Anchored in Humanity: Digital Insights in Literature

Studying literature in the traditional way is a key to powerful insights into digital culture. It's because literature and digital culture stem from the same thing: people. The literary tradition has a long history of delving into the human condition through its forms, and it helps people better understand the effects and biases of digital culture in and among humanity. Here are a couple of examples of insights I have seen this semester.

Our classmate Aleesha saw correlations between Pinterest and her literary study of Moby Dick. Her questions about the identity (e.g. genre) of the novel Moby Dick prompted questioning and a project about how the individual and collective pins of a person's Pinterest board reflect (or don't reflect) the identity of the pinner. Kayla pointed out how Captain Ahab deliberately gathered people around him and sought the advice of his peers in going after the whale. With their help, he succeeded. Sure, you could say that that was the way everyone had to do things, back in the day, but - it was effective. 

What literary study helps us discover can and should change digital habits. The amount of information online and in print is overwhelming, like the amount of organisms in a world of ocean. As well as consulting his fellow captains for up-to-date information on Moby Dick, Ahab had on hand with him more traditional aids in his search: "yellowish sea-charts" and "piles of old log-books" (177). These print resources were also invaluable to him in making his "reasonable surmises" (177) about the route of the white whale. Recognizing the limitations of each method, Ahab used both textual information and social research and proof to accomplish his goal. While many Web users might be tempted to favor either a search engine or asking people for help to find what they are looking for, we would do well to follow Ahab's example and use social and mechanical ways to find what we want. 

Aleesha, Kayla, and I are digital natives, but studying Moby Dick gave us valuable insights into our world.

Digital Curation: Optimizing Literary Study

I propose that the department increase its usage of online curation tools.

Curation is a staple of the digital experience is a big part of popular online services like Pinterest and Flickr, YouTube’s Playlists, and Diigo. With Google+, one can even curate and organize their friends. For academic purposes, curation can be up-to-the-minute crowdsourced research on a student’s topic of choice. 

Traditional sources for curated content include academic journals and printed books. These resources are invaluable to much literary study and analysis by providing context for the work and to bring people into the conversations surrounding the work. However, an individual must often go to a library, a store, or (more recently) subscribe to an costly online database like JSTOR to access these treasures. If they use a library, they cannot make notes in the book to help themselves process its contents and pick out what parts are useful. Additionally, since these traditional sources and the usual ways of finding them involve few if any human sources to recommend the best titles, what the student does access may be an off-target, barely relevant, or simply incomplete resource for the topic at hand.

The department and its students would greatly benefit by have students research and curate together using online tools. If two students are studying similar topics, digital curation will help them easily access each other’s research as well as the research and resource recommendations of tens of other amateurs, students, and scholars. With a more efficient and current research system, students will use the curation tools of the digital age to become more knowledgeable scholars and analysts in their fields of interest, leading to lifelong learning and teaching.

Directing Your Digital Fate: Douglas Rushkoff's Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age

I've heard conflicting opinions about the healthiness vs. usefulness of internet immersion, and have consequently felt guilty about all the time I spend online and been hesitant to immerse myself even more. Rushkoff’s book  Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age has a good reader rating on Amazon and is about the best ways to digitally immerse ourselves, so I'm checking it out.

After skimming this book, I see that the author focuses a lot on telling the reader the way humans work and the way the internet works in order to tell the humans how to make the internet work their way. This is reflected in the illustrations, whose main subjects are always human. Several of the chapters have italicized paragraphs at the beginning, which seem like a sort of abstract of the chapter.

Early Social Proof

When I posted on some social sites that I was reading this book, I asked, “What’s the best way to go about life & digital life in the Digital Age?” I received some responses on Facebook: my aunt and cousin “liked” the status, and my mom gave a couple of pieces of advice to answer that question. They were concerned with protecting one’s digital identity and reputation, with passwords and posting intelligently. While it wasn't quite the angle I’m looking at, her response does reflect the “be careful” attitude my family has about internet activity.

Similar Books

When I looked for similar books on Amazon and Google Books, both search engines recommended more of Rushkoff’s books. Amazon recommended three – Coercion: Why We Listen to What “They” Say; Life, Inc.: How Corporatism Conquered the World, and How WE Can Take It Back; and Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now.” Google Books just included the latter. Present Shock also happens to be more current that the book I’m reading; it was published in this year, whereas the other was published in 2011. It seems to delve further into the “command” of one of the chapters in Program or be Programmed: “Do Not Be Always On.” Other books the engines recommended are also about the psychology of the internet, how business can use the internet and how corporations have taken over the internet; and even Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun.

 Who Cares?

When searching for this book and its author on Twitter, I found several mentions of Rushkoff and his book from people in several countries and of several backgrounds. Usually, though, their backgrounds had something to do with computers or brand marketing. There were also YouTube links to the author’s presentations about the book’s message, and links to a couple of interview articles. When searching on Facebook, I found a fan page for the book which is not very active and has 268 likes (now 269, with my like). However, there were several interesting articles posted, which told me that Rushkoff publicly took himself off of Facebook, and also that computer ignorance is a threat to personal freedoms, since technical ignorance is being exploited in courtrooms. I shared that article on my Facebook page and on Google+. There was also a Facebook page with this book’s name, which mostly had programmer jokes.

On Google+, I mostly found links to Rushkoff’s work but I also found further explorations of the concept in education and even medicine. Recommendations of his work were generally more thoughtful than those on Twitter, since there is more space to speak on Google +. For example, John Wohn wrote four paragraphs about the book, beginning with, “Don't be put off by the title; Rushkoff is not (exactly) saying that everyone needs to be a Java programmer.” I even found a meme.

Aside from giving me more links to purchase the book and visit the author’s web site, Diigo gave me more interviews with Rushkoff and more blog posts about it, including one from a venture capitalist that mentioned that companies are desperate for programmers. Through Diigo results, I also learned that Rushkoff has helped start CodeAcademy, a free web-based site which teaches how to understand and write code.

Formal Reviews

I didn't find a formal review of Rushkoff’s book on our HBLL’s aggregate database, although I did find that he has written articles more than once for CNN. What I have seen so far tells me that he is very respected in his work and has several platforms to speak from. The closest thing to a formal review that I found was an enthusiastic blog-style review and interview article on Wired.com. 

Informal Reviews

The informal reviews I found critiqued the book and mainly found it to their liking. ChristianHumanist.org said that the book mainly asks “ten penetrating questions” rather than giving commands, which I think, based on what I’ve learned so far, is a great way to put it. I was glad to see in another article that there’s more to each “command” than its chapter title and a short summary, several versions of which I have already read in other articles. I also learned that this book won the “Neil Postman Award” (Neil Postman and Douglass Rushkoff are both Jewish and write about technology).

Course Inclusion

I found the syllabi from several classes which use Rushkoff’s book as a textbook. Some were a little surprising; though there were several computing classes requiring the book, it is also required in a writing class, a gaming class, and a major part of the Fall 2013 Introduction to Music Technology class at the University of Florida. One of the computing classes looks similar to a Digital Humanities web publishing class I’m currently taking, and I think including the book in that context would help incorporate more humanities skills in the course. 

Multimedia

There are several YouTube videos of Rushkoff speaking about the concepts of this book and of his other books. They range from a minute to over an hour. On Flickr, someone posted notes that they drew, perhaps at one of Rushkoff’s speeches. A phrase which intrigued me was “Companies should get their friends to friend each other.” Does this mean that companies should get their "friends"/competitors to network with each other?

First Impressions of the Book

On my first read of the book, I noticed Rushkoff's narrative of internet/media/human history. There’s one for nearly every “command.” Sure, the narrative is occasionally meladramatic and oversimplified – for example, “Until interactivity, we were defenseless emotional targets for the advertiser,” (Kindle Locations 293-294) – but it gets his point across and helps put the “command” into perspective.  His simplicity is one of the things which makes this book so accessible.

The point which was most novel to me was his explanation of how digital media has altered our thinking without most of us realizing it, valuing “the recent over the relevant” (Kindle Locations 361-362) and “offloading our thinking” (Kindle Location 382) and mental processes onto our computers and the Web. And by the way, the note above which mentioned companies' friends? It was saying that businesses should help their fans network with each other, to reinforce each others' patronizing of their business.

My Thinking So Far

I can understand why people recommend the book, and I look forward to reading it more in depth. I would like to examine more deeply the digital biases he points out, like the "choice filter" and attempting to be "always on" like the computer is. I'm not sure I agree with him on a section about how the digital world narrows our decisions in general, so I would like to look into that more. I might try to get my mom to listen to the audiobook so that we can discuss some of the concepts our family culture is more against, like sacrificing complete privacy for an online reputation.

Digital Isolation and the Languages of Connection

This is a response to Cheri Lenkensdorfer’s post, Isolation in a Digital World. She talks about the isolation experienced by people who don’t have the latest technology, e.g. smartphones. I think she have a great point; I’d like to back it up and also to play the devil’s advocate a little.

I’ve also been on both sides. My best friend, who lives in Idaho, didn’t get texting until a few months ago and still doesn’t have a webcam. I don’t have a smartphone or tablet, which cuts me off from the app world and the joys of mobile internet access. When I was on my mission we were not allowed to text, and it was aggravating. For example, sometimes contacts we’d call would insist on us telling them via text who we were before they’d pick up the phone, creating an impasse. (Happily, that rule has changed. Along with many others regarding internet use.) In a more voluntary case of lack of backwards compatibility, I’ve also missed a mission companion’s wedding reception because she didn’t really use Facebook to invite people and we hardly ever talk in person.

In the case of my friend not making a Facebook event and me not having a smartphone, you could argue that we isolate ourselves. I don’t like the costs of a smartphone, but technically we could both get what we lack. Nothing’s impossible; my 86-year-old grandpa bought an iPhone a couple of years ago and uses it at a basic level to look things up, text, take pictures, and talk with his family. Although his iPhone doesn’t have a data plan, he also has an iPad which he uses to video chat.

 

I don’t have a picture of him on his iPhone, but you can see it on his belt. We’re pretty tickled by his technology usage.

Technology can and often does help us to connect. In many ways, it can be our connecting language. If someone you love but whom you rarely talk to – like your grandma or your tween-age brother – tastefully tweeted or updated their Facebook status every couple of days, wouldn’t you feel like you better knew what was going in their lives? And be more likely to comment or otherwise interact with them? My aunt kept a blog for a while, which the rest of us loved, and now my tween-age sister blogs as well. I love reading their blogs, and sometimes comment. Has your family ever given a piece of tech to a relative in the hopes that they’ll use it? I’m sure we’ve all wished that someone was “with it” in technology, whether that means being on Facebook, Skype, or Instagram or a games app.

Cheri said, “I think it's really easy to get so caught up in the cool new gadgets and toys that we forget the importance of watching out for the people around us. Luckily, the fix is just as easy: remember to look out for those around us.” I think that goes for the less-tech-privileged people as well. It’s important to try to connect with people in their connection language, whatever it is. Those of us without “standard” technology or software can probably reach out more just like those enveloped in their technology. Whenever I do get a smartphone, I’ll be better able to connect with people I know. While respecting financial limits and the limits of “old age,” we are too young to get stuck in a technological rut. There is so much out there and so much more to come!

A Brief Introduction to Tumblr

Allow me to briefly introduce you to Tumblr. Tumblr is a microblogging site which to me straddles Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest in style. As of October 14, 2013, it hosts more than 141.5 million blogs (called tumblrs by some, including me). Users can post original content as well as content which belongs to or originated from someone else.

Before I start linking to various tumblrs, here is a hefty content warning. As with any blog or news feed, your experience with Tumblr is what you make it, but it is more difficult to find a completely family-friendly environment. Tumblr has no language controls. Usernames and comments often can contain profane language. How often you come across them depends on which tumblrs/users you "follow," but it's difficult to avoid. This lack of editing also carries over into visual content, but in my experience it's easier to avoid than bad language. The only nudity I've seen on Tumblr is in Renaissance art. Many, though not all, of the links on this page will have some profane language in their destinations.

In my experience, most people use it for nonacademic purposes, such as to express and geek out over various fandoms. These tumblrs often include gifs [x], which some find very annoying. (Again, you can usually avoid them depending on whom you follow.) Of course there are many jokes [x], but there is also some thoughtful fandom- [x] and non-fandom-related analysis. I have found promotional photography/personal blogs [x], cosplay blogs where people swap advice about cosplaying [x], a Herman Melville reading blog [x], and commercial, official, political academic, and academic hobby blogs (see: [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]. By the way linking with the [x] is common on Tumblr, though I may be overusing it in this post). 

As I see it, Tumblr has a lot of potential but has not yet fully matured as a microblogging platform. There is a huge potential audience; a post with Queen Elizabeth inspecting her grandsons in the military has over 400,000 "notes" (instances where someone likes or shares a post). Current barriers to growth, though growth is definitely happening, include Tumblr's reputation for being a time-wasting/gif-ridden/NSFW site and the poor designs of some tumblrs (if you've clicked on all my links, you'll find a couple of examples). However, it has a lot of influence and potential. As amateur analysis occasionally makes the rounds already, I believe that more "serious" content can and should become more prolific. I look forward to seeing more advertising done for more serious tumblrs so that the platform will be better utilized as an engine for discussion, action, education, and change.

Eliza's Midterm Post: Pre-writing

Below is some light pre-writing. At this point, the question/thesis concerns the lack of true connection and on the excessive consumption or focus on consumption in Moby Dick and in digital culture (for some). It's loose but it's an example of pre-writing, pre-outlining.

Paper:

Topic that interests me: the transition from consuming to creating/connecting.

How this did or didn’t happen in MB:

·         Ahab’s focus was to consume the whale, you could argue. He did lots of creating and connecting (though not true person-to-person connecting – he was an isolated creature), but in his madness it was all focused towards killing and consuming the whale.

What are the similarities and differences between consuming online and Ahab’s hunt/killing the whale?

·         When you’re consuming in excess, you’re trying to bite off more than you can chew. The internet has “more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done.” (TLK) Ahab ended up biting off more than he could chew.

o   There are likely academic papers on the futility and meaning of his chase – it wouldn’t be hard to connect those to digital consumption.

·         When you try to consume something, it remains but the satisfaction is gone because you’ve e.g. already watched that movie trailer you were anticipating for months. The fun in consumption, you might say, is thinking and pondering…e.g. frame-by-frame analyses of the next Harry Potter movie…(Pottercast!) and Frozen… However, it depends on the content and your consuming habits. News (read, swallow, been there read that) vs. movie trailers (savoring every frame!)

How is Ahab creating and connecting?

·         Others are working on this. He did his research and found people to sail under him.

o   Btw, he created things for his crew to consume – food chain?

o   Kylee’s prewriting: http://teamishmael.blogspot.com/2013/10/kylees-midterm-post-2.html

How is Ishmael creating, consuming, and connecting?

·         If I argue that Ahab was consumed in the chase to consume, I could argue that Ishmael is the opposite – he’s creating a TON of stuff and trying to connect with and affect his readers (someone remarked about Ishmael’s comment re: oil – every drop you burn = a drop of blood spilt so be careful)

Pip’s madness from isolation (http://teamahab.blogspot.com/2013/10/charting-path-to-connectedness-midterm.html#more)

Pip’s madness and Ahab’s madness – Ahab has a focus and so seems productive though he isn’t really (economically speaking) – and Pip has no focus except his past sins.

·         (This could be another paper – internet user stereotypes)

 

#LDSConf Experience

I liked the ideas presented in class, and so here's what I had open this morning during the first session of conference, across 2 computer screens: conference, Twitter, the Google Doc notes, my own notes, and Facebook.

Here's my screenshot from the start of the second session. Open in a new tab for a better look! Blogspot's shrunk it so it's hard to read the small bits, but the Anons are "Anonymous Otter" and "Anonymous Sheep."

It was fun but I had a slight headache by the end of the session! During the second session I moved to a TV with my laptop, to split things up a bit more. It helped me focus. The amount of information was a little overwhelming! Some Tweets I saw apologized to their followers for the conference spam. I didn't. Here are non-quote couple of tweets I liked:

Attention people tweeting during the prayer: NO TWEETING DURING THE PRAYER! #LDSconf
— The Cultural Hall (@TheCulturalHall) October 5, 2013

I watched #ldsconf long before it trended on twitter. #mormonhipster
— Kent (@Kentniming) October 5, 2013

(Don't you agree? I guess most of us are Mormon hipsters.)

Here are the links to the crowdsourced conference notes Google Docs: Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. Most contributors were anon and were assigned wild names like "Anonymous Capybara" and "Anonymous Ferret." I was able to contribute a little bit, which was exciting!

The group notes missed a couple of golden quotes which stood out to me, so they aren't perfect. It was neat to watch the online interaction though: the moderator (one of the only named contributors) put links to hymns, scriptures, and speaker bios; at one point, two people were trading lines of Elder Holland's talk and captured a lot of that section nearly word for word. Also, an random conversation took place in italics in the doc about the lack of home teaching in the LDS Tools app (see page 2 of the morning session). Ah, the quirky advantages of group notes!

The #ldsconf hashtag was a little overwhelming; you'd refresh, start scrolling, and five seconds later there would be something at the stop saying there were 20 more tweets! Here again, I participated in the conversation (after making my Twitter public), answering someone's query about what they'd missed and tweeting something else a person Favorited. (I'm a Twitter newbie, so that's a big deal.)

And did I mention that it was fun to start seeing memes pop up? By the end of the first session, at least one blog had already start posting (click the second link for an Avengers meme!).

Science Writing in Moby Dick

I spent about five hours yesterday reading through chapter 96 in Moby Dick. I didn’t mind the scientific bits much last week but during yesterday’s marathon I started moaning every time Ishmael said something like, “Let us, then, look at this matter…” (page 331). I’m sure at least 90% of Melville’s readers agree.

A Discover Magazine science writer, Carl Zimmer, however, doesn’t. In fact he asks “How many students have missed the fine passages of “Cetology”? He briefly looks at Melville’s science writing in scientific and historical contexts and calls it science writing “of the highest order, before there was science writing.” It’s really worth reading.

Frankly, if you do look at those pesky encyclopedic and elegiac (“I celebrate a tail”? Really?) passages, there is much at which to be awed. Never mind why Melville included it; could you do as well to describe everything? If he wrote an article in a modern journal, it would still stand out through the quality of his writing.

By the way, Zimmer also muses that “It would be quite something if student could be co-taught Moby Dick by English professors and biologists.” I think the team teaching of our Eng 326 class is going well, and I like our professors’ different perspectives. A biologist-humanities professor duo actually sounds perfect for this novel!

So this is not an idle suggestion: Maybe next semester a biologist could come in as a guest/recurring guest lecturer? I bet he or she would love it.

 

 

Discovering on the Shoulders of Giants, e.g. with Pinterest

Professor Burton's blog post made me think about how I already use the internet to wonder, explore, and discover. While stuff on sites like Tumblr and Facebook are entertaining and occasionally make me wonder at people’s genius or lack thereof, Pinterest is someplace I discover things.

 

 

The above could apply to books on the treadmill as well. For more: see here and here.

 

When I see a great, simple craft or a clever hack on there, I feel the same feeling I got when I first saw the space balloon video. Although I’ve only made one recipe inspired directly by I’ve seen on there (root beer cookies!), the principles I see in place inspire me to think a little more when I make food. And this last summer, actually, I purchased a book (what? A physical book?!) about electronics hacks.

With discovering and exploring using the web, we still stand on the shoulders of giants. And the web helps us find the best places to stand. What’s the best idea you’ve discovered, or implemented, from Pinterest or another hacking site (e.g. lifehacker.com)?

DigHT What?

If my memory/notes tell me right, this second blog post of ours can be on DigHT and/or Moby Dick.

Technically speaking, I have no minor, even though I’ve been telling people I’m minoring in Computing in the Humanities (CHum) or in Digital Humanities (DigHT) since 2010. (Yeah, making a graduation plan is on the docket this semester. That way I can actually declare a minor.) When I tell someone my planned minor, they typically follow up a comment such as, “That’s great!” with a question that makes me squirm: “What is that?”

I always struggle to explain, since I don’t have a clear concept of what digital humanities is, precisely. Lately I’ve just told them what classes I’m taking. Our discussion in class last Wednesday was lovely, but I don’t quite have a concise explanation as yet. I look forward to grasping the concept of the topic more firmly!

Let me try to formulate my conception of it at this time: "Digital Humanities" encompasses learning certain web skills, like basic code literacy, and learning how to reach people and reading people and our changing culture online. It tries to analyze and work with the culture and opportunities online.

As for Moby Dick – I haven't begun the reading JUST yet. Although I've heard negative reviews of this book from friends, my first (?) and strongest exposure to this book was through the film adaptation of Matilda. Here are the relevant clips, in chronological order.

"It's not trash, Daddy; it's lovely. It's called Moby Dick by Herman Melville."

The second clip culminates the denouement of Matilda; we find her in a much happier home with her kind teacher as her guardian, beginning to read the book at bedtime. Embedding is disabled, but you may watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir0HU1nNcEI.

Was this film anyone else’s first exposure to Moby Dick? Other DigHT minors, how have you explained what it is?

Call Me Eliza.

Hello! My last name is Woolley.

I’m taking six classes this semester. (Note to self: prepare to die.) Maybe. There's still time to drop the half-credit one.

Let’s cut out the slight cultural references and cut to the chase.

Education: I’m an English major who started at BYU in 2008. (This is my seventh semester. I took 2 years off for my mission in…Scotland and Ireland!) As soon as I make a graduation plan, I’ll be able to officially declare that I’m minoring in Digital Humanities and Editing. After that? Career plan, shmareer plan; que sera sera.

Family & Background: I grew up in Ramona, California – a town in San Diego County, up in the hills a bit. It’s a bit more rural than, say, Oceanside. I have one older sister, who is married and lives in Provo; a younger sister who is also a BYU student; and a younger brother and a younger sister living at home still with my parents. My mom works with them. My dad is a marriage and family therapist and university professor.

Interests:

• Reading has been my main hobby for like ever. I mostly read fantasy. (Potter forever!)
• I have a hard time picking any favorites, but swings are my favorite playground equipment. Usually.
• I love listening to music; recent discoveries include Sara Bareilles’ The Blessed Unrest and the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Camelot, with Julie Andrews. I also play the piano a bit.
• I picked up three hobbies over the summer. I am currently dabbling in tech trash (with this book), DoTERRA’s AromaTouch Technique (I have a massage table! Talk to me if you’re interested in receiving one) and in a calculus workbook. (What’s the use in having taken calculus unless you remember how to use it?)
• Here's my Tumblr: disneybird.tumblr.com.

I look forward to this blogging experience with y’all! See you/read you later!