I have come to understand digital culture as something to be embraced for the good. I have always been very apprehensive of digital culture, because, you know, the horror stories. I only joined this class because A) Dr. Burton and 2) Moby-Dick, which, surprisingly, I enjoyed. I also thought being able to say I've read Moby-Dick would be pretty cool--it's just different. It seemed to bring out my inner child a little, comparing Ishmael's cetology to modern marine biology. I thought I would do my final project on something more literary or critical. And I think Ishmael is cool--a bit pigheaded, but cool. It was kind of scary to realize that I might not have anything else to draw me to the course.
But then I realized that everything about this course was interconnected with my life, not just my social life on facebook but my entertainment and tastes in humor, and also how I communicate with people. I got a new phone that is a touch-screen, which I was kind of excited about and am still getting used to, and it would be a smart phone if my family had a data plan, which I am a little more open to now. I have joined Twitter and Google +, and I have gotten into the habit of sharing mini-reviews of shows and movies on all these platforms--in short, i am a lot more responsive online. I also wrote my entire term paper on Google Docs--just to take my writing to the next level.
I learned what curation is, but in curating news articles about the entertainment biz I felt like I was only scratching the surface and had to go beyond the curation platforms--onto blogs and twitter--to see what was really going on. In fact, when I needed source material for my project, links posted on twitter that got me connected to the right material and the right people (also paying attention when you're just browsing online--that's how I found a very helpful BuzzFeed article).
So I learned to be curious and to follow my instinct to explore. True, it depends on the activity, but when it counts, it counts big. I also learned how to get better social proof from people who wrote these articles. In terms of where I was with Dr. Burton's Shakespeare class and now, I have improved a lot on some digital topics. I have also changed my views about video games, enough to the point where I am open to playing them. For the moment, I am more drawn to video games with content I relate to, such as the Moby Dick video game we found or the Dr. Who game on the Google Doodle for the 50th Anniversary.
Going into this course, I expected that the digital tools and topics would be difficult to understand, and they were. But it got easier when I realized that I could embrace digital tools to explore what I love. What really helped was seeing Skye in "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." talking about collaboration and hacktivism, which ideas I recognized from our lectures. Having the potential to connect with people who care about what I care about through social media is exciting. What makes us embrace the digital is the personal. For instance, I have only seen bits and pieces of Dr. Who, but I consider myself a Whovian because, according to a Whovian friend, I know everything I need to know about the series without having actually watched it. This happened because the tropes are commonly shared through memes and other online content posted by my friends--they converted me. This was my rationale behind my argument about fandoms for my term paper. And if fandoms can spread like that--just through the sharing of remixed content--imagine how this impacts missionary work, like Kelsey studied in her project. No wonder the Church is going digital!
Digital culture is a lot more all-encompassing than I thought it was. It is kind of like the oceanic world that Ishmael explores in Moby-Dick: it gives us a perspective for everything in life. Of course, that is what digital culture is in its nature: it is designed to describe, sell, and share anything you want. It allows you to share your vision with others.
In spite of its distractions and dangers, digital culture has a lot of potential for good. It can help us to understand our own culture. Armed with that understanding, or just with the intention to help, we can reach out to other people online. I was very impressed with Kristen's project about early returned missionaries, because I have several friends who, for individual reasons, had to come home early, and for one or two of them it was very hard. I feel better that someone cares about these people and wants to make a difference for them. One of the reasons I explored fandom was because, ever since Harry Potter, I feel like fandom has brought me closer to other people, particularly family and friends. I was introduced to the Marvel fandom by a set of roommates I was very close to, and those films brought meaning into my life at a time when I was struggling.
So what it boils down to is that digital culture is a good thing as long as we use it for good within reasonable limits, and society has embraced it to the point where we cannot live without technology, so we have to learn to use it to our advantage in order to remain a part of society. And as some successful online stars as Stephanie Nielson have shown, if we use technology right we can end up giving back to the digital world and advocating for something we care about. If I could choose a different final project, for instance, I would create an online petition for Disney to bring back all of its animated tv shows from the 90s and early 2000s (follow this link to your childhood). I should probably do that anyway. This class showed me that I can do anything. Especially when I can find other people who care about the same things I do.
IT PAYS TO BE SAVVY!
