Blog Post 7

For my anthropological analysis, I chose the internet subculture of Redditors, the users of the website Reddit . The basis of Reddit lies in the post, which can either be plain text or a link from an outside source, oftentimes from image hosting site Imgur. Once a post has been made, users can choose to “upvote” or “downvote” posts, which in turn sends popular posts to the Front Page, an agglomeration of posts from various communities, or “subreddits”. These subreddits cover a variety of topics, ranging from Funny to Ladyboners, a collection of people users think are attractive.

What really makes each of these subreddits unique is how the users decide how to post. While there is original content, or OC, oftentimes posts are influenced by a herd mentality. For example, recently Reddit has been abuzz with the meme False Fact Nancy Grace, started by /u/muff_daddy. Since it was posted on March 26, “nearly 80 instances have were submitted to /r/AdviceAnimals, with at least six posts garnering more than 1,500 upvotes” (knowyourmeme.com). Other examples of this include a week without opinion-based memes, and Weird Stuff I Do Potoo. However, many memes, such as Success Kid, first posted in 2007, are considered a staple of Reddit and tend to last longer than more transient memes.

Another interesting aspect of Reddit is the concept of Karma. As previously mentioned, users can upvote or downvote the posts of other users. The total rating of a post is based on the number of upvotes minus the number of downvotes. This total is then added up with the score of other posts by the user, and shows their total karma. There are two types of karma: link karma and comment karma. Link karma, as the name implies, is karma gained from posts, whereas comment karma is based off of the number of upvotes and downvotes a comment has received. However, the desire for karma has led many users to submit posts with the sole intent of gaining upvotes.

Reddit has become a dynamic source for entertainment, news, and self-expression. What really fascinates me about it, however, is how the goal of accumulating karma has led to a kind of herd mentality, where posting habits are subject to the rise and fall of popularity, and how other posting trends seem to stay around for years.

Responses:
Susan C.
Lisa G.

Blog Post 6

If you were asked how you send documents nowadays, how do you think you would respond? I think the most common response would be attaching it to an email. It’s relatively painless, costs no money, and it is practically instantaneous, only requiring a few clicks. Well, my friend, back when I was your age, sending email was incredibly time-consuming, and the maximum file size for sending emails was very small. Instead, we used fax machines.

Fax machines are essentially two telephone numbers connected to scanners. If you wanted to send a document, such as a form you filled out or a letter, you had to send a fax. Faxes work by scanning the document you wanted to send, and converting it into a picture. Then, you had to know the fax number (which was often the same as the telephone number) of the person you wanted to send it to, and you would send the picture of whatever document to the recipient. While that seems relatively painful, in my opinion, faxes were horribly inconvenient and time-consuming. For one, each page you wanted to send had to be individually scanned before the fax could be sent, which took quite a while since scanning technology was not nearly as fast or efficient as it is nowadays. You also had to create a cover page stating the amount of pages you were sending so the recipient knew when they had received the entire document. I think the most annoying part about faxes was receiving them. For the fax machine we had at home, the faxes came in through our home telephone number, and would cause the phone would ring until the fax actually went through to the machine. Once we had answered the phone, we only had a couple seconds to realize that it was a fax that was being sent and hang up before the fax got cancelled. If by chance we did not hang up the phone in time, the fax wouldn’t go through, which was inconvenient in and of itself, but what was worse is that the sender would have no idea that the fax had not gone through, and to top it off, we (the receiver) would not know who sent it unless we had previously planned the fax.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that you kids with your email have it so easily. You’re alerted to a message’s failure to send, and you are able to access the message from pretty much anywhere, whether it is on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. I’m personally really happy that email has replaced fax machines as the go-to method of sending documents electronically.

Responses:
Lisa G.
Quin R.

Blog Post 5

I wholeheartedly prefer reading physical books to e-books. Don’t get me wrong, as a DTC major, I love working with and using computers and technology. However, I think there’s a certain romance, if you will, about holding a book, feeling the ink on the page, and being able to smell the paper. While there are obvious shortcomings for books, such as not being able to jump immediately to a page or instantly find what you’re looking for, I think that books give you something physical to hold, which to me, makes them seem much more user friendly.

While I love books, I think that technology in the classroom has made lessons and learning much more interesting. In my high school, we had “Smartboards”, which served the same purpose as a traditional whiteboard or chalkboard, but was completely electronic. Using these smartboards, our teachers could save all the notes from the day’s lesson and send them out so that in case we missed something in our notes, we could reference what we learned in class. In addition, since the smartboards were essentially giant touchscreens running Windows XP, we could use them to watch videos, or have a calculator displayed for the entire class to see.

However, technology hasn’t always made learning easier or more entertaining. I think that websites such as Zzusis or Angel make learning more difficult since they’re often poorly made, and are lacking in usability. Beyond course websites, technology has the tendency to fail. Whether it’s a Youtube Video not loading, or a DVD that has a scratch, technology can let the users down, which in my opinion, severely impacts the quality of education. I think it was you, Dr. Edwards, who said that one day’s lesson was “a wash”, after Angel wouldn’t let you access the lesson you had planned.

While I think that technology has profoundly impacted the modern education system, I think that there’s a long way to go before it can truly take over traditional methods of education such as books, paper, and pencils. I do, however, think that we are heading that direction. If you had told me four years ago that I would be taking classes that actively encourage me to use my phone or tweet about what is happening in the lesson, I don’t think I would have believed you. In my opinion, that is where the future of education is going.

Responses:
Ellyn H.
Lisa G.