are, then it doesn’t take much brain power that people will call you ugly. It is trolling on the Internet, it is what happens when people can hide anonymously and give out hate. To post opinions anywhere, you need to have a thick skin, because people will attack what you say. And the reaction given by Ms Brick, to say that she has been proven right, is not dealing with trolls, but feeding them.

People are annoyed because pretty people can flirt their way through anything, it seems. And that is the picture Ms Brick paints of herself. She gets free meals, free drinks, free everything, something that if she was just getting on with her day, wouldn’t happen. To anyone. But she flirts her way through life, where others have to work to get what they want. People who pay for every drink, are nice to everyone but get nowhere. In walks a long legged blonde, who whispers in the bosses ear and gets a promotion. THAT is the world most women live in. That is why people can’t feel sorry for Ms Brick. I mean, no paper would publish a story by a banker who says he has too much money would they? It would cause a riot because so many people live month to month on nothing.

As a girl who has worked extremely hard for everything I have, it does grate on me when people moan about getting things for free. And more people are in the same situation than me, than are in one as Ms Brick. Which is why people feel the need to lash out, for making it seem that hard working normality is wrong. It puts woman’s rights back several decades, when someone gets treated like she’s special, just because of a pretty face. And because of all this, I am not surprised that Ms Brick gets met with hostility.

There are plenty of people like Ms Brick, and they aren’t bad people. The bad people are the ones who allowed the story go to press. The headline chasing Daily Mail does this a lot. Uses writers to whip up a storm, and provide cheap promotion. She is just a tool, something that the mail will throw to the side once the drama dies down. The have got an article and a front page story out of the self centred rambling, which would have a better place in a private blog. The Daily Mail KNEW Ms Brick would be lynched for what she wrote, and they published it anyway. The Daily Mail is a worse publication than the Daily Star. At least the Star is knowingly filled with rubbish, the Mail seems to be sensationalist rubbish, pretending to be a proper paper.

I hope Ms Brick realises she was set up, and gains some perspective on what has happened. She will lose her looks, but her bad attitude will stay.

Shouting Out To Echoes

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

It doesn’t take much delving into my online life, to realise that I use the internet and social media a lot. I put a lot of ‘myself’ out there for people to see. Whilst this may be an over-exaggeration of some of my qualities, it is not as true to myself as it is sometimes made out.

I like to have a level of privacy about my life, despite the fact that I share it online, via various services. I have things that I have no problems with sharing because it is mostly just whining about something of no real importance. But, sometimes I think about it, and I am not really sharing. Whilst some of the input garners a reaction from maybe 2 or 3 readers, the majority of people who see what I read, just ignore it. And, it makes me wonder why I do focus on making input on a regular basis, if it is just to be ignored. If I post something big an emotional, and instead of the help I crave, the only vision I have is of tumbleweed blowing across the webpage. I think that is why I don’t post too much truthful aspects of my life, because I am not like that. Ironically I am quite introverted in nature, and have always been really shy. So the idea that some stranger knows the inner workings of my mind, kind of freaks me out.

I suppose, as much as I do things like blogging as a form of expression for myself, there is always the need for it to connect with someone. To get a response from someone who feels in  the same situation as I am in. It is not something that happens very often. But when it does happen, when I get a comment or email for someone who agrees with what I say, it feels great. It feels that my tendency for over-sharing has some kind of purpose. And it means a lot, that someone could not only be bothered to read the trash I write about, but they bothered enough to comment.

I guess, no matter how much I pretend this is ‘just for me’, it is always nice to feel get a shout back from the abyss of the internet.

All Change?

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Changing your website seems to be something which is rather fashionable right now. Every website or internet based product I use seems to be doing an end-of-year update. Whilst, this is something I know is important, to keep sites feeling fresh, I just seem to see it happening a lot right now.

Maybe it is just the services I use. It’s not like the service provided by these sites are changing, just how I find things. It involves a change of habit, and those aren’t always so easy to change. I think that people’s negative opinion of change stems from the fact that people in general, are afraid of change. So, in defence, any change is met with an over-bearing sense of hostility, as if acting in such a way will get rid of the change that is threatening them.

Which as noble as your anger is, it doesn’t make the slightest difference, as change is going to happen. It is a hard fact of life that nothing will stay static forever. So the quicker you can accept change, the happier you will be. I mean, there is enough stresses in modern-day existence without creating more stress over nothing. I mean if YouTube stopped you from viewing and uploading videos, then fine, but they haven’t. Just changed the layout. Yes you have to learn new paths to get what you want, but the stuff you want and need is still there. So no need to be angry and vengeful against the site’s creators for trying to make things a bit different. Change happens to us all, so try not be so untrusting of it.
Listening to- Miss America by The Fates (watch the video below)

PS- Umm… the snow at the bar at the top is playing with my eyes. So strange.

An Online Life?

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Coming under the realisation that everything from watching TV to keeping a note what book I am reading is done online, I am trying to think if I am spending too much time online.  I guess the realisation was part of watching this video on youtube.

It is from 2009, so the issue with over saturation may be worse. In fact, the people who I know, who now use sites like Facebook, have increased since 2009.  OK, a lot of people don’t seem to use these websites that much, and use them as another way to contact friends and relatives. And there is nothing wrong with that. The services that are used, tend to be free, and are so much more appealing than paying a phone call or meeting up, where you need to buy food, coffee, etc. But the issue is, which is what is covered on many avenues both online and off it, that we get so much more information from people that we may not be of particular interest anymore.

It makes it harder to decipher what is important, so that we should care about it, and what should we be ignoring. Everything from estranged school friend’s photos from a night out and alerts about browser games to heart felt messages from a friend in need. They are all posted with the same level of importance. And with the high volume of information, would a person look into their Facebook timeline enough to get the information to help their friend?

Probably not. We just blend all the nonsense into one thing, and if it isn’t at the top of the page, we just don’t see things. So, there is truth in what the video above states about our attention span. But the one thing I do disagree with, is the dislike of reading which is lengthier than the average status update. Maybe it’s because I fell in love with the internet, through using forums and blogging sites. And that is still what I do. *shrugs* So I guess, I am part of the exception.

I use social networking A LOT. Seriously, think I am kidding, follow me on twitter. I like the fact that I have different things on different sites. A lot of things get shared on Facebook. But that is easy, because Facebook is very good at linking together with other sites, such as YouTube, GetGlue and well, WordPress. So it adds more personality, in that it shows my blog posts and what videos I like, but it is, ironically, less personal. I don’t have to access Facebook to post things, and a lot of the time, I don’t go near the place.

But then you have Smartphones, with access to all the social networks.  It makes it even easier to tweet what is on your head, and use FourSquare to show where you are. It sounds strange to most people, but to some it is great to meet people. Why? When in Blackpool over the summer, I went into a bar and checked in using FourSquare. FourSquare posted through Twitter, that I was at such and such pub. And the next thing I knew, Tanny, a girl who saw my tweet, came and introduced herself, and said that she, like me, was alone in this pub as her friends were passed out at her hotel. We had a drink, went for food. I made a friend.

Yes social networking gets bad press, but used well it can bring people together. It goes beyond function, and becomes magical. My relationship with the internet, is as well rooted as my relationship with music, which is the love of my life.

So Much Work…

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

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.

It’s ok. I know I am strange.

‘Your opinion is wrong.’

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Is the reaction I got from the previous post I did on here. *sigh*

It is opinion, someone’s thoughts an ideas on a situation, which they put into the wilderness to invoke discussion. Yes, discussion, a too-ing an fro-ing of thoughts on the topic in question.  And an important part of discussion, that whilst you should have your beliefs, you also need to accept the other persons opinion and be respectful.

I had 6 death threats, 4 accusations of being racist, and was told I was a member of the Taliban. This is from people I don’t know. Is this the punishment I get from expressing my opinion? It is hard trying to hold back retaliation, because then I would be a hypocrit. Also, I have always been honest when I have written on here, so I have no reason to change.

The fact that so many people wished me death for typing up words unsettles me more that the ‘Bin Laden death party’. Is this what the internet is becoming?  A place where the only safe thing to do is post tripe about ‘celebrities’ or hipster photos. Because if you actually say something of value, you will be opposed and actually regret sharing your thoughts. And that is not what the internet is, or not what it is to me anyway.

But what it does do, as it confirms what I have said before. To make people validate their righteousness, they vilify others. It is human nature that people beat others down, so that they seem better by comparison. It is bad enough that it happens over the internet, but the same behaviour continues in all human existence. I mean, that’s all war is, rather than sitting down and compromising, someone attacks someone else so they retaliate.  Yes, it is more extreme than internet hate, but the basic idea is the same. *shrugs*

I was trying to point out that there are similarities with parties at both sides of any war. But what people focus on, is the differences. And of course differences end up with conflictions of interest, and this ends up in disagreements which may lead to fighting. But if we look at the similarities, that people want freedom, they want to have healthy families, have a good life, there is little to conflict over. And any differences are just opinions, and they should be treated with grace and people should be allowed to live.

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”-Bertrand Russell

VYou: An introduction

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

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.

Posi-day 4: I Have A Creep

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

There is a girl, who has sent me 8 stalker-style emails in the last few days. And for some odd reason, instead of panicking, I kinda just thought ‘why’.

Isn’t having a creep something that happens to famous people? Or at least someone who has at least some kind of following through the interwebs. I, obviously, have none of that, so I just became very confused. As much as I would like to be able to convince myself that I do have some kind of infamy, but I don’t think it would be in the kind of area that would warrant creep followship. In fact, does anything warrant creep followship. Probably not, it is rather unnerving.

I don’t want to think that people are looking at my internet output, and trying to read some deep meaning into it. Which is happening, by The Creep. I mean, I may occasionally talk in depth about something that means a lot to me, but most of the time I ramble about stuff even my own mother doesn’t care about. Which is a lot. There is a HUGE interest gap between me and my mother.

This girl is from Osaka, Japan. She does write pretty good English, and I don’t really thing she means to bewilder me so much. I think I am also iffy about the whole situation, because I am on EVERY social network going, so I don’t understand why someone would send emails instead. *shrugs* The whole ‘wish I could be your IRL BFF’, did freak me out, but I’m trying to be flattered by it instead. Like, think of the positive aspects, and not automatically jump to the negative.

In all seriousness, Kaimi is a lovely girl, and she is so so nice. I feel privileged to have you as my ‘creeper’. ❤