How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored published and distributed in the network?”

• Easier consumption. The streamlined editing allowing for manipulated meaning and effect; a picture says a thousand words, so why convey your point through writing when you can simply post a picture?
  Easy to read words wrong, but images can be more precise in tone and give a ‘feel’.

Readings: blog – blogging is an easy and effective way to continuously express thoughts, learn through others posts, and keep track of your own thoughts as well as their progress.

Not a cry for attention or validation, but a tool to be utilised for a myriad of reasons

• “Covers an innate willingness to communicate” need for connection

  Bloggings allows for the voices of the few to be heard; to be shared amongst those with common interests. Interestingly enough this both ties into as well as negating itself, blocking its own prompt, but rather promoting the course’s prompt towards the affordances of Instagram, showing that blogging itself is in decline whereas as visual based content sharing is on the rise.
  In that it is arguable that Instagram is merely a newer visual based version of blogging. In the past textual blogging was the main go to as that having to load images consisting of many megabytes is not only timely but expensive, but now as internet speed has risen astronomically, that is no longer a concern, and images can be freely and easily shared among peers.But why select just words or images when you can have both? Blogging now, such as through mediafactory, tumblr, twitter, or whichever platform you so choose grants the option for a combination of mediums. You can easily use pictures to draw in an audience, then further elaborate on what your statement is via words. Whilst blogging may have dipped in popularity for a few years its rise back to power in recent times is indicative of the strength of blogging, showing that direct communication, voicing opinions, giving feedback, as well as reading the views of peers and keeping track of the progression of your own views is an incredibly powerful tool in media and social life alike. I myself, despite not using social media all that much, have found great use in using mediafactory as that I’ve been able to easily keep track of my own thoughts throughout the duration of a semester, seeing how they were initially formed and how far they had comes since (or lack thereof).

  I believe this is why we have seen its comeback both socially and in an educational environment; after extensive study and viewing results, we can now see the value of blogging as a tool as well as the benefits it may reap.
  This is still early days of social media, and even though we have come so far, it’s rapidly evolving, and we have a long way to go in determining what works and what doesn’t, distinguishing fad from fact.