HOURIHAN's What We're Doing When We Blog

“The linking that happens through blogging creates the connections that bind us.
 Commentary alone is the province of journals, diaries, and editorial pieces.”

Every magazine now has a coordinating website – for the people who on occasion use a laptop, and rely solely on handheld Apple technology – mainly every high fashion magazine has coordinating links and app’s to keep their listeners busy. Certain applications such as: Tumblr and Instagram are directed towards photography enthusiasts; when Pinterest, and YouTube can be helpful in giving images and video direction of “how to do this” and “how to do that”; Twitter and Facebook allow us to have a constant feed of your every thought… and at times pictures and commentary on what you’re up to. Magazine marketing has come into the tricky business of having to create multiple social media platforms to entertain a diverse audience.

Fashion bloggers must also learn the 'technique of timing' since this enhances the writers likelihood to systematically record and follow the change occurring daily in the fashion industry ;

since many trends tend to fade, the topics of interest switch even faster. When you first enter a blog, Hourihan realizes the “Reverse-chronological order in which posts appear, when a reader visits a weblog, she is always confronted with the newest information at the top of the page.” Living in our media-dominated Western Culture, we ALWAYS want to hear about the new and upcoming news first; history class usually isn’t a favorite.

Does is always matter who gets the information first? Do we even know what does come first nowadays? Who found out about Kanye and Kim’s pregnancy – Enews, twitter, Facebook, the front page of People, Kim’s notorious Instagram (most likely), or her family? The difference between live television and hard copy magazines – we can see WHO the information is coming from. When you’re looking for a good blog, you most likely are looking for a credible source, or at least someone to share the same point of view as you. The fashion industry’s large following create the specific demand to not only be informed, but have bloggers that perfect the art of consistency and reliability.

Following the quantum amount of data compiled in cyberspace, technology was once something to use in our “free time” in order to be entertained. Applications have brought gaming, hobbies, and severe addictions to Bubble Breaker to another level… having said this, applications have also rebuilt a lost and unheard of connection. The applications that we collectively use has opened the once locked doors for many celebrities and models to also download, create, and use in their down time – there posts are followed and made public for their millions of fans to see.

Speaking of credibility and being entertained…

While many avid bloggers are preoccupied with the idea that the information they have attained from ‘John Doe’ makes them the most reliable confidant – but most comedy is comedic and entertaining because it’s completely absurd and bullshit.  Laguna Beach, The Hills, to The City… reality TV we have seemed to grow up with. We turn into our favorite station in hopes of being entertained, and we are looking for entertainment from “average” people and the “drama” which occurs in their “reality”.

LC... California's sweetheart. Today better known as Lauren Conrad - she has built a pyramid of success that swiftly followed her choice to escape the ‘reality MTV’ puppet show.

Lauren Conrad played her role to a t – and her books (L.A. Candy - incredible!) told an INSIDE story of how much was ‘reality’ and what was left to the choreographers i.e. producers. She talked about how the season was drawn on, connecting and plotting where responses and reactions would lead them – as long as the viewers were tuning in on edge to find out more every week night. WE ALL know there is nothing REAL about REALity television, yet for the sake of entertainment, America cared enough to see the alcoholic members of Jersey Shore become millionaires.

Lauren Conrad has traveled far past her first publications of L.A. candy and is now the most sought out fashion adviser and author –  she's utilized multiple social media platforms to track what she’s been up to years after Laguna Beach. Away from the video cameras, Lauren Conrad was able to make her own identity and draw in a huge following. Not only do I routinely check her personal blog updates, I follow her on Instagram – or what I think is my fastest most for information.

This is the first ‘couple pic’ LO posted on Instagram of her and the new hubby. Before this picture, she only talked about cooking and going places with her newly announced love interest; this popular post was just 9 weeks ago (from today). This Instagram post preceded her freshly circulated picture of the “surprise” engagement ring… shortly after this post ENEWS displayed Conrad’s pictures and told the world about LO’s new engagement, and who this lucky man really is.

MILLER & SHEPARD's Blogging As Social Action: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs

Miller and Shepard emphasize how the 21^st century has redefined the meaning of genre, and rather shifted the focus away from being “concerned with the knowledge and amount of work done”. Genre today is categorized through the new millenniums role in what Miller calls “self-organized communities” which allow multiple bloggers to connect their ideas into a stream. Social media, especially in the field of fashion, is an easy and fast way to advertise… but how do you reach your intended audience outside the google search engine? Hash-tags are now one of the most communal, and often times overused, way to link multiple people on various networks who are involved in sharing common interests.

           

Bloggers and the use of hash-tags allow a wide range of shared pictures and ideas to be posted and connected in mere seconds. The activity of bloggers is now emphasized by the amount of time they put into elaborating their social networks, and posting on events in a timely manner. Once upon a time fashion enthusiasts had to set time aside to watch runway events, and find time for a morning coffee and to scope through a freshly printed magazine. Similar to the archive you find in the first pages of any magazine to direct you to “whats on the cover”, hash-tags have allowed people to read articles or scan multiple different views of what was covered and revealed in Mercedes Benz Fashion week.

Today, any celebrity who attends a fashion show can immediately uploaded to Instagram their front row view of an event. Jessica Alba, for example, has slowed down on major publicity, but still continues to post daily on Instagram. Less than a month ago, Alba posted on #nyfw and created an image that displayed some of her favorite fashions from a designer I haven’t heard about – Narciso Rodriguez. http://instagram.com/p/eGcIJesukO/# Just from posting a single image, I was able to find out what specifically Alba enjoyed about this designer – sharp, short, sexy – and link straight to the designer’s own Instagram, allowing me to look through Rodriguez’s other designs. Instagram is a new way to gain fast access to select celebrities’ personal style views and find out which designers and styles grab their attention.

JENKIN'S "Worship at the Alter of Convergence"

In my short 20 years of living it’s hard to explain the explosion of new technology and media that has heavily influenced the way information is now presented. I remember when I got a blackberry freshmen year and texting was the best way to constantly connect with friends, and Google had the answer to all my questions immediately.  The rate at which information and media is spread has is almost too fast to keep up with. Hash tags, threads, blogs, apps, social media, and all different forms of technology allow us to have a constant flow of information, news, and ideas in the palm of our hands. The evolution of the iPhone has created the demand for technology even in underdeveloped countries, which clearly shows the impact and universal connectedness we gain while living in a day-to-day progression of conveying information.

 

Jenken’s states that “we are in an age of media transition.” Now that there is an overabundance of ways to attain knowledge and news, we must consider how this new media plays into our ability to connect knowledge and ideas through multiple platforms. Not only do we have to post a blog, our picture to Facebook, but we must connect outside of solely safari, and intertwine our ideas with: Instagram → Blogger → Facebook → Pinterest → Magazines → Vine →Tumblr → and multiple other networks where people communicate and share likeminded ideas.

Attaining information of the latest trend and fashion used to mean flipping through multiple copies of Vogue and Harper’s Bazar – and which of course where only published once a month. Now, almost every single magazine has a coordinating online website, or app, where bloggers and columnists from the magazine post multiple times a day. The new platforms available allow us to fulfill our need to be constantly updated on what is going on in the fashion world.

 

In the past couple of months Miley Cyrus has became globally known for her flamboyant performance at the VMA’s and her inability to keep her tongue in her mouth - making her iconic pose recognized like Gene Simmons. Even though there was a lot of negative feedback, Cyrus posted a couple weeks after of her 'behind the scenes view' of her feature on the well-known magazine covers in October of Rolling Stones and Harper’s Bazar. Before a magazine is ever published in the new millennium, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have already made pictures and commentary available on certain events such as fashion week. Not only do we have the perspective of journalists, but famous fashion icons and models now have Instagram and Twitter accounts which allow them to constantly give a global audience an ‘inside view’ or ‘first person view’ of their day to day activities.