Beginning Research

I actually don't mind research papers, because I think it's really interesting to find articles that have different opinions and interpretations of the same text. However, I am used to doing research papers on comparitive literature, not so much on the abstract topic I am trying to investigate now. I like to use the San Jose Library website, and I usually find Academic Search Premier the most helpful search engine because it encompasses so many online journals, it will create a citation, provide an abstract, and I can email an article to myself if I want to read it later.
My vague topic, as I described in my last post, will be about websites promoting eating disorders. I have found a few interesting articles, one dealing with the number of pro-anorexia websites, and Yahoo shutting down a number of them. Another article was more of an experiment analysis, portraying the number of people on these websites and the effects they experienced. I find these interesting, but I know that my topic has to be more based in digital literacy and less in sociology, so... advice?

Overwhelmed

With midterms, papers, work, and personal life to balance, I found it really difficult to choose a research topic, with so little peramiters. I am used to having a few prompts or subjects to choose from and I can work from there. I went from writing about the privacy of my writing space to the evolution of scroll to book. I thought that I could write about the Homeland Security Act, and how if someone writes an email or blog about a terrorist act, it might be flagged, even though the email was private, or the blog was set to private. However, I decided that I didn't want to test that theory! The invention of the book didn't count as digital writing, and I was really lost for a while on what I wanted to write about. It's frustrating because I'm really not a techy-person. I know the jist of facebook and email, and I don't really have a passion for investigating the privacy issues, because I don't want to wade through an endless WOT on the privacy policies.
I decided I want to focus on a more sociological term, because I find networking to be the most important feature of digital writing. I want to write about how digital media and/or writing spaces promote eating disorders. I think it's pretty obvious that extreme dieting and stick-figure bodies are promoted in current media. I'm thinking along the lines of exploring pro-Anorexia sites, how they bring people together to support negative habits. What other writing spaces promote negative habits? What is it about the anonyminity of these sites that allows for people to reveal such a deep secret?
.... Something along those lines, if you have suggestions to where this topic should be headed or a specific research question, please contribute a comment...

a song

I was introduced to a new band called, The XX, and their songs sound mellow and have both a male and female singer. My favorite at this time is "Islands," and I really like the duet and show of two sides of the same story.

Theorizing Posterous

"...cultures invent and refine writing technologies at least in part in order to refashion their definitions of mind and self" (Bolter Pg. 189).

Posterous represents an evolution in writing spaces because of the freedom it offers users. American culture has been evolving into a society focused on individualism. We value personal identity and expression; as is evident with the popularity of facebook and myspace, where people want to express their individuality by having their own profile. Through a profile one can post pictures and text which they feel reflect their identity. However, I believe that facebook is limited in that people use it more to communicate to other people about events, whereas Posterous initiates a more expressive atmosphere where one can easily post any thought that enters their mind. Posterous, thus, goes further into our current culture's desire for individualism.

Posterous offers people to express thoughts and actions, whims and facts, through Posterous you can express anything through any medium: you can write a piece of short fiction, you can search google image find a picture that expresses your thoughts and post it, you can say what you did that day, and reflect on any topic you want. I found accounts that posted videos and personal responses, blogs complaining about other social networking sites, and blogs that utilized Posterous' flexibility and posted a little bit of everything. Posterous is the most freeing writing space I have encountered because of the freedom it allows and inspires. Posterous invites you to

(http://catalystarts.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/expressyourself1.jpg)

After using Posterous, I predict it will be the next craze in the Web-World, because it seems to be an evolution, incorporating a personal profile, a place to express thoughts through multiple mediums, in an invitingly easy way. The only thing Posterous needs is more exposure, which will soon catch on because of how easy the site makes it for you to link your Posterous account with other online accounts you already have.

Rating Posterous

The website Posterous is an easy to use writing space on which you can express yourself through post blogs, videos, and pictures.

Accessibility: You can post a blog from your email, and do not need to have an account to post a blog or comment. However, if you do decide to create a profile, like I did, you can post by web also. If you have previously posted blogs without registering with the website, and later decide you want to create a profile,  you have the option to link past blogs with your new profile. By enabling people to blog from Email, greatly enhances the accessibility, one user commented, "If you can email, you can use Posterous. Love it!"

Privacy: Posterous only requires a valid Email address. You do not need to create a profile to use Posterous; you can be completely anonymous, and have your blog read by anyone. You can also choose to create an account on which you can be as fake, real, or anonymous as you like.

If you create an account, you have the option of limiting the access people have to your posts. You can create a group and allow access to only those people, or if you're worried about strangers commenting on your posts you can edit the privacy options for that as well.

Technology: On Posterous, you can post pictures, videos, and links through Emailed blogs. If you attach a picture or pictures through email Posterous automatically sets them up like a photo album complete with tabs. They will even transcode any video you post, and URL's will become linked when published on Posterous. The website has a simple layout and not a lot of ads so everything loads quickly.

Easy to Use: Posterous is really easy to use, the only problem I've encountered is that I am having trouble inserting pictures and videos because I can't find the button which says "insert picture or video," but I can find the "Link" button where I can insert a link to another website. If I want to post pictures/videos/music I find it much easier to post via Email instead of through Web.

Social Access: If you want your blog to be read by others, Posterous makes it really easy for you. There is the option to link your Posterous account with your facebook, twitter, flickr, friendfeed, picasa, youtube, blogger, or wordpress account. You can also find friends on Posterous by entering their Email addresses to see if they have an account. People can subscribe to your account and be updated when you create a new blog. Obviously, they are trying to attract more users and have made exposure simplistic for users.

My over all experience with Posterous has been good, I appreciate the anonymity it lends me, and also the freedom to write whatever I want. There is NO THEME to Posterous blogs, people write about anything from Politics so short fiction, and people post videos and pictures about anything that interests them. The diversity, accessibility, and privacy make it an ideal writing space for me: it fulfills my criteria in a perfect blogsite.

pondering my posterous

I found it hard to decide what to write about on Posterous because the topics are so diverse; it's not like joining a knitting blog. I decided, with the support of my classmates to write about sex. My first blog is probably controversial and offensive, but in a lot of cases... true. I hesitate to link it here, because I enjoy my current anonymity on Posterous, but ask and you shall receive. 

I have some errands to run, I will post technical details and analysis later this weekend!

Choosing a new writing space

After our class discussion I've decided to review the site http://posterous.com/. I like how the blogs are open to everyone and how easy it is to post. I'm not sure what I'm going to post about, because from my understanding anyone's posts can be featured, so the publicness of a blog entry is something I've never encountered. I'm not sure whether to link to local events I find interesting, or comment on politics or school funding, or whether to make it more personal. I even considered writing a sex blog, probably because I watch too much "Sex and the City," but reconsidered it, because this is a class assignment...
I like how you link anything, a video clip, picture, website, and the posts on their site are pretty interesting, however, I feel a little self concious writing next to such insightful posts. Also, on Posterous, I don't have an account; I just email a post and it goes up. They have an option to link your posterous post to other blogging sites, like Googlebuzz, twitter, even facebook. I am not sure whether I'll choose to use that option, it depends on what I decide the theme of my Posterous blog will be.