Final Publication

I have grown up surrounded by technology no matter where I went. My relationship with technology started with my parents. I got my first technology when I was five, and it has been a never-ending cycle ever since. My current relationship isn’t unhealthy, and this class helped me better grasp what it means to be a digital citizen. Over the semester, I have learned about the patterns of what the internet has done to us. Technology is a massive part of our daily lives and is the means of human connections and communication. It is essential to acknowledge the changes social media and technology have made to us. Digital media creates two main challenges for the way that we manage and distribute our attention. Digital media allows us to engage in numerous activities and interactions simultaneously, strategically shifting our attention between them. This generation has become experts at “multitasking,” or as we think. It is impossible to multitask. We are just switching between 2 tasks every few seconds. Digital media is changing us and how we do things, shortening our attention span. We get overstimulated so easily for an overload of information and being quickly bored due to the many things we have going on simultaneously. We constantly look at our phones to see if we missed a call, text, or new post. Distributing attention is a kind of social action involving these three main factors: the historical body, the interaction order, the discourses in place, and social action. With this comes information and a lot of it. There is such a thing as information overload; it is a condition characterized by increased stress levels, confusion, and difficulty in making decisions resulting from “too much information.” With an overload of information comes confusion; though the media have such an intense way with us in today’s age, fake news is spread fast and efficiently through instant messaging and how fast word can spread on platforms.

Instant messaging conversation illustrates how things like punctuation and emotion can be contextualized in text-based communication. This is very accurate punctuation, and emotions are cues in texting. This made me think about how everyone texts differently and uses punctuation in different ways. In Jones and Hafner Chapter 4 it discusses multimodality which goes over the application of several literacies in a single medium. The comprehension of a composition by an audience is influenced by various literacies, or “modes.” Meaning is created by everything, including the arrangement of the content, the positioning of the photos, and the mode of delivery in writing. In writing the use of visual elements such as font, color, spacing and accompanying images can have an effect on the meaning you make. Spoken and written texts have always drawn on multiple modes: aural and visual, as well as verbal and textual. This is why when journalists and publishers write something they choose their font and images very closely because it can make or break how many views or if people pay attention to your work.

Some people use periods to end a sentence, and others use them when they are mad or trying to seem serious when texting. Online relationships are formed through communication through platforms, but when creating online relationships, they come with boundaries you should follow. The internet is scary because we never know who is behind a profile and if the person they display on these platforms is even who they are. Fake news is dangerous and needs to stop being spread. Fake news can be rumors online about drama, from celebrities and influencers to phony news about serious world events. The internet can be scary, but knowing it is not safe and not trusting everything you see is essential. It is amazing how connected we all are through mediums and how great of a positive impact influencers make, but there is a concern about whether it harms us and future generations. The type of language ‘displaying features that are unique to the internet . . . arising out of its character as a medium’ (Crystal, 2001: 18). Over the semester, we talk in a lot of acronyms and short words. I believe writers will have to stay aware of the language used by younger and older generations because it is constantly changing. We abbreviate many words in today’s age, and we don’t seem to write out whole words. Why is this? Concerns have been raised that this so-called new variety may jeopardize people’s capacity to produce more standard varieties of language and their effectiveness in communication. There have been studies in Johns and Hafer chapter 5 “(2005) for example, have found that students who spend more time instant messaging and texting tend to write more complex sentences, use a wider vocabulary, and have more accurate spelling and capitalization in their English examinations.” This shows that technology is harming society and changing the way we learn in Today’s age. I find it intriguing Today to see how the internet can shape a kid’s life.

Kids Today learns through these media platforms, YouTube videos, and lessons. In class, we watched this youtube video called “The Nightmare Videos of Children’s youtube.” It goes into algorithms, a system of guidelines and indicators that order content on social media sites according to the likelihood that each user will find it interesting and engage with it. The video goes over how creators can link words to get more views when they make videos. Many childhood characters have fallen off copyright and can be used by anyone for any footage they please. These keywords link videos together, so if a child starts watching an episode of Mickey Mouse, they can watch a video of Mickey Mouse as a murderer. It is a sad world we live in, and how large the internet is and how scary it is to leave your child watching an educational video, and then minutes later, they can be horrified for like with a scarring video in the algorithm. This is why many mediums now have children-only channels and sections of their platform, so stay away from issues. Children at a young age are impressionable; these are the most critical years. Keeping them safe and away from scary things on the internet is essential because we live in a frightening world.

This is why when choosing a source and showing friends/ family something, you should double-check if what you are showing is a natural source and not fake. Over the semester, we learned SIFT, which stands for stop and consider, if you are familiar with and confident in the information source and the website. Next is to investigate the source, which means Understanding what you’re reading *before* you read it is a crucial concept, so checking the website and seeing if it is legit. Last is to find better coverage, look for more reliable reporting or analysis on the claim, and disregard the source that first reached you. Then, Trace Claims, Quotes, and Media to the Original Context. This can help You determine whether the version you saw was accurate by viewing it in its original context. There is a website we learned about over the semester called Politifact, and it is perfect for seeing if a story you saw or news report is legit. It shows you things you might have seen on the news and rates them based on whether they are true or false. It is fascinating and a good tool because it even shows you topics you see on TikTok and other things besides the news and allows you to fact-check them. As always, we must search the internet cautiously, be careful when scrolling on media platforms, and never believe something the first time we watch, read, or consume news.

This class has taught me the importance of writing skills and how valuable it is to speak your mind through writing. Writing well enhances your overall communication skills and increases your reading comprehension, which is not only job-related but also a daily necessity. Writing is seen everywhere as communication on signs, on labels. We live through reading and writing, and without it, we wouldn’t have anything. Communication can be more than just writing and reading; it can be through sounds such as sirens and bells because each sound we hear is associated with a piece of information we know. As well as body language over time, you begin to learn body language, which is also a means of communication between two people. It is impressive how we as a society have so many different ways of getting information through just writing.

Overall, this class has taught me so much, and I would take it all over again if I could. I learned a lot of valuable information about literature, media, and writing and how they all come together. Everything I learned in this class will stick with me forever as a future writer, from SIFT and finding sources to how algorithms work on medium platforms to how misinformation information and communication work and how important it is to be a good digital citizen.