Personalization Meets Permanence

I am back with some ideas that I have for the usefulness of my blog. I can use my blog to share my opinions and thoughts with the world. I have also personalized my blog to reflect my interests: color schemes, topics of my choosing, posts whenever I want... I can even set access levels to share my personal space with whom I desire-- all right here on Blogger.

I have chosen a color scheme (from the offered schemes as provided by Blogger) that is appealing to me. I hope you like the books in my background. I think libraries are magical places-- I mean, you can choose any book, be sitting in a library, but feel you're in the story's setting instead.

I have uploaded my choice pictures: my grandmother, myself, and clips from other websites. I have even described how easy it is to navigate the FSU English Department's website-- right here in previous dates on my blog.

I have posted comments about how I use media in the classroom.

Basically, my blog is a place within the internet that is specialized and decorated to express my ideas-- and communicate and share these ideas with people around the world. Its content is solely created by me. This is an element of personalization. I was reading that Author Paul Levinson of New New Media thinks using a blog is a publication opportunity for all kinds of materials. These materials, or the topics I write about, are not restricted to scholarly projects, like research and how-to constructions. Levinson says that permanence, or publication, is a revolutionary part of new new media, like this very blog. Radio and television shows of earlier years were typically "gone after the instant [each show] was spoken [aired, or televised]" relayed author Levinson, "a blog post is thus not only immediate and universally accessible, but it can last forever. Once it is committed to the Web, it is in principle impossible to completely delete." Levinson shares that once a work hits the web and becomes accessible to the entire world it will continue to exist because anyone can make a copy of it and re-post it elsewhere throughout the web. (Levinson 19-20)

Personalization Meets Permanence

The latest, most popular media is designed for individuals. I believe that new new media as Levinson coins, like blogging, is changing how everyday people like myself can use the latest media options. Options include posting pictures, posting video, adding hyperlinked content to outside websites and podcasts and much more. Media Studies with Dr. Rai at FSU has encouraged me to even more closely consider what happens when I utilize the latest media options: like adding personal pictures, and cropping pictures from other websites that were not taken or uploaded by me.

Here is an example: After a post here on Blogger, I wonder who is reading it. I wonder if pictures I post are being re-used for purposes other than what I intend. I posted a picture of my grandmothers funeral program last Fall 2009. After it is posted, I have no control over who might see it and download the image. I cannot control whether or not anyone even wants to read it. After it is downloaded it can be remediated and I could possibly have no idea it exists elsewhere.