Diaries: A changing genre

Close up of a desk with computer keyboard, pen and coffee cup

This week's lectures and readings have mainly been addressing the idea of genre and, specifically with the reading, the transition of diaries from the page to the screen. Genre as defined by Van Luyn (2013) is "texts or cultural products (such as music, writing, drama, art) grouped into classes based on similarities and shared conventions." (p. 1) This is genre broadly and generally defined and, with the specific case of my social network, genre is used to define and separate all the different interests available and forming them into categories making it easier to find specific items.

StumbleUpon as an online diary is different to how a blog or traditional diary would be set out. In this week's reading it explained that:

Internet diaries (also known as "blogs") give access to lives in progress to a potential audience of thousands. Likely more people then ever are now writing, reading, and talking about diaries, and many Interent diarists have used their "amateur" narratives to achieve "proffessional" writing acclaim.

(McNiell, 2011, p. 315)

StumbleUpon doesn't have a conventional diary/blogging method, but takes a more unusual path. Instead of having written text to portray feelings and personal life, the 'diary' side of this social network relies heavily on the choosing of your interests and of liking the pages that you 'stumble' through. When looking at my profile specifically, there are no written passages or notes, just my likes and my interests. But the best way for people to look at my profile and understand what my preferences are is by observing my Stumble DNA. By taking a quick look at my Stumble DNA it is easy to see what interests me the most (which in this case is home living) and what interests me the least. So in effect StumbleUpon doesn't use conventional methods of an online diary, but utilises unique techniques to protray the personal life of it's 'Stumbler'.

Until next time,

Aaron



Reference List:

McNiell, L. (2011). Diary 2.0? A genre moves from Page to Screen. In  C. Rowe & E.L. Wyss. (Eds.), Language and New Media: Linguistic, Cultural, and Technoligical Evolutions (pp. 315-325) Retrieved from: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-1176479-dt-content-rid-837462_1/courses/13-BA1002-TSV-INT-SP2/McNeill%2C%20L.%20%282011%29.%20Diary%202.0.pdf

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 6: Stories and Places. Week 6 Notes [Powerpoint] Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Image Credits:
Close up of a desk with computer keyboard, pen and coffee cup [Image]. (2013) Retrieved from: http://www.123rf.com/photo_10561424_close-up-of-a-desk-with-computer-keyboard-pen-and-coffee-cup.html