I found it rather pleasant scrolling through Adrain Miles’ piece about blogging, for it wasn’t overly convoluted with the mass amount of superfluous nonsense that I have experienced in an unfortunately large number of other set reading tasks. Instead of making me dread the future of the subject,  it actually created a positive feeling towards what is ahead.

I can change the aesthetics, create an avatar with my own face on it, and decide when and what I want to discuss.  The limit of content – words, images, photos, videos – is only restricted by my own imagination and self-perceived boundaries. Thus I can really make this digital space my own… something I haven’t had the chance to do before. So far I’m liking it.

As the reading mentioned, it’s always beneficial to develop understandings of different media forms, and this provides a vast opportunity for doing that. Generally my assignments and notes are kept private, with the exception of a teacher and occasionally a friend or parent for a second opinion. However, as Adrian pointed out, this has now completely changed. This blog – my blog – is public; for all the internet users to see, praise and abuse. I view this is motivation. A public audience makes the writer / poster / blogger / whatever you want to call it, conscious of judgement. Therefore the blogger, at least in my case, will increase their quality standard of posts. An interested point that was made that I had not considered earlier, was that students can easily compare themselves with one another, in fact it’s encouraged. I think top students viewing poor students’ work to discover what makes them stand out, and vice versa, is a wonderful way to judge yourself and improve.

One of the most notable segments of Adrian’s extract touched on was that once a post is active, it is on the internet.  Fellow students, work colleagues, family, friends, and future employers will be able to see the content. This is somewhat shocking, but important to consider. If you don’t want people to see it, then keep it in your journal or diary, but the blog is public and will stay that way. The world can see it, whether we like it or not! So I say take advantage.