Digital Culture: Reflections and Course Adjustments

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!

Missionary Work by Digital Means - for Kelsey

I decided to do the altruistic scholar assignment for Kelsey. It seems like her posts have been revolving around using digital means to do missionary work, so I wanted to help find some sources for her that show what the Church is doing in terms of an online presence and online outreach.

I know that you have to be pretty careful when finding websites regarding the Church because there is a lot of anti literature out there that is less than helpful. However, here are a few resources I found that might help:

1. Forums: LDS.net contains a lot of forums of people discussing beliefs. I searched through a few of them, and most of them seemed to be conversion stories. There were a few that had something to do with investigating the church in the title. Kelsey might use this to analyze the use of forums for investigation. It is much less threatening to pose a question online and view responses than it is to meet face to face with the missionaries, for example. It might not always be as effective, and there is always the risk of getting biased and incorrect information, but I think we have to recognize that it is definitely a major way that people are finding out about the Church. There is also, of course, Mormon.org and the profiles there. I think observing the way people are asking questions and what questions they are focusing on could really help in your research.

2. Blogs: In this post, Kelsey mentioned that she wanted to explore some blogs that were branded LDS and see how they were received by those who are not LDS. Whenever we start talking about Mormon blogs, naturally Mormon mommy blogs come up. There are so many aspects to explore here, including DIY culture. This article is a young feminist atheist who loves reading Mormon mom blogs, one reason being that they portray motherhood with respect. I found it incredibly enlightening, especially seeing it through a nonmember's eyes. Here are a few blogs that I found that you might want to look into:

• Stephanie Nielson's blog http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/. This woman was mentioned in general conference and is one of the most well-known mommy bloggers that I am aware of. She has a very wide readership, LDS and non-LDS alike. 
• Another pretty popular one, C. Jane Kendrick http://www.cjanekendrick.com/. The unique thing about this blog is that she is very open about her LDS faith, highlighting the brand you were talking about when discussing Public Parts. 
• This Deseret News article lists some more Mormon mommy blogs and talks about why they are so prevalent and popular.

3. News Articles: At the very least, these articles can get you familiar with what is being publicized about the changing rules for missionaries and some researchers on the subject. I really liked what these articles had to say about how the world is changing, so missionary work must adapt to the changes and move along with it. 

• Here is an article I found in the Religion News Service that talks about the changing nature of missionary work in the LDS church.
• This article is probably the most comprehensive overview of the recent announcement. 
• This Wall Street Journal blog post about the announcement notes the radical change from missionary policy. It also mentions Dr. Burton, so that's pretty cool! What I also think could help would be to read through some of the comments on the blog post and see how these changes are being received. Maybe there will be some leads to some other sources for you. 

I hope this helps at least a little bit! Good luck with your research. 

my curation experience with diigo

via

Over the past week or so as I have been exploring Diigo, I've used to the tool to track my research concerning public sharing, and in particular, online missionary work.  One of the unique tools Diigo provides is that it allows you to see other bookmarks and lists that other users have curated. This was helpful in finding information concerning online sharing in general, and even other enthusiasts of Public Parts by Jeff Jarvis, however it was difficult to find information specifically related to the LDS effort to use digital tools to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. So in that way, Diigo was not as useful as it might have been with another topic. However, the highlighting, bookmarking and note taking features were extremely useful in tracking my research through various church websites and blogs. It was a funny thing to hear Elder Ballard explaining the digital realm in a very similar way to Jarvis.  

Elder Ballard stated, "Those conversations will continue whether or not we choose to participate in them. But we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches. While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time." This sounds very familiar, as Jarvis likewise stated, "To make those [real] connections, we must be public and share. We first have to reveal ourselves as members of those groups." Ballard's talk was given back in 2008.  As I've gone through various blogs I've seen both good and bad examples of this in action.  It's not enough just to throw in the word "mormon" or "lds" and call it good. Yes, we must identify ourselves as members of the LDS church, but we must do so consciously.  Ballard continued on in his talk to expound upon the idea of explaining things online very clearly and simply. I found some wonderful articles, both by members of the Church and others, who discussed the need to consciously create a positive online identity, or as Jarvis calls it, a "brand". 

As I continue on in my research, I want to focus on not only the content that has been circulated, but how it was received. I'm hoping to look into several blogs that I have discovered and bookmarked through Diigo, and explore how those not of the LDS faith received and responded to the information. 

What have your experiences (good or bad) been with sharing your religious beliefs online? 

The Magnificence of Metadata

As I've begun to look at Diigo as a platform for curation, I have come to realize what a necessity detailed metadata (labels, tags, etc.) is.  I have been looking into missionary work for the Church, both how full-time missionaries can use digital tools as proselyting tools, as well as how non-proselyting members can use similar tools to share their beliefs with their friends. The tag "missionary" brings up all sorts of craziness, and not much of it is useful.  Trying to generally search for websites and research related to missionary work for the LDS church brings up hundreds of blogs of missionaries currently serving, or people ranting about how their missions were the best. I found that the pages that appeared most useful were ones who had quite a few tags, so that a variety of searches would pull up those pages.  Until this point, I haven't worried much about putting labels and tags on my posts, yet as a result of the frustration I experienced trying to find information relevant to my research, I'm now recognizing that if you want your research, opinions, etc to be taken seriously, let alone seen, labels and other metadata are necessary. As mentioned in class, metadata also contributes to the identity you create online. If I want my work to be taken seriously, and if I want to be a person whose thoughts can be taken seriously, then the labels I assign need to reflect that. Overall, this process of curating has been an awakening to the magnificence of metadata!