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Digital Detox

Class is over, but I couldn't resist posting this article that I found in the New York Times,

Learning to Let Go: First, Turn Off the Phone,

from last Friday. It is relevant to the class, and also to the idea of managed online use.

At this moment I yearn for a vacation from digital life. This class has brought to consciousness, through examination, all of the addictive and compulsive ways that I myself have been indoctrinated into the digital melee. I want the information and the ease of use, but I also find that it pushes things out of my life that I also want - like hikes in nature, meditation, reflective time, etc.

I hope that initiatives like this "Digital Detox" space catch on. We seem to be playing with our brains when we simply succumb to the manipulations of digital existence without reflection. Simply thinking I can resist the temptations of my devices while they are in easy proximity seems naive at this point. A "retreat" from devices seems more sensible in my case. Perhaps you won't hear from me for awhile...

Final Reflection

Final Reflection

            Blogging, for me, was a bit like the Internet itself. There was too much freedom and I had a hard time figuring out what I was going to do with each post. The guided prompts were a little easier for me, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was no point beyond getting my points in class. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not downing bloggers at all. I think it’s amazing that any content producer can generate and produce media on a regular basis. I can never think of anything that I feel is important enough to put online and I suppose that’s why the concept of blogging is lost on me. Writing a blog for promotion, an institution or a cause, I can understand. My everyday thoughts, however, others might find pretty boring. Besides, I already put off enough of my writing; I would feel guilty spending my time blogging instead of working on my novel. But perhaps when I am far enough, I could find a blog group of writers to blog with about writing. Ahhh, technology.  

            This was my first semester in the MLS program. When first entering this class, I was a little concerned about how I was going to relate the material to my final project, especially because I wasn’t sure what it was yet. When I completed my Introductory Seminar, I had produced a Themed Plan of Study entitled Moral Decision Making Processes. I had constructed a plan to study the influences identity has on the morality we construct in order to make decisions. The information I gather, in disciplines like Religious Studies, Psychology and History, will influence a novel that will serve as my capstone project.

            In the future, I am interested to see how medical practitioners and psychology deal with technology’s interaction with identity. Technological advances in brain imaging provide evidence for chemical processes occurring while using the Internet. Proposals for Internet disorders, as discussed in our final class, as well as things like video game disorders have been gaining interest as years go on as well. Are these technological uses an evolution of human behavior? Use of the Internet has increased drastically over the last decade, so how can we tell when there is too much Internet use? I guess we’ll see what they come up with.

A Little Creative Writing

A couple semesters ago, in Writers as Readers, Suzanne Nielsen compiled sentences from each of the students' assignments in class and combined them to create a completely new story. I wanted to try this writing exercise with the previous blog posts I've written this semester. Here's what I came up with:

How much of this suburban isolation is because of geographic location and how much is self-inflicted isolation? The first problem I have revolves around just plain laziness. Perhaps it is naive to think that you can represent yourself truthfully without others taking advantage of it. The boundaries are constantly being tested and pushed. Sure, it will evolve, probably constantly, but there is no going back now. It's almost like an invasive species, popping up in every corner of the world. I think it looks a bit like me. Are the images portrayed in media partially responsible? These videos become viral and often end up on national television news channels. Sometimes I get lost in them. What will that mean for the future? Anyways, I'm just organizing out loud (or in text, whatever) and thought someone, somewhere, somehow might also find it useful.

Digital Literacy

Digital literacy and how populations are using the Internet is a viable avenue for researchers in the future. Neuroscience and brain imaging are technologies that are advancing in a way that will allow the differences in our brain structures to be seen. However, I do believe there is another aspect at play regarding Internet use. How we use the Internet is directly tied to what we know how to do with our technology. Program useability and popularity go hand in hand. There would be a lot fewer users on Facebook if we had to write our own code to post a status update. And I have to say, I am pessimistic about the results of any studies regarding identity and Internet use until digital literacy levels are taken into consideration. However, growing numbers of digital natives may change literacy in a positive manner, creating a more equal playing ground. What will that mean for the future? "Hot Cheetos and Takis" was, I thought, an inspiring video showing a new, young generation of content creators who were able to use current technology to produce something relevant to their daily lives. Hopefully, there is more of that in the future.

Jenna Marbles on App Addiction

For our final class I gave a short, but hopefully informational, presentation on the digital divide and Internet addiction. Jenna Marbles is a YouTube addiction of mine. If you haven't heard of her, she posts videos, usually humorous ones, every week. Sometimes I get lost in them. Jenna, in turn, has her own addiction as she explains in her video "Apps are Ruining my Life." She talks about how "The apps that I'm addicted to, half of them I can't even explain to you why they're so addicting...like they're just flat out fucking stupid." I have thought about this many times after wasting hours playing BubbleShoot or Slotomania. Why do I even care about leveling up? I have no clue, but I do. Marbles talks about how she finally broke down and bought Monopoly on her iPad: "I have never spend that much money on an app and the way that I justified it to myself, in my brain, like some drug addict making excuses for themselves: might as well pay ten dollars for the app so I can play on Monopoly cuz I don't have friends to play with me all the time." Alas, I have not actually spent real money on any apps but I do know the disappointment of having the free levels of a game run out just when it was starting to get good. At the end of the video, she leaves viewers with these thoughts: "and I think the solution is that I need to do my best to take responsibility for, ya know, limiting myself to app playing but it's not my fault because we, as human beings, have never had this much entertainment at our fingertips. It's very hard to be productive and we're all in this big, big boat called what the fuck is my life about?"

Affirmative Action: Still Fighting for Crumbs

 An article entitled: Jim Summerville, Tennessee State Senator, Proposes Ending Affirmative Action reads like this:

A Republican state senator in Tennessee is planning to introduce legislation to end the state's affirmative action program.

Summerville said that he believes the program has become a quota system and said that it is harming people who are qualified. He said that minorities can still be hired without affirmative action if they are qualified.

Summerville said:

“I’ll be called racist and I know that,” Summerville said. “I will not use the term affirmative action because it’s not really very precise anymore. It’s misused and overused and nobody knows exactly what it means, but what we do have are specific preferences in the law given to, for example, let’s say college education. Certain numbers of admissions are reserved to people of minority status. (It) shouldn’t be that way. They can earn it. They have earned it. They do earn it.”

 

I find it incredible that Whites can see racism where there isn’t any, but are completely blind to real world racism. With reports showing that Whites wealth is worth 20 times that of Blacks and 18 times more than Latino, I don’t see why ending Affirmative action would even be a topic of discussion.

Yes, Blacks can be hired on the own merit- and they do. Of course, we are more than capable of getting into school without help- but so are you, yet you dont. Blacks have earned everything they have- the same cannot be said for Whites. Whites have always had a "leg up" in their prosperity and stiil do, contrary to what many believe. 

The wealth gap happened because of government policies. Many were shut out of post war policies that enabled wealth growth such as; the benefits of FDR’s, New Deal, which almost completly left Blacks out of housing ownership, but greatly benefited  Whites. This is the reason, (as well as current racism), why Whites wealth status is so substantial to ours, yet, Whites have the nerve to try and end programs for minorities.

So, while Whites have reaped the benefits from government assistance, we have somehow come to the conclusion that Blacks are being privileged, because of the crumbs being thrown at us. According to the article, “A $95,000 question: Why Are Whites FiveTimes Richer than Blacks in the US? “, Blacks will never achieve the wealth of White if things continue as they are. NEVER!

So why would this be the time to eliminate Affirmative action?

Summerville mentions Affirmative action practices of schools, but one must wonder, did he consider the Affirmative action of Whites, whose children are grandfathered in to colleges because of their parent’s alumni-ship? Will this be eliminated also? Of course, not.

This racist talk comes not from ill informed, uneducated people. This proposal comes from leaders who are educated and have all the privilege and resources afforded them, to become informed. Clearly deciding to pick up a book and educate yourself on who is really receiving preferential treatment, was not important.

We need real leaders who are going to look out for the interest of all people and not just for themselves. How easy do Whites really need it?

Blacks are owed (yes I said owed), way more than Affirmative action can give. If we are ever going to close the gaps, in every sector pertaining to human life, Whites must put away this racist doctrine (yes, it is racist to try and eliminate programs that are trying to achieve equality) and begin to heal the whole country.

After all, when Blacks achieve financial success, it mostly benefits Whites.