The purpose of this blog (and more generally, this project) is to explore how “digitality”
(the digital, digital technologies, etc.) affect your field and/or chosen career. You will use
your blog as a public forum to discuss the affects of digitality on your field and/chosen
career. You will want to think carefully about the genre of blogging, what kind of
affordances this genre offers (in contrast with print media)—think about how blogging
allows you to link to other blogs and websites, how it provides options to post audio and
video, etc.; your audience (intended and unintended)—think about how you will elicit
an audience (how can you successfully do this on a blog?); the content you’ll focus on;
the tone and language you will use; the visual imagery you’ll integrate, etc.
With this project you’ll explore, observe, discuss, analyze, critique, and tackle the
emergence of new technology and digital composing spaces in connection to your
chosen field or career. How, if at all, should we utilize digitality, new technologies, and
digital composing spaces? You will need to draw on the course readings, personal
experiences, and further outside research to construct your blog.
Reflecting Back
I look back on this process of constructing and composing my very first blog with a sense of accomplishment. I started out this assignment with conflicting expectations. I spend a lot of time on the internet, definitely way more than I probably should, and therefore I was confident I would be able to figure out the technical side of the blogosphere. However, I was sincerely worried about whether or not my content would be applicable to the assignment, yet interesting enough to attract an audience. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to insert enough of my personal voice into my blog, while still relating the fashion industry to the digital revolution. Despite my reservations, I think my blog was able to do just that.
I believe that my blog is strong in its appearance and design. Tabs for constant pages such as "Home, About Me, Contact Me, Shopping Recommendations, and My Reflection," are easy to find and even easier to navigate. I think my Header and Side Panel effectively display a sense of my own personal style and aesthetic, which I believe to be important in a fashion blogger. However, I worked hard to incorporate fashions and trends that may not relate back to my personal closet, but could appeal to other members of my audience. My design includes a Social Networking Navigation bar at the very top of the page, that links readers to my personal social networking sites. From left to right there are links to my Google +, Polyvore, Shutterfly, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest accounts. I believe that adding this feature, along with my About Me page, is a strong attempt at letting the readers in and allowing them to feel that what they are reading is a real person, sharing their thoughts, opinions and ideas with the world, and not a robot or fraud behind the mask of the internet and computer screen. I think it's additions like these that differentiate a blog from any other kind of website, and brings blogs all the way back to where they started; for personal use.
I think my blog may seem intimidating to some readers. Not only is it very informational, but it is also very lengthy. I think my blog's biggest weakness is that each post may hold almost too much information. To some, this may sound silly; if the readers didn't want information on Fashion and Technology, why would they read my blog anyways? But, I feel that some members of my intended audience may not have even given my blog a chance, because they didn't want to devote the time and effort it may take to read and experience each lengthy posting my blog contains. While I love that the blog format allows me to share endless amounts of images, videos, and words with my readers, I feel as if my blog might have been even more successful if I had broken some of my posts into smaller, more specific topics. That way, if readers didn't feel they could devote their full attention to swinging by Wild World of Fashion, they could simply check out a video, or read a blurb and had time to take it in fully before moving on.
If I had more time to continue this blogging adventure, I would have added extra elements to my page. As is, along the right hand side of my blog you can find a search bar, allowing readers to search for specific posts instead of having to scroll through page by page. Underneath that, is my list of Followers, all nine of them!! I like this feature because it provides my blog with a sense of community, and allows readers of Wild World of Fashion to connect with one another, and possibly each other's blogs. The right hand panel also includes a blog archive for navigation, and a quick profile on myself. I would add to these features! I have tons of ideas floating around in my head, but my favorite would be a Swoon of the Moon feature. This section would be updated each night with a fashion or technology related product, from SHOES to house-ware to iPhone apps & even other blogs. This gadget would feature something I came across during my day and swooned so hard over that I thought other people might enjoy it too. Another gadget I have thought about creating would be called The Chic of Next Week. This section would feature an up and coming trend that I have noticed beginning to pop up online, across campus, or in pop-culture and media, such as specific colors, styles, or accessories that I have a feeling will only grow in popularity. I have also come up with a list of other ways that technology and the fashion industry coincide, and they are topics that readers may see in future Wild World posts! My ideas include: controversial photoshopping in magazine spreads and advertisements, online and digital fashion magazines, the ever-expanding social networking sites of fashion houses and retail outlets, fashion related smartphone applications, technology suites and digital sketchpads for fashion designers, the technology that goes into runway shows, the effect of movies and television on the spreading of trends, fashion forward documentaries, and all the new technology that retail websites have added in recent times.
Although I didn't allocate my time wisely enough to execute all of the ideas I came up with to create my dream blog, I realize that I have only begun. With the excessive amount of fashion blogs already online, the increasing number of online sales that companies experience each year, and the commonality of smart phones, laptops, and even digital pens and gadgets that keep popping up all over our universe, it would be hard to deny the relationship between fashion, well, between nearly everything and digitality. I believe my use of hyperlinks, images, videos, online resources, and my content itself, has helped me to successfully display how strongly the ever-evolving technology around us effects the fashion world in this digital age. I used my resources, as a digital native, to create posts that relate to my peers as well as those readers who may be younger or older than me by decades, but are still very much interested in fashion. If I were to grade someone on the blog that I am turning in for this assignment, I would give them an A, because I believe that it successfully paints a picture in the mind of it's readers of how the fashion industry wouldn't be half of what it is today without the vast technological advances of the last twenty years. However, instead of hitting it's followers over the head with this information, the blog is visually appealing, easily navigated, universally relatable to a wide array of audiences, and as professional as it can be for a novice blogger, while continuing to be fun, entertaining, and interesting for both those crazy about fashion, and those who simply walk the mall because they have to.
Most of all, I hope you enjoyed reading my blog. I hope I found a way to provide a successful balance between the rigid structure of digitality and the flow and grace of fashion that is appealing to my readers, and I hope I made grading this project feel even a little bit less like work, and more like play!
Thank you so much for allowing me to express myself (& for a grade!) through
LaLaLindsey's Wild World of Fashion
LHR
