Process Post #5

This week has been one of the most challenging ones since first starting my website. It was the first time that I really struggled with having things to write about. In previous weeks I was excited to write, as I knew what I wanted to talk about. They were all things that I am passionate about, and therefore mattered to me. I wasn’t trying to impress an audience, I was just being uniquely me. 

I think its a lot easier said than done to write for yourself and what makes you happy because to be completely honest with you I don’t think I know myself well enough to know what it is that fully makes me me. Or I just don’t know how to express it. So this week wasn’t necessarily a challenging one because of the techy parts of the website, although I still have no idea how to do alt text (I will by the time this post is up!). But rather this week challenged me with the content I want to put out there. 

I was having writer’s block when I decided to do the reading for this week, and I still can’t get over how perfect the timing was. Digital gardens. I’d never heard of them before Sara Garner’s article. I was intrigued while reading it, as it was all new to me. How did I not know that this existed? Have I been that wrapped up in the main media platforms that I’ve been living under a rock to the internet and its countless opportunities?

What I have discovered through this article is that there is way more to social media than just liking, posting, and commenting on pictures. There is a world out there that strays away from the social norms and paves its own path through individuals creating their own digital gardens. 

This reading has helped me because even though I do blog posts on my website I want to take on aspects of a digital garden, because “with digital gardening, you’re talking to yourself” (Basu, 2020, para.7). I would love an audience to like what I’m writing, but I don’t want to write for them. I want to write for myself and my interests. The other thing that I love about the concept of digital gardens is that they can be about essentially anything and everything. 

The next step for myself and my website is figuring out how I can adopt some of the aspects of a digital garden, so that I can distinguish myself from the numerous beauty and lifestyle blogs out there. I know this won’t be easy, but I’m up for the challenge and I look forward to creating more unique content.

References

Basu, T. (2020d, September 3). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/