Rebuilding the Internet
For my “Rebuilding the Internet” project, I attempted to create a computer using Build Mode in the Sims 4. Just a quick warning, my building and interior decorating skills are not very great. On the outside, it’s a very rough model of how my Acer computer looks but what’s on the inside is what is important.
I wanted to build this in Sims 4 because it’s game I love playing in my free time and possibly increase my building skills (that was very unsuccessful.) Since Sims has features to build houses and not building computers, I used some of their floor tiles with dots in the middle to represent the keys on a computer, a celebrity floor tile in place of a sticker, Simlish signs where the brands and information about the computer would be, a smoke detector as a camera, and a giant painting of dogs as the screen (people watch random animal videos, so why not?) The keyboard portion represents the making of the Internet while the screen portion represents what the Internet has become over time.
Inside the keyboard area, I created an office looking room filled with bookshelves and desks, laptops, and TV screens to display something. I wanted this area to show what goes into the creating the Internet. It reminds me of a lot of rooms you would see in shows and movies when they want to hack into something or look into someone they are suspicious of. The amount of people that are working on it and the amount of information needed for it work. There’s trash cans for disposing trash, many bookshelves filled with the books and files they may need to create the internet, and desk cubicle areas for them to get to work.
Then when we get to the screen area, I created two floors and filled them with items to show what the Internet has become for people. The first floor being creativity and recreation and the second being knowledge and work. When I was creating this build, I noticed I was having a hard time deciding where I wanted each item to go. The uses of some of these overlap. Someone might use the Internet to learn more about art because they’d like to improve their skill and later sell their finished pieces.
This photo shows the creativity and recreation floor. The Internet has become a place for many to display their creativity or to get inspiration as well as a place for people to relax. Whether it’s scrolling through their TikTok feed for 2 hours, updating their Etsy shop with recent art pieces, watching the newest season of Stranger Things, or learning a new paint style to try, the Internet has become something people are likely to turn to. This floor features different stations such as the easels and canvases for artists, a camera for photographers and videographers, multiple musical items such as a guitar, violin, and performance kit for a musician.
The floor is my favorite because it displays what I think is the main use of the Internet: knowledge. Even though this image shows more science and logic related things, there is more to it than just that. No matter what it is someone is doing online, they are looking for or receiving knowledge. It could be looking into how to beat the next level of a game, the best plays in chess, the cast for an upcoming Marvel movie, DIYs for a room decoration, discovering people from high school are married, or doing a research assignment for school, we are always looking for or receiving knowledge.
