Final Reflection

When the semester began, I came to class with many of my own assumptions and feelings about our modern day use of the internet. In all honestly, I’ve always been a bit hesitant when it comes to the internet and the consequences that may come with living and existing in a sort of virtual reality, and I still find myself questioning the intentions behind something that takes up such a large part of our daily lives, for some of us anyway. The idea of replacing face-to-face interaction with online connections makes me nervous, I have to say, and I’m not sure what to expect from that. 

But isn’t that always the way? A fear of the unknown can often make us reluctant to give something a go, resulting in us missing out on opportunities or worse, relationships. And of course, I spend a good amount of time on the internet myself when it comes to school, work, life... we all have to now, right? I mean, I don’t think you can get a library card anymore without an email address on file.  

I think, though, for me, it’s this timidness that I feel at the growing insistence of society to connect more personally online and an anxiety about where that will lead the nature of relationships in the future.   

Anyway, I decided in that first week of class to let go of my assumptions and really hear what McCulloch was trying to tell me in her book, and I’m glad I did. And as I mentioned in many of our forums, her generous and gracious nature allowed me to feel as though I could sit at that table and openly engage in conversation about the internet, without judgment. As did all of you.  

So, I would say that through this class I have a better understanding of the internet and how it relates to the past, which influences our future. And how that influences our relationships with one another, and I’m thankful for that. 

And while I’m not totally convinced that we all won’t end up cyborgs someday, living our own versions of Vanilla Sky, I’m much more aware of the benefits that the internet has brought to different communities, and I honor that and see it as a good thing, in its own way. 

Copycat

So, my final paper explored the ways in which the internet is used as a mode of self-expression. Whether it’s through seeing an artist's artwork that can be more vividly displayed online or through the use of video and images to convey ideas that represent deep-rooted questions about identity and the cracks within society. The internet remains to be a place of both criticism and reflection for those that use it and can, therefore, spark conversation, public engagement and change.  

But I also wonder... what about the other hand? Because isn’t there always one? 

What about the ways in which the internet serves as a sort of remix of how language is used, in and of itself. Of course, we read about many ways this takes place in McCulloch’s book, but I was really drawn to Harris’s version of an original plagiarism (128), where the work of others is drawn on for inspiration and to create something new. But does it always create something new or do some words or phrases become popular and then simply copied? And does that make them original at all? How many times do you see someone on your social media news feed say or post this meme:

Or what about this one:

 

 

Love Nene!

Do these words and memes that we, our friends and fellow internet family use frequently become redundant and actually lose their appeal over time? Do they ever get old?

I guess it's true that they lose some of their originality over time as they stand alone, but the fact, seems to remain that all language is copied and passed on, making it a work of original plagiarism that Harris speaks of, which seems to prove that all human language, or at least the words and phrases that we draw on to convey common ideas, is continually remixed and forwarded in some way or another.  So, in a way, I suppose we're all copycats.

Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts. 2nd ed., Utah State University  Press, 2006. 

Revisiting my Final Project

  The research project that was completed focused on how it is possible to determine which Internet group, the ones McColluch describes, a social media user belongs to. Specifically posts and comments in Facebook groups that focused on home decorating were studied and written about. In this blog post I thought it would be interesting to provide different examples from my personal Facebook as well as Twitter. It’s really interesting to me how language changes so quickly and has come so far with the use of acronyms, word choice and emojis. I cropped out all of the names from the tweets and Facebook accounts because I wasn’t sure if the posters would be OK with me sharing their names. However, one of the posts I used as my own because I didn’t realize how much I use acronyms in emoji’s, as well. I did not crop it because I don’t mind and the pictures are cute.

In the project I focused a lot on the difference between 😂 and 🤣 because that has been a recent social media debate. However, I thought it would be interesting to look at other emojis and assess the message that they add to the words used. Even the last post just uses emoji‘s, However, most of us understand what they are trying to say. It’s really interesting how these examples are three “levels” of emoji using; one over uses them, the next just uses a couple at the end and the last one is specifically only using emoji‘s with no words. I thought it would be cool if in the section you guys could guess what Internet group they belong to by just examining the emojis. I know them personally so I can give the answer in the comments tomorrow.

Word choice and acronyms are an ever-changing aspect of language especially with how popular social media is. In these examples the authors used “idgaf,” “forever evolving,””w u.””like????” and “literally I died.” These examples provide insight into the Internet language of the pre-Internet group which is very popular on social media. This group follows trans very closely and evolves with change which is sometimes more difficult for other groups. Almost all of the posts do not spell everything out and use acronyms and shortened words!

Final reflection

  An aspect that sort of coincides with my major project, but not exactly is, how the Internet can actually help the large linguistic differences between groups on social media. This idea actually somewhat contradicts parts of my major project, but I thought it would be interesting to provide a different look on this area. 

This time I’m not only speaking about the Internet groups that McCulloch describes, but different groups as in generations, gender, economic status, popularity and many more. Before social media, writing was mostly rather formal and one of the few ways to get a vast amount of people to see the writing was for it to be published or in the paper, which wouldn’t happen if someone couldn’t use proper punctuation or grammar. 

However, as the Internet evolved in social media, abbreviations and acronyms became widely used, and grammar and punctuation were the least of concerns when writing on social media. I think this is an Important breakthrough in language because there are people that have not gotten the same education opportunities as others, and social media provides them with an outlet to be heard. For example if you want to stand up for a specific issue a person could post a video or a picture with either no caption or a caption simply saying “this needs to stop”  or “we need change.” Short messages like this could get thousands or millions of likes, retweets or views and the poster doesn’t have to be grammatically correct.

Chrissy Teigen’s most popular tweet of the year in this screenshot was “uhhhhhh. Yeah. We know” as a reply to another’s tweet (I cropped it because it contains political messages, which I want to refrain from using here). The tweet was most certainly not grammatically correct and used short sentences and “uhhh” not even a word, yet that didn’t stop the 250,000 people from retweeting it.

Writing Process

  The most interesting aspect about the writing process is that it differs from person to person. Isn’t it amazing how brains work so differently that one person can be listening to loud music while another needs complete silence? Throughout my entire educational experience my writing process has somewhat stayed similar. 

The first part of my writing process, with the exception of this semester, is to hand write a version of my paper. This version is not focused on grammar or punctuation,  it’s simply just writing all of my thoughts down into one draft. This is an important step for me because for some reason I get awful writer's block when I’m using the computer to begin writing. (Not exactly related but I also have to hand write notes in order to remember them). Also when using a computer you’re more focused on arranging the cohesive sentences with accurate spelling and grammar, while on paper you can just freely write your thoughts and worry about grammar and punctuation later.

Here is a very interesting link to a website that provides benefits of handwriting. I thought it was intriguing.

 

https://vanillapapers.net/2019/07/29/9-powerful-benefits-writing-by-hand/

The next step to my writing process is to start typing the paper slowly onto the computer, while changing the long flow of ideas into cohesive sentences. Then, because of not knowing how many pages handwritten exactly equals typed, usually I have to either add or take away parts. This writing step is usually the longest and hardest for me because it can be difficult when you have an idea but you can’t accurately explain it well in formal writing. 

Lastly, I print the paper out and do handwritten corrections on the paper and then I retype it. I usually go through and read it on the computer a couple times before printing it out. If I have the time I like to read it out loud because sometimes mistakes are missed if the paper is not read out loud. 

While reflecting on this semester, I would say the step in my writing process that lacked was the last one. Although I couldn’t hand-write this semester, I feel as though I adapted relatively quickly to this way of writing. The surprising part of the last step being so challenging this semester is that all the other semesters it was always the second step I struggled with. This semester I think there was just so much in my personal life that constrained how much time I had to look over the papers, which I am hoping in the future I can improve in managing time between both. 

Writing About Writing About Writing About Writing About Writing

Yup. That’s about all I’ve done so far this summer. Besides reading of course. And coming up every once in a while for air. 

And every time I take one of these summer classes I go into it like...

And I come out of it like... 

And my kids are like...

In all honesty, though, these accelerated classes never cease to amaze me, and I learn more about myself and my writing process as I go. For instance, I like a quiet space and I may or may not give you "the look" if you enter the room when I’m writing... or reading my own words to myself, out loud.

Yeah, you know the look. #sorrynotsorry 

And if I plug my ears when you ask me a question, it means one of two things: I’m either trying to hold on to an idea that could escape my brain at any moment... or I’m doing my best to beat a deadline because you just had to have lunch. (And no, of course this is not directed to anyone in particular) 

I also prefer to hand write my notes and ideas with pencil and paper and I kind of freak out when I have to use a pen because, well, I don’t like commitment. 

And btw, I’m the person that keeps those little pencil cap eraser companies in business, just in case you were wondering.

. 

I also write wayyy too many epiphanies down in my Notes app when I’m out and about, which sometimes get lost in my grocery list. So, there’s that. 

When it comes to my draft, I keep a sort of list of important points that I want to bring up later at the bottom of my paper, but sometimes that can lead to my paper seeming longer than it actually it is. #notcool

All in all, though, I imagine finishing a paper to be like running a marathon. I’ve never actually run one, so I guess I can’t confirm that. But I sure do feel like I’ve been holding my breath when I finish and, hallelujah! I can breathe again when it’s done!