Category Archives: Dgst101

Reflections on blogging⌛

by Greta Hammen

Blogging has been around for 27 years, thanks to Jorn Barger, who wrote for Robot Wisdom (Blood, 2000). He coined the term “weblog”, which is short for logging the web (Blood, 2000). What are synonyms for blog, you ask, they are memoir, diary, story or journal (Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, 2024). Blog is used both as a noun, referring to the website and as a verb, to blog or add content to your site (Blood, 2000).

From the ds106 Story Telling site, there are tips on how to create a blog well:

https://ds106.us/handbook/success-the-ds106-way/writing-up-assignments/. From the start, you will want clever titles for your blog posts. try to grab the reader’s attention by using a play on words or metaphors. There are so many blogs out there, be unique to get read and gain a following. Be creative in the layout and style of your blog (Levine, 2013).

Linking is an important key to your blogs success. Some items that you create with video and audio should be embedded in your blog (Levine, 2013). When you copy the link to the video or audio, the option to embed will be in the menu. I just learned how to create hyper or anchor links from How To Create Jump Links In WordPress 2023 [FAST] (youtube.com) Links. I am so excited about this, always check yourself after, I found that some links need to be long, but that just may be from lack of experience. Here are the steps: 1. highlight the word or words to be linked ex: Ingredients 2. click on link button 3. in the box that pops up, put a # then the words with a – in between to separate words, ex.# tomato-soup-ingredients, then highlight the words but not the #, click the submit curved arrow icon in the box 4. click on the first word or words that were highlighted, then on the right-side panel under typography is the word, advanced and a box for HTML ANCHOR, paste the last thing that you copied 5. Update 6, View Post

Include hyperlinks in the text of your sentences to reference material. If you watched a movie, read something in a book or on social media, or if you wrote about the subject in the past. It is best to not use the phrase, “click here to see it” (Levine, 2013).

“Blogging is about sharing the story behind the story” and to share context (Levine, 2013). How does it relate to what’s happening in social media and in society (Gaudeul, Alexia & Peroni, Chiara, 2010)? According to (Gaudeul, Alexia & Peroni, Chiara,2010), social networking service (SNS) is a platform where people share common interests.

Let your personality shine through and be conversational. Blogs are about many topics such as photography, travel and anything that the author is interested in. The first business blog was in 1995 by Ty, Inc. and was called “Online Diary” (Bissonnette, Zac, March 2015). They used the blog to post pics of new beanie babies and get votes, which was a huge success and the employee that helped with the blog was earning $12 an hour and made Ty Warner a billionaire (Bissonnette, Zac, March 2015).

References

Bissonnette, Zac (March 2015). “The $12-per-hour sociology major who made ty warner a billionaire“. The great beanie baby bubble: bass delusion and the dark side of cute. Penguin Books. pp. 107–121. Retrieved February 13,2024.

Blood, Rebecca (September 7, 2000). “Weblogs: a history and perspective”. Archived from the original on May 30, 2015. Retrieved February 10, 2024.

Gaudeul, Alexia & Peroni, Chiara (2010). “Reciprocal attention and norm of reciprocity in blogging networks”. Economics Bulletin. 30 (3): 2230–2248. Retrieved February 10, 2024.

Levine, Alan, (2013) “Blogging tips for ds106” Your ds106 handbook. Retrieved February 5, 2024.

Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/blog. Blog. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024. Retrieved February 13, 2024.

Disinformation

The internet can be a wonderful place. It can satisfy any needs, including information, entertainment, business, etc. This limitless freedom has it’s negatives, though. The world wide web provides everyone with access to upload anything they want. Of course, freedom of speech is great but that leaves room for inaccurate information to spread. This is called disinformation.

Many articles and websites have been riddled with fake news and clear biases that have the sole purpose of manipulating viewers. Clickbait titles and false statistics are some examples of tools used in these situations. Titles may say one thing, but could have an ulterior motive. One way to find out if these sources are accurate and trustworthy is to find out who the author is, check the date of publishing, and see it’s references. Legit sources, such as library databases or official websites (.gov) are credible.

Disinformation has caused extreme damage to careers and personal lives. People do not take the time to question or fact-check the information they are digesting, which causes a domino effect of misguidance. A major factor is social media, since people of all ages can consume an infinite amount of nothing. People have short attention spans now, so news and other mediums are trying to get views in whatever method, morally correct or not. I believe children and elderly are the major victims of disinformation, due to an inexperience with the internet. The best method to prevent falling for disinformation is to question everything online. Research it and double check with credible sources.

Terms of Service

I’ve always agreed to the Terms of Service for everything without reading, because the time it took to skim through everything was not worth the app or file I was downloading. Companies know that people have short attention spans, so they take advantage of that by bombarding them with an overload of text. The option to accept is allowed without having to read any of the Terms of Service, so it gives the people an easy out. This gives the companies an opportunity to sneak in terms that would be questioned if time was taken to examine what was written. This loophole is proof that there are ways for companies to deceive consumers without repercussions. I don’t think there’s an easy way for people to push through and read the Terms of Service, since people will only focus on using the app or file as soon as possible.