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I personally would say to add Ready Player One by Ernest Kline. To learn more about the book or the movie click the links. For starters it is an amazing book that encompasses each of the general themes and most of the sub sections of each theme we covered in this class. It was one of my favorite books that I read as a kid and really fed into the fantasy tech driven dystopian future I wished we could have(it is all still possible and I hope we get their in my lifetime but I am not optimistic about it).

It would be a good book to read throughout the course of the semester or the first book to read because it encapsulates almost every topic that is covered by the class, Digital self, consumer and creator. Speaking simply as to not give away too much the digital self very important in RP1 as people live through their avatars and feel a deep emotional connection to them blurring the lines of reality. Secondly, the theme of being a Digital consumer is huge with 99% of the futuristic population interacting with the virtual reality that is the OASIS each and everyday whether it be to fight orcs, go to school or go to work. Everyone plays a role in the space that is the OASIS and sees the negatives that come with it from the evil corporation IOI(I think its Facebook). The final theme of Digital Creator ties in well with the consumer and self. As consumers people living in the book create alternate version of reality and themselves. They are faced with the challenges of existing in two separate worlds that both have real consequences. The culmination of these three themes are much more intertwined in the story than I can articulate in this post. They also delve deeper touching on other themes such as participatory culture and who really owns content to name a few.

Then, similar to The Circle by Dave Eggers, a discussion could be had relating it to the far inferior movie adaptation. For an assignment I would simply ask that each student come with discussion questions similar to the pallet and ask for the themes they think are reverent in that sections readings like the reading reflection work sheet.

What is written below is in no way shape or form historically accurate. This was done only to demonstrate what Christopher Columbus’s journey might have looked like if it was done when the internet was around (typos in tweets are purposeful). Dates that could be historically confirmed are included with the tweets.

translation: The three G’s of exploration: God, Glory and Gold

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella agree to fund Columbus’s journey

Columbus leaves for his journey despite people betting against him August 3, 1492.

Columbus and the crew spend more than a month at sea

Columbus believes that he has indeed found India and claims the land for Spain

That night Columbus sends a worldwide text message to let everyone know about his discovery.

Lief Erikson sees this and responds

Although this interaction is scientifically impossible the major points hold true. CC did get funding from the king and queen of Spain and yes he did travel to the “new world” but Christopher Columbus didn’t discover anything. The fact that it is still viewed today by many as a holiday and a significant historical event is a gross misrepresentation of history.

 

-D

 

Sources

All tweets and imessages in this post are fictional and were generated using tweetgen Beta and ifaketextmessage.com

https://www.tweetgen.com/create/tweet.html

https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus#:~:text=On%20August%203%2C%201492%2C%20Columbus,Bahamian%20islands%2C%20likely%20San%20Salvador.

https://heraldry.sca.org/names/york15/surnames-alphabetical.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/columbus_christopher.shtml#:~:text=Finally%2C%20King%20Ferdinand%20and%20Queen,set%20sail%20across%20the%20Atlantic.

 

 

 

First and foremost, the amount of information I was able to find was creepy. Professor Teaff and Professor Abdoney are both colleges educated middle-aged white women living in Lexington VA. Judging from liked posts and followed accounts they are both liberals or leftward leaning politically speaking. Smaller details are they both are cat owners and Professor Abdoney is married with a son. Despite being a part of similar demographics and political views, they will have different filter bubbles in two key areas. Professor Abdoney would most likely see ads and posts for children’s products. They both will see posts and ads for left-leaning political groups, social activism groups like BLM, cat products, and local news for the city of Lexington VA. For Professor Abdoney advertisers will use her son as a fear that she may have similar to the black mirror episode “Ark Angel “ that we had to watch for our digital culture class, where the mother is concerned with losing her daughter. According to another article for class this week, Facebook aids ad agencies in understanding their user’s emotions(The Guardian). Professor Teaff’s feed I’d assume would include more local news than Professor Abdoney due to her involvement with the Lexington Historical board.

When doing my research, I came to realize that if someone wants to find something out about you they 100% have the ability to do so. It may not be free or easy to access but there is a path to everything about you. For example, I was able to find previous addresses and phone numbers for both Professor Abdoney and Professor Teaff through TruPeopleSearch.com. Those did not fit well into the timeline so I did not include them. I changed some of my habits in the past that I have been happy with as far as information I put out there that is undoubtedly still out there but I have been good with my current habits. I spent a good 30 minutes googling myself and trying to find as much as I could and there wasn’t anything that I was able to find that I wasn’t ok with being out there. An interesting thing that I found was that you can find anyone’s previous addresses and phone numbers in multiple free easy to access databases. was surprising to me and unsettling.

 

-D

 

I spend a lot of time on my devices and the internet in general. My average phone screen time is around about 11 hours on average per day. MY log for my daily device use on September 6^th, 2020 is below. That doesn’t even include the time I spend playing Xbox and watching TV, Netflix, and YouTube. The time spent on my phone is only for personal fulfillment and communication with most of it being things like phone games. I don’t text or communicate with very many people on my phone just because I don’t like having semi-useless drawn-out conversations I think it is a waste of time. That being said I waste a lot of time playing idle and incremental upgrade games that are very time consuming and require I be actively fulfilling actions on my phone. All of the games I play run ads that are tailored to me as outline in “Propaganda Machine” and sometimes it gets to the point where I have to shut my phone off because I’ll be tired of looking at the same ads over and over again (O’Neil). Now some of them just require my phone to be on so I’ll have that open next to me when I’ll be doing homework and or watching TV. I find that being connected almost all of the time makes it difficult for me to do things like reading when my phone is buzzing next to me all the time. I solve this by just leaving my phone in another room and that solves my problems. It seems cliché to say that I’m not addicted to my devices but there are days where I spend all day on my phone and days I spend no time on my phone and I don’t even notice it. Apart from that I don’t and haven’t seen very many negative side effects from being connected to the network. For positives, I am able to reach out to people and do free-lance work for things like logo design and website optimization. Before finding some free things to access like website optimization I began to notice that making money online and from home has been heavily monetized. All these courses you should buy just to get access to. That reminded me heavily of the digital redlining and access article we read in class a pay to play sort of way (Gilliard). Being connected to the network makes that so much easier and also when I have questions on coursework I can use the help of the web and people I reach through my computer or phone to learn or guide me through whatever it is I need. Being on your devices all the time isn’t great but when they are being used in a productive matter is where things get fuzzy. A lot of money can be saved from going on YouTube and learning how to do something but a lot of time can be wasted on phone games as well. It is all about finding that delicate balance between addictions and nonexistent which I and I believe most others are trying to find.

7:24-8.  Social media

9:15- 9:30 social media

9:45-10:30 reading on PC for class

10:30-11:07 phone games

12:12-1:40 xbox and phone

1:50-2:30 course work

6:15-12:30 phone games social media and watching the NBA playoffs

 

-D

Works Cited

Gilliard, Chris. “Privacy Program.” Common Sense Education, 24 May 2016, www.commonsense.org/education/privacy/blog/digital-redlining-access-privacy.

O’Neil, Cathy. “Propaganda Machine: Online Advertising.” Wlu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com, 2016, wlu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991010460823804161.