f’ɔːrəm

No, the title of this post is not an error — I used the International Phonetic Alphabet to spell out the “sound” of this week’s blog topic: forum. In a way, this is fitting, as forums are a sort of sounding board for people to post opinions, questions and interests to share with other people

The original “forum”, so to speak.

who would also like to discuss viewpoints, give answers or find common ground. I know I have gone to forums before in search of information pertaining to computer problems, as many of the unusual or rare issues aren’t found easily on the corporate Microsoft site. From doing a bit of research, I can see that forums are a key component in the video gaming world, as players can post secrets, clues and hints for other users. It’s a neat way to bring people with common interests together — when I first began to crochet, I joined a knitting and crochet forum to get help with my stitching situations. I loved being able to go on there and have these sweet ladies help me with my stitch count; after uploading a picture of my crooked stitches, I had several responses advising me about ways to keep my edges straighter. (Sadly, you’re supposed to count the stitches as you’re doing them. I can’t say I like math that much, so crooked edges didn’t seem so bad.)

Though I can’t say forums are a regular part of my online life, I do frequent them for specific purposes — usually an issue that is very specialized and probably not located on any primary kind of source like an FAQ page. For every situation, I can go online and find others who have had the same problem; this helps not only because I might get an answer, but also to show me that others are dealing with some of the same things as I am. I feel connected to them through our mutual mishaps.

So, to me, the forum is like apps — just as there is always “an app for that”, it seems there is likewise “a forum for that”, be it crochet, computer problems or, well, just about anything you can think of.

Social “Me”-dia

It’s amazing to see how much social media websites have changed how we interact — and even how we think about interactions. For instance, the term “stalking” has become much more ambiguous, as people perusing public profiles will call the activity stalking, even though they are viewing information that has been volunteered by the owner of the profile. If we don’t want people looking at our pictures from New Year’s or seeing that our favorite movies include Toy Story and The Notebook, then why do we post them? It seems there is some realization of self going on here, which is why I titled this post with an emphasis on the “me” in media – is it really about being social, or is it about constructing a version of yourself, if only to create a version as you’d like to see yourself?

The psychological underpinnings are entirely too deep for me to really get into, but I do find it very interesting how social media, particularly Facebook, has altered our interactions with others. Heck, we can even Google ourselves now, thanks to Facebook profiles becoming more public and search-able. And like this post by a fellow blogger, I think it’s critical that we realize the gravity of the online world and how accessible we can make ourselves. The concept of trust becomes all the trickier as people become more adept with online interactions, some for the good and some for the bad. The generation coming after us will have grown up in a world so very different — at eight years old, I was running around in my yard climbing trees, but an eight-year-old of 2010 might be sitting on her couch with a laptop, adding friends on MySpace or Facebook, branching out socially. Quite honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about this; as with any new technology, there are up sides and down sides. Whether the up outweighs the down, I can’t be sure.

For me, I find that Facebook is a fun way to keep up with people, especially since most of my friends are farther away or busy with school and can’t always meet up with me for lunch. So, I can still let them know I’m thinking of them by dropping a post on their walls. As my friends get married, graduate, or move away, I can also keep up with new events in their lives as they post pictures of a new house or a new baby. Somehow, Facebook became the new norm for communication; I would love to know how many relationships began through it. Like pen pals of the past, people can connect, like this couple who met as a result of a name search on Facebook. Think of it — there could be children who owe their existence to Facebook!

So, whether we like it or not, the way we represent ourselves and interact with others is changing with the proliferation of social media and its powerhouse websites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Whether we’re really becoming more social, or whether it’s really more about ourselves, I can’t say.

Which ones are you on?

To RSS, or not to RSS?

Personally, I have never given much thought to RSS before; I recognized the icon after seeing it on webpages, but I have never used it. In fact, I didn’t know what it really was until this semester, when I have had two classes that talked about it. Even after discovering RSS, I don’t plan to use it — like this article’s author states, “Twitter has become a better medium, primarily because information moves almost instantaneously on Twitter. It can be minutes to several hours before a new post appears in your RSS reader.” I agree, as it would seem a very indirect source of news if, like me, you were interested in getting the latest updates instantly. Social media — especially that driven by what some would call “citizen journalists” – seems to be the first source of news instead of RSS.

Slate.com writer Farhad Manjoo falls into this same category with his post, “Kill Your RSS Reader”, stating that he preferred to organize his oft-checked websites into folders and tabs on his computer instead of having news and posts delivered to him en masse. The lack of visual distinction between posts on RSS readers bothered him, as well as the fact that he had an overwhelming number of news sites and blogs he wanted to check at different times and different frequencies. These two articles indicate a desire for users to seek out and find their own information, to create a unique experience instead of having it all posted in a giant ticker tape of blogs and news. I found this to be true when I made an RSS feed of local and national news — the local news tended to involve robberies and other miscellaneous crimes in Birmingham or Montgomery, and the national news told me things I already found out either from my homepage, MSN.com, or through social media such as Twitter.

Both of these articles were written in 2009, which is relatively recent. However, back in 2004, writer Paul Boutin revelled in RSS as he praised its capabilities to allow users to “ scan dozens, even hundreds, of fresh headlines a day without the time-wasting tedium of opening one Web site after another.” Then, this experience seemed nearly exhilarating, much like email was when people gleefully logged on to hear, “You’ve got mail!” Now, the greeting feels more like a chore call as users have to deal with what will surely be an onslaught of messages from friends, workers, and of course, spammers. At the time this article was written, social media like Twitter didn’t exist, and Facebook was only learning to crawl. So, there was no altertative in extistence to improve upon what RSS was doing, and, for that time, it was probably a great option for news junkies and bloggers alike. For 2010 and beyond, though, I believe there will be a decline in RSS readers and feeds and an increase in social media journalism. Who knows? Maybe in the year 2015, Facebook will be on its 18th redesign and users will have lost interest in navigating the newest interface. Maybe Twitter’s “new social media” smell will have turned into the stale pine-scented freshener of the Internet, and it will no longer inspire the fervor of followers it does now. Maybe. But for now, I’ll stick to checking notifications and following people for my 411 needs.

On Blogging

Though I’m not a constant follower of blogs, there are a couple I like to stop by and visit every once in a while. A recent discovery is a blog filled with font-tastic goodness, ilovetypography.com. Graphic design has been a burgeoning interest of mine since working at a design firm in Opelika a couple of years ago; I hadn’t realized anyone else paid as much attention to fonts as me until then. It felt so nice to have a place where I could lament about Times New Roman and Calibri. (I mean, who at Microsoft decided an 11pt sans-serif would make a good default font? Really?)  At any rate, this blog in particular brought to my attention the fact that people design fonts, too — down to the angles of serifs and even the punctuation symbols (yes, there was one article which chronicled the development of a font down to its commas). People dedicate hours of work to fonts, which seem arbitrary, but in fact communicate a message which can be even more powerful than the words they compose. For instance, the font Catull BQ is not one most people are familiar with by name, but it has come to represent one of the largest Internet empires:

As you can see, I’m quite the font geek, so blogs like ilovetypography.com are a great way for me to explore the process of making them, as well as new ones being released. So neat!

Other blogs I peruse are more of a type of blog rather than a specific one. Photoblogs, such as those through Flickr, take a more visual approach to the blogging concept. A favorite of mine is the 365, which involves a photographer blogging a year’s worth of photos. While many do self-portraits as a sort of record of progress over the year, I particularly like the 365 Days of Bokeh by a Flickr user named jjjohn. It’s simple and eloquent, a year of beautiful photographs which users can comment on and respond to. As a visual thinker, this sort of blogging appeals to my sense of speaking through images and design. I hope I can do one of these at some point, and have my own photo blog!

I’ve Got Dreams, Dreams to Remember

I feel as though I’ve run the gamut of dreams for many American girls – Broadway actress, movie star, lawyer, musician, and doctor have all been my career goals at one point or another. (Thanks, Barbie™.) Even now, I would love to have a job in acting somehow, with rehearsals all day, costumes custom-made by professional designers, and my “office” being a set on a lot, or even one on-location elsewhere in the world.      

Move over, Kathie Lee!

 And then there’s my desire to host the Today show with Matt Lauer, a dream which arose from my mom watching it every morning throughout my childhood. Every day, I’d wake up to, “Live, from Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza, it’s the Today show…” Working for the Today show, I could at least interview the movie stars and musicians; I would settle for that. Plus, I would get the best seat for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every year, guaranteed.   

Now that I think about it, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t crave show business to some extent; but then, this is my creative side talking. My practical side tells me to prepare for a job as a magazine editor, or maybe a CNN writer; some kind of occupation which will allow me to work with a variety of people, travel, and make some sort of name for myself, all the while being very grounded and realistic. This is the dichotomy I have going on in my mind, which is why I named my blog “practically creative”. You see, I am neither an entirely practical person, nor am I so creative that I can bypass the niceties of university life and begin sending my headshots out. No, I have to have my two degrees, framed and on display above my desk before I would be willing to board a plane to New York City or Los Angeles.  

Future employer? Maybe!

  I suppose my current dream job at this moment is to be Samantha Brown’s replacement on the Travel Channel; I love to travel, so if I could at least find a job which paid for me to visit different places, that would be perfectly fine with me. Honestly, at the end of the day, I dream of having a solid group of friends (à la the show Friends), a brilliant husband who thinks I’m lovely in sweatpants, a career which allows me to be a blessing to others while having time to spend with my family, and to fulfill whatever plan God has for me – which, after all is ultimately what I aim to do, as He knows so much more about where I should be than I do.

Hello!

Haven’t posted anything officially yet, but in the meantime, check out these amazing photos from the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in China!