Navigating Spilling the Royaltea is a very easy task, thanks to the menu bar placed on the top of the page which categorizes the content based on six different subjects. The above diagram breaks down each of the categories and what they might offer as I continue to build my personal cyberinfrastructure.
The Basics
When users first click on my site, they see the homepage, which I decided to update this week. Because of the theme I chose, if I want to display my posts on the homepage, every single of them shows up. This wasn’t ideal because I wanted my blog to be as straightforward as possible. To remedy this problem, I played around with the theme’s setting and found that it gives me the option of making my homepage a static page instead of continuously updating as I add new posts. I decided to create a collage on Canva filled with pictures of the royal family to use as my static page. This made for a sleeker, cleaner homepage that makes my site much more accessible.
Next is the “about” section, which invites readers into my blog and tells them a little more about why I decided to write about the royal family (because my mom and dad argue about them all the time). It also tells readers what they might expect in terms of content.
PUB Stuff
All of my content for PUB 101 lives in the same category. Under this category, I created three sub-categories, called “process posts,” “mini assignments,” and “peer reviews.” Since these are the three types of assignments in PUB 101, I thought that this would be a logical and easy way to lay everything out. I also wanted to keep the “royal family” theme at the center of my blog, and therefore chose to group all the PUB stuff together so as not to distract from what the blog is actually about.
The Royaltea
The next three sections: “hot takes,” “the chronicles of Harry and Meghan,” and “news” are where the content related to my blog lives. As for “hot takes,” a lot of opinions have festered in my mind throughout the years while listening to my parents talk about the royal family. So, this is the place where I take those opinions and make them a little more coherent with some thought and research. I’ll try to write about topics that I haven’t really seen in the news and try to get my audience to think about things a little differently.
Next, “the chronicles of Harry and Meghan” follows everything that Harry and Meghan have released in the past few months, and any new surprises they might gift us with. Recently, my social media feeds have been flooded with content with people either agreeing with or making fun of Harry and Meghan’s documentary and memoir. But the secret is that I haven’t watched or read either of them… So I’ll be doing a bit of catching up and jotting down my opinions in this section.
Finally, “news” simply features anything that’s trending with the royal family. This might include my opinions on their royal engagements, the outfits they wear, or the “secret insiders” that reveal the most outrageous of things.
Anonymous and Invisible
Overall, although my blog content involves my opinions, it isn’t really about me. And making a blog that isn’t about me allows me to engage in what Suler calls dissociative anonymity. Since no one knows who I am (unless they’re in my PUB class), I feel more comfortable saying controversial things than I do in person. I can’t see whether someone is frowning or shaking their head in disgust at whatever I’m saying. It’s like I’m invisible when posting and the feeling is pretty freeing. 🙂
On Another Note…
A few weeks ago, I read Craig Mod’s article, “How I Got My Attention Back,” where he decides to do a residency and go offline for an entire month. He speaks of a sense of calm and peace in his life, where he builds habits that he added into his regular life upon leaving the residency. I’m not so sure I’d be able to do the same. My relationships depend on being online to the point where I think that emotionally, I’d suffer quite a bit without that sense of connection to my friends.
But Mod also talks about the fact that when he returned back to the normal life, he made rules such as: the internet goes off before bed and doesn’t turn on until after lunch. These rules seem a lot more bearable to me and are things I already do. For example, I stop going on my phone an hour before I go to bed, which I find helps me sleep faster and allows me to stay asleep for longer. So even though I wouldn’t be able to survive a month without internet, a few more restrictions like these might go a long way.
References:
Campbell, G. (2009). A personal cyberinfrastructure. EDUCAUSE Review, 44(5), 58. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure
Mod, C. (2017, January 13). How I got my attention back. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/2017/01/how-i-got-my-attention-back/#.djqfcpajo
Suler, J. (2004). The online disinhibition effect. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 7(3), 321-326. https://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html
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