Online influence has been a subject heavily debated in the media. The online media is drastically changing the fashion industry and the way consumers interact with fashion brands. Fashion Bloggers are no longer hid behind the screen of their computers.

Fashion editor with Fashion Blogger, Bryanboy.

With the growth of social media phenomena surrounding the fashion industry, possibly none has received more attention than the rise of the fashion blogger. The immediacy of online coupled with the ease of self-publishing has generated an entirely new fashion discourse. Today bloggers sit front row at fashion weeks and their commentary commands enormous readerships and influence.

The emergence of fashion bloggers hit the fashion real hard, affecting everything to how brands market themselves online. Digital trends has influenced the public relations practices for fashion brands to incorporate the use of style bloggers as curators. As bloggers have the power to comment on and represent contents to their audience and with the benefits of social media as a public relations tool, fashion bloggers have created a unique celebrity-type following for them.

Fashion 101

1. Fast Fashion

2. High Fashion

Bloggers promote both high and fast fashion, which, originally, depended on their individual economic means. This results in the dilution of the value of high fashion, and when one is unable to tell the difference between a designer product and it’s low cost knockoff.

In order to curb the problem, there are designer public relations, who liaise with bloggers and send them free collection pieces, which are then modeled on their blogs.

They said the eyes are the window to your soul. What are yours? Take a minute to look around. Maybe you might learn something new from the person next to you.

Ever wonder what does blogging represents? Back then, writing a diary or penning down our thoughts on paper has been replaced with an online journal; the blog. The blog has been used for several purposes; a space for people to rant and vent, or for people out there to inspire others on fashion, lifestyle or even politics.

Blogging is one of the twentieth-first century’s major inventions. It allows us to express opinions, to share common interests with people all over the world, and to refine our writing technique. It gives the established author a forum to dialogue with readers; agents use it to hook new clients, and for novice writers blogging can be a way to display their work or to kvetch about the apprenticeship’s pitfalls and woes. But as it happens with everything on the net, blogging forces you into the public light which has its dangers. Well, once you have posted something online, you have no idea who is going to copy your text.

The are two sides of the coin. So which side are you on?

I read the entire piece of the reading, “the Age of Essay.” I must say, it was an interesting read. The author made a statement about the new age writing on the web. We all know how the web allows us to publish a piece of article, and instantly a random person from another part of the world could read and comment it.  He also mentioned that we should write freely and not be rigid to stick to the old school rules of writing.

I thought this was interesting since we are doing Network Meda. I am starting to understand why there weren’t guidelines to for our blogs. This is definitely a new challenge for me to write more interesting posts!

Augmented reality is an artificial view of the physical world . It alters our visual experience on an everyday basis. It is defined as a composite, or false view of the world created by computer-generated images, in real time. The real time mixing of computer generated and real world information.  With the entire world literally living out of a computer generated information during live broadcasts of news and sporting events.

As smartphones becomes an essential for many, the use of mobile Augmented Reality (AR) applications has increased. When you are situated at a unknown location, and you are searching for a restaurant, simply  search for a google map and it will navigate your current GPS location. It also points out all the restaurants near you.

Google has the ability to easily control, restrict and censor information in Google Earth and Street View; because the information is static and does not change very often. The ability to freely associate virtual information with physical locations, and then anonymously share it with others, creates opportunities for AR to be used in unintended, illegal and sinister ways.  Imagine the possibilities, if “ free speech” included the right for anyone to plaster buildings with posters and signs, containing content of their own choosing.  Now imagine if everyone except you knew what the signs and posters said.  Or if you were unaware that such material was stuck to the side of your home or business.  That is the threat posed by mobile AR applications.  And it is not going to get better, anytime soon.

Think about it. Would you want to rely solely on augmented reality?

Attending the last semester of school, I am stuck between procrastinating and being constantly diligent with my work. As a late boomer unlike my friends, I have been placed to take network media at the last semester. I have been hearing numerous stuff about this module and have been dreading to take it. Since the third week of school, I realised that I have like 12blog posts to catch up as I am very far behind. I used to procrastinate starting a blog for personal use.  Now that I know I have to do it because it is graded, it has dragged me to a whole new level. I thought to myself, why do we have to do this? Isn’t it redundant?

Well, now I’m taking everything back. I am thankful for pushing me to pen down my thoughts and think out of the box. Analyse and realise that every situation has more than what it seems. They say writing down your thoughts helps u to paint a picture. Its kind of therapeutic after awhile. Now it all makes sense.

When Elliot assigned Steve Jobs as the man to be discussed for my first niki page, I was more than exhilarated. What more can I ask for than the genius who created Apple. All these while,  this man has been respect and recognised for his work and brains behind these amazing products. But do we really know more than what the media has presented? So I went ahead and started with my research…