The Pakistani Spectator

Nineteen year old Ben Hughes has been utilizing the Internet and technology for over ten years now. He taught himself HTML starting at age nine, and by the time he was sixteen Ben had launched his own design company. His interest in online video brought the start his current and previous YouTube channels, where he’s posted close to 600 videos. Currently, Ben is a Graphic Design student at the Savannah College of Art & Design where he represents the university as a Student Ambassador. He blogs here.

Would you please tell us something about you and your site?
My blog originally started out as a side-venture to go along with my video creation. It would showcase recent videos, but not much else. It has since taken on its own website and small social community.

I do! I’ve gone back within recent months and read my first posts on the blog and it’s interesting to see how I’ve grown as a person. My blog has grown with me through my teenage years, so it makes a nice time-capsule of sorts. It’s important to see myself growing because I don’t want to ever, ever become stale to my audience. Although I may not have the most exciting life I know that there’s people reading, so I don’t allow myself to post meaningless updates that will waste both my time and the reader’s.

I think the best blogging experience I’ve had is the networking that comes with having a blog. Your first impression is always important, but when that first impression is your blog (which is most likely the most personal part of your online presence) then it draws people in. They get drawn in because they can easily relate to any tribulations or achievements that you write about. The power in that connection is enough to fuel business deals and lifelong friendships.

Like everyone else I have a Twitter and Facebook and such, so I connect on those sites. Also, I’m always actively scouring and trying to find people who not only are likened to myself in their interests and abilities, but who are also genuine, good people in their online life. There’s too many trolls and “haters” out on the Internet as it is, so I try and surround myself only with people who will compliment what I’m already doing.

Constantly receiving useful input & helpful advice on my life from others who are in similar situations makes blogging awesome, so I love it

It may not be politics exactly, but the local government of Los Angeles, California has had a Twitter account set up since I’ve been a member (over two years now I guess) for their Fire Department. They use this account to spread alerts on wildfires, house fires, medical transports, etc. It’s really awesome to know that the city of LA is actively engaging their residents with online tools.
Another notable use of technology to prevent and document crime is the OurBlock.TV project. I’ve watched it grow from Adam’s Block (one single camera overlooking a street intersection in San Francisco) to a network that, by launch time, will include dozens of cameras facing the streets from citizen residences. A large portion of the company’s earnings will go to area charities as well.

I do, but not to the extent that most would like. Many people aren’t willing to engage with blogs, Twitter, YouTube, etc. They’re happy with their email accounts and perhaps a Facebook page and that’s it. I believe it’s mostly fear of the unknown (in the case of many elderly persons especially) that keeps them away. On the flip-side, during this past election for United States President we saw an unprecedented utilization of Social and New Medias from most candidates. Never has an election been so widely affected by Internet users. We even had two debates that featured questions from YouTube users themselves. That in itself is a respectable claim to make, aside from the fact that Barack Obama now has over two-million followers on Twitter.

My site isn’t that of a teenager who’s struggling to figure out who he is. I see so many good blogs get disregarded and overlooked because of the fact that they become more about finding out who the writer is. Sure, that’s a perfectly fine thing to do in your blogging, and like I said before I find out a lot about my own growth by reading old blog posts. The truth is, though, that in order to have a following that will keep returning and wanting to read more you need to know what your doing with your site. You need a clear direction and you can’t deviate from that more than a few degrees. Although I changed my online persona from an anonymous one to my self, I still kept the focus of the blog on my videos and online interactions. If you don’t keep that focus, all consistency may be lost.

My extreme eagerness to speak, no matter what size audience I’m in front of. I never had trouble in Speech class, and I am usually the first person to volunteer to give public addresses. I was also recently asked to speak at my University in front of an audience of parents about my experiences with Social Media, which was incredibly fun.

Though those two moments are hard to pin down, I would say that one of my happiest moments was when I found out I had won the top award at the SkillsUSA Massachusetts state competition for Advertising Design. I went on to compete at the National level and represented my state along with the other top-winners. It’s an experience that I’ll never forget.
I don’t generally have gloomy moments, but I suppose that when my Grandfather died about ten years ago I was the most emotional I’ve ever been.

I would first fly in to Nashville, Tennessee. I know that’s not exotic to most people, but I have a huge base of friends there and it’s my favorite city in the country. Then I would head to Ireland, where my family lineage is, followed by a trip to Sydney, Australia.

That would definitely be between two books. The first, A Million Little Pieces, is a fictitious story about a man going through drug withdrawals and how he copes with it. The way it’s written, using no formal punctuation during conversations, is something that inspires me due to its simplistic yet understandable form. The second is called This Is Your Brain on Music. That book explained to me the reasons I would become so enthralled with a certain song, or why I would feel the unstoppable urge to learn a new instrument by ear.

How they present themselves as a whole. I’ve dealt with some of the most educated and well-known individuals in the world, and also know many people who are somewhat opposite that. The only thing setting these two kinds of people apart is the way they hold themselves, the way the dress, and the way that they speak. It’s sad to state, but our society places a large emphasis on these superficial characteristics. I will associate with anyone regardless of their stature, but at the same time I would rather be working in a business setting with someone who appears professional.

Oh, yes! My sixth grade teacher made us journal every day and I absolutely hated it. I actually despise formal writings (term papers, essays, etc) and have always struggled with them, but for some reason when I’m typing about myself it all seems to be easy-flowing. Perhaps it was because the teacher made us hand-write our journals. I think if I had been allowed to type them I would have been much more keen to the idea.

There’s obvious ways to benefit financially from blogs, but I hate to tell that to people because they seem to want to instantly quit their job and just sit home all day and blog. Now, that’s all well and good, but they don’t realize the things that need to be in place first; A loyal reader base is a must, as is an account with an advertising agency. Many agencies are willing to work with smaller-end bloggers and will try to find the best plan for in-site ad placement that they can.
One tool I use is a company that will pay me for each blog entry I make that endorses their product. Now I’m not going to make every blog post about certain products, and others shouldn’t either. But all bloggers should be able to gain from their positive endorsement, whether it be motivated by money or not.

Is it true that someone who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?
No. Not at all. I’m pretty sure that nobody who’s successful ever has a lot of time to waste. That’s why they’re successful - they’re always working.

I’ve always thought that if we worked together as one large blog community that we could make some real differences in the world. The likes of Alltop and Digg are showing just how a community can bring popular articles to the forefront of online news, and traditional media outlets are starting to take notice of these changes and are eager to check those websites and others for news at all times of the day. I recently was interacting with an acquaintance on Twitter who was in the middle of a Martial Law situation in Pittsburgh during the G20 summit. He was tweeting out his location and events occuring and I was relaying them to major new media outlets in real time. Things like that wouldn’t be possible without the new technologies and services that are available.

OK, I’m obviously playing favorites here, because I know and correspond with these people on a daily basis through online means. That being said, they’re also people that I admire and hope to learn from in any way possible. Without further ado, in no particular order…
Carrie-Lee
Jessica Rosenberg
Aravind Ajith
Jessica Gottlieb
Adam Jackson

That post would be my reaction to the untimely deaths of two children, Maddie and Thalon. They died within a week of each other and the post that resulted from my grief and anger is still one of my most powerful and moving entries.

I see the media here portraying the nations of the Middle East as confused, and a bit dangerous. This is incredibly unfortunate, considering that your citizens are human beings too, just like American citizens. We all have similar wants and needs; we all wish to be loved, we all want to protect our families, and we all hope to be able to say, “I lived a good life” at the end of it all. It’s sad to know that many people think of other nationalities as scary or offensive, just because they may speak another language or may believe in a different “higher power,” prophet, etc. It matters not what you believe in; what truly matters is who believes in you.

The only time I have been “stunned” was because a blogger was doing something that was completely unethical and it should never have been posted online. She was posting her own paraphrasing of medical records from one of the students at her school, and then following them up with her own opinions on the situation. Needless to say, we got together and had her blog taken down within a day’s time. There was never any word of actions taken against her by the school at which she worked.

The things that their people “want” or “need” or hold dear. People in developing countries are in search of the basic essentials like shelter, water, clothing, and protection from outside elements among other things. Here it’s common for teenagers to beg for a new cell phone, clothes, and other things that aren’t completely essential to their living healthy lives.

Hopefully blogs will become the magazines of tomorrow. They’ve already become somewhat similar to magazines. Alltop is billing itself as a virtual magazine rack for today’s most popular blogs, and I’m willing to bet that in the future there will be more and more subscription-based blogs to mirror their hardcopy counterparts.

Blogging has never adversely affected my life personally or professionally. I’ve been offered jobs because of my blog, and I’ve made a large network of friends through it. I can only say positive things about having a blog, as long as you stay truthful and don’t put things on the Internet that may be harmful to others. Using common sense will make your blog appealing, and the people who choose to connect with you through it will see how great you are.

I hope to move to somewhere that’s a bit more technologically advanced than my current location in Georgia. San Francisco or New York City would be nice, and I have friends in both places. If I don’t work in my current field of Graphic Design then I would hope to be still in the realm of blogging or technology and new media. I also would love to travel and attend conferences. It’s always good to get out and learn from others!

All I can hope is that you enjoy what I do, and how I do it.

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