Welp, here it is guys. My final blog post EVER. Thank you so much for following me through it all, now here's how and why I did it! Click here to see the reflection.
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Some possible literacy narratives I could use for this project coming up could be my example above, when I got my first phone, and following my path of phones after that. I could also use when I got my first email address because that was a lot of new experiences in one. I wasn't allowed to have AIM or MySpace when I was younger so I used my email chat room to talk with friends and such, Yahoo Messenger. I had some strange things happen there so thats actually a really good one for me to choose. Another literacy narrative would also be when I learned what to send in a text message and who to send it to. To be more specific, a girl I knew in middle school sent out some provocative photos of herself to a boy we all knew (mind you, we were in 8th grade, which makes this even worse), and he sent that picture to a lot of people and personally showed people the photos. It was a real wake up for all of us to be really careful about what we're sending and who we're sending it to, which I still see kids struggle with today, even adults sometimes.
![]() "In these narratives, the students continually named and referred to family members, friends, and peers who spoke a range of different languages and were from various world locations. The students discussed their own ideas and opinions in relation to these people. Although the young people didn't always agree with the opinions of the individuals they discussed, the narratives revealed a shared emphasis on tolerance, negotiation, and the acceptance of different practices, outlooks, and perspectives, a rhetorical approach that we perceived as both persuasive and resistant to the narratives of aggression that too often characterize national discourses." This quote is from the fourth page of the article, and my favorite by far. This generation of students gets so much crap about how we're to invested in our technologies and we have no respect, etc, etc, etc. But truly we are the most accepting generation anyone has ever seen. We listen to one another, and respect all views (for the most part). Could we dial it back a little with the phones and laptops? Sure, but then we wouldn't be the generation we are. We encourage and support one another through our phones and computers because I think its slightly harder to do that face to face. When I joined the technological world officially, I was 9 years old. I was in the backseat of my Dad's car, as he had just picked me up from a friend's house. All of a sudden, I heard a ringing in between the seats. "Dad, why is your phone back here? Wait did you get a new one?" I asked him as I examined the small brick like Nokia phone that I hadn't seen before. "Answer it," he said with a small smirk. So I did and low and behold, it was my dad calling me off of his actual phone from the front seat. It was my first real phone and I was over the moon about it. From then on out, I always had a phone on me, up until this very day, as I am currently scrolling through Instagram while simultaneously typing this blog. I use my phone for everything, looking things up on google, texting my friends, taking picture, taking notes, literally everything. My phone has my entire life on it, it helps me define who I am as a person in more ways than one. Sidetone, its also amazing to see all the different phones I've had since I was 9. I had this brick of a Nokia (pictured), a flip phone, a backflip phone, an LG shine, and finally an iPhone 3, 4, and 6, which is my current phone. ![]() This introduction to Rhinegold's book is written differently than Barton and Hamilton's chapter, and yet says something very similar. Within the first few pages, Rhinegold states that learning how to use the internet and its many tools is actually a social act. Learning how to use Twitter, Facebook, and other social media websites is learning how to read and write with other people involved. A big problem that Rhinegold brings up with the internet, is the amount of spam and how we choose to maneuver it. He talks about how if we can get past the porn, and the spam emails, and the websites that give us viruses, we can really use the internet in a productive way. The introduction I just read really only discusses what he will talk about int he actual chapters of her book, but I get the gist; don't get lost in the mindless crap of the internet. Use your time wisely, and proficiently, so that you are a useful member of the internet society. The internet is so much more than social media, it's a way to collaborate on all types of topics and events, to really help better us as social beings and all around good people. I actually would be interested in reading this book, as I think it could benefit me. If we are being honest, I think I have a fairly good idea of how to use the internet in the best ways I can, and I am able to manipulate sites, and social media to my liking. I use snapchat and instagram every single day and its like an addiction. I think if I could find something else to use on the internet that makes me less of a zombie, I would be slightly more productive. But the internet is so vast and deep that I feel one can never truly be master it. There is always something more to learn and I believe Rhinegold really helps people dive into that. ![]() This chapter from Barton and Hamilton discusses "the theory of literacy as social practice in the form of a set of six propositions about the nature of literacy". In simpler terms, they talk about how different types of literacy and readings are used in different situations in different ways.
They also discuss discourse communities in this chapter, which is a group of people who share basic values, goals, and assumptions and use communication to achieve these things. So an example of a discourse community would be a church group, who are all intent on praising God, and read the bible, and have the same morals. This obviously shapes literary practices because its a group of people that are coming together in a social setting to read and discuss a book of sorts, or any type of readings and communications. I am part of a social group of sorts, and that is Instagram. On Instagram, I post pictures with captions of myself, my friends, my boyfriend, my family, anything that I care about really. I do this to keep in contact with people that I don't see as much anymore, and to let everyone know what is going on in my life that I don't mind sharing. I also follow a lot of other people to see what's going on in their lives also. We all comment on one another's pictures, and like them to show appreciation. This I believe is a good example of the type of social nature that Barton and Hamilton discuss. In the end, no matter what we read, we are all obtaining some form of new knowledge, and something will be taken away from reading practically anything. Part 1:
For my niche blog, I’ve decided to go with the topic of weddings. But this isn’t just your run of the mill, “great ideas for your big day” blog that has been being done since the early 2000's. This is a “hey I’m stuck in this shitty situation in preparation for my wedding, what do I do” blog. In other words, I’m going to talk about potential problems a lot of brides come across when planning for their wedding day. There are already so many different websites out there that tell you which dress will look best on you, and which hairstyle goes best with what dress, etc. etc., so I wanted to put a different spin on it because planning for a wedding isn’t all rainbows and butterflies (Bridezilla anyone?). I plan on discussing things like how to deal with rude and inappropriate questions you get about your big day, how to choose your wedding party and not feel bad about leaving people out, and also some upbeat problems like how to include your groom more in the plans, and what is going to work best for both of you and how to figure that out. I guess I’m looking for this blog to be more of an advice/common sense/my personal opinion type of site. All the wedding sites I come across all convey the same information just in different formats, and I wanted to do something really different and outside of the box. Brides have so much stress weighing on them with the expectation to impress all their guests, and give everyone a great time, while also choosing things for themselves which can be hard to balance. I know that I personally have a hard time with picking things that I want for myself when it comes to parties and such because I know everyone doesn’t have the same taste as me and I don’t want to disappoint. So I want to give advice to the newly engaged about how to please their guests but also really enjoy the best day of their lives. Part 2: The audience I’m really trying to target here is any woman who is getting married for the first time. This can really range from women in their early twenties, to mid-thirties because you can find love for the first time at any age. These problems I will be addressing in my blog can happen to anyone that is newly engaged for the first time. Men could also read this and take some of the advice I give about who to choose for the bridal party and use it for choosing their groomsmen, but I am aiming this toward women. This is because I am a woman myself so its easier for me to relate to bridal situations rather than groom situations. Some other sites that I have found that are similar to what mine is going to be is TheKnot, The Man Registry, and The Broke-Ass Bride. I found these sites while browsing for wedding ideas one day and they helped me make the decision of what my niche blog was going to be. I knew about TheKnot for a while because its connected to a really well-known website called HowHeAsked.com, which just a whole bunch of proposal stories. So I knew I wanted to include some aspects from that site because they are so popular and well known, especially in the U.S. The Broke-Ass Bride I thought was really witty. You always hear how expensive weddings are, and how people spend crazy amounts of money like 50k, so I think it’s a breath of fresh air to realize you can still have a kick-ass wedding at half the cost. Even less than half than that honestly. This site has different submissions from women all over about their different ways of spending money because of the different problems they encounter during wedding planning. The creator of the site, Dana LaRue, actually wrote a book called The Broke-Ass Bride’s Wedding Guide, so this website is based off of her book. She has a huge following, as I first found out about this site through seeing a LOT of advertisements about it on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This site is where I got a lot of my inspiration because of how witty, funny, and relatable it is. I want my site to also be quick and relatable because who has time for anything else? I don’t want people to leave after just looking on the first page, I want to draw them in like Broke-Ass Bride does. They have pops of color and witty messages, an about page, and are just all around put together. They also seem to have a fairly big following, which is a bonus. The other site I really liked was The Man Registry, because it had a lot of different things going on, but not an overwhelming amount. The Man Registry was more of a form blog, where it has more links than information on it. The links were to the information they wanted shared, but posted by other sites. But what I liked about this site was how it has a different target audience. My blog and The Broke-Ass Bride are both aimed toward women who are newly engaged and a little lost, while The Man Registry is aimed at, you guessed it, the man getting married (hence the name). This is different because 1. I have never seen anything geared toward men when it comes to weddings, and 2. It was by far, my favorite wedding site. For being so girly, and into all the little details of weddings, I surprised myself by really liking this one, but I really did. Yes, all the ideas were geared toward men, but I absolutely loved some of them. There was one on the site where you could “personalize your wedding” with different alcohols that you like, mainly beers that you preferred, and having things like beer tastings on certain tables. Even though this was for the groom, I thought it was such a good idea for your guests and a way to express yourself as a couple. So this site is definitely there for the grooms, but ladies, take notice, this is a great site for you too! I want this site to be different, but still relatable. This isn't really going to be informative, but more...personal you could say? I want to really connect with everyone out there involved in wedding planning. So, from all of this information I have researched and agonized over, I have decided it actually did help me in defining my blog and what I really want to say. Engaged & Confused will be a witty, fun, and relatable blog where I help give people advice about planning for their upcoming wedding day. My main point will be to just have fun with it. Wedding planning has become a taboo for stress and anxiety when it is truly some of the happiest moments of your life (well mine, anyway). You should enjoy that, and let me make all your hard choices. So….Engaged & Confused? Come to me with all of your wedding-planning related problems and don’t sweat a thing! (: |