Blog 6: A Reluctant Enlightenment

Let me begin by saying that my decision to take this course was one motivated purely by convenience.  Admittedly, being the Luddite that I am, I was somewhat uneasy at the prospect of "writing in a digital context", but by the time I was registering the only alternative that would fulfil my GNED requirement had classes that began at 8 am, which was to be avoided at virtually any cost. On the first day I was quite relieved to hear that our class only met only once per week, but little did I know how much forethought and consideration would be needed in the coming weeks.

Though keeping a blog can be a draining practice, it can yield considerable benefits.  Writing has always been a struggle for me, and I found that having to write an entry every other week has really helped me with my approach. Generally I tend to write as little as possible, and the process of extending on ideas in order to reach 500+ words, when in my mind they could have been summarised in a few sentences, was quite invigorating. Additionally, when I was hesitant to get started on a post, I could use my classmates posts as inspiration or revisit my own previous entries as a comforting reassurance. Having said that, as many of us were writing on the same topics it was at times hard to avoid repeating the ideas of others, and ultimately the biggest goal of mine was to provide original commentary while remaining accessible and genuine. I also should address my falling short on my initial intention of doing a regular blog about local music. Part of the reason for this was the strenuous task of keeping up with other aspects of the course, but also I simply did not feel that much of the recent activity in local music that I know of was really worth documenting.

Google plus also came with its challenges. I was amazed at many of my classmates ability to find great articles on the Internet that were relevant to our class discussion. I had no such luck, so I focused mainly on commenting on others posts. Again with this I needed to find ways to be interesting and sincere, which really occured to me when Yaz pointed out early on "I encourage you to post an insightful or intelligent response without the use of sarcasm". Overall I was pleased with the efficiency of google plus, and relished the opportunity read the what my contemporaries were expressing. Another challenge presented with this course was simply the fact that all work was to be done at the computer; a medium of boundless distraction, never ceasing to beckon towards something else.
 

 

Above all, I can see now that prior to my involvement in this class, my comprehension of the Internet was very limited.  I had not been a member of any online community and aside from occasionally commenting on youtube, had not participated in anonymous interaction. More importantly,  I had simply had not considered  many of the implications of the Internet with regards to issues of identity, privacy, the law, and culture at large.