One of the most surprising things I realized through the blogging aspect of this course, is that I curate myself almost as much as AI does. MirageAI reconstructed me based on biased data and aesthetics, yes, but when I sat down to write this blog, I found myself doing the same. Choosing which parts of myself to show, how to phrase things, how I wanted to be perceived. The difference is that I was curating consciously.
That is where the idea of ephemerality really hit me. In most online spaces, we get comfort from content disappearing. Stories expire, messages vanish, posts can be deleted. But a blog does not vanish. It is not ephemeral. That permanence changes everything. It made me think more deeply about what I wanted to say, how I wanted to appear, and what kind of version of myself I was putting into the world.
This connects to what Kim and Kim describe about ephemerality offering relief from self presentation pressure. When we know something will not last, we feel freer to be raw or unfiltered. But permanence, like with this blog, invites more intentionality. In that sense, I became my own algorithm, filtering, editing, and presenting myself for a specific audience. Just like MirageAI, I built a version of me that could be seen.
And that made me realise something important. Being seen is never neutral. Whether it is by AI or by people reading my blog, what gets seen is shaped by power, design, and intention. As an African woman, that truth feels even heavier. The systems doing the seeing, whether they are algorithmic or human, are not always built to hold the full complexity of who I am. Wakefield’s idea of message lifespan in online spaces helps frame this too. Ephemeral media supports short term identity experimentation, but blogging, which is built to last, feels more like a digital tattoo.
This class helped me understand that digital media is not just about tools. It is about systems of visibility. Who gets to be seen fully, and who gets simplified. MirageAI gave me a stylised version of myself. This blog gave me a space to reclaim that narrative and choose which version of me gets to stay visible.
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