Digital Humanities – Spring 2018

What systems do you interact with in your day-to-day life that would benefit from a critical reading, and what would that reading look like?

One system I personally interact with on a daily basis is Twitter. Twitter is an online news and social networking site where people communicate in short messages called tweets. This interactive website is popular for a variety of different age groups.  Twitter is an important system to me because there are a ton of beneficial features provided. I think Twitter is so popular in today’s society because of its simplicity, although there are a few hidden features. A critical reading would definitely be beneficial to spread awareness about these functions that many people who navigate Twitter don’t know about.

In today’s society, Twitter is used to express a variety of different things. One important, yet frustrating feature to be aware of is the 140 character limit. Twitter is often used for different aspects of politics, which is clearly an extremely relevant topic. From my own experience, it is very frustrating to write out an educational and timely tweet to find out that you exceeded the character limit.

I think a critical reading on this system will be helpful because there are so many things available on this site that most people don’t know about, yet would most likely find useful. This reading would analyze and describe the hidden features on twitter, and the directions on how to get to them. This would help spread awareness about hidden features because people that don’t know about them may actually find them extremely useful.

Some of the different aspects that twitter can be used for are relationships, entertainment, education, and obviously just for fun . One of the features on Twitter that I use a lot is the explore tab. This feature is mainly used to discover something specific in an accessible way. This approach is much more productive than just scrolling down twitter to find what you’re looking for. Additionally, this tab provides easy access to trending topics, hashtags, photos, live videos, and moments.

Another cool feature on twitter is the moment tab. I use this tab a lot to organize my tweets into groups. My twitter is based on a lot of different topics, which is why this tab is productive for me. Some of these include politics, sports, celebrities, and fitness. Structure is a very important concept to me, which is another reason I make use of this feature. Additionally, this tab allows me to combine tweets that I find significant, which is a great organizational strategy. Overall, I think a critical reading on this system will create easier access for everyone who uses Twitter.

 

For our final blog post, we were supposed to play a game that we never have before and write about our experience. When I typed online games into the google search bar, a Disney link came up towards the top, so I clicked on it. My favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast, so when I saw a game with Belle on it, I chose that. When I was younger, I used to play a Beauty and the Beast game on my desktop at home all the time. It was a disk that I inserted into my computer, and I spent so many hours playing that game when I was younger, and when I saw this game it reminded me of those times. The game I found was called Beauty and the Books, and basically you just had to align books on top of one another starting from the floor. As you work your way up, the books you have to stack onto your pile start coming in faster, so it does get harder to align them accurately. If you miss your stack of books and the book falls to the floor, you lose a life, and you only have three. I know that this game is probably intended for younger children, but it honestly does get kind of hard the longer you go on because the books start flying into the screen very quickly, so it’s hard to judge when to click, releasing the book from the air so it will fall onto your pile. I know it probably seems childish, but I could see myself wasting a lot of my time on this game if I was bored! I’ve inserted a screenshot below of what the game looked like while playing.

Megan Bender

If I could create a game based on the material I have learned throughout the semester in Digital Humanities, I would create a game that focused on the scandal of New York Central College. The scandal involves an African American professor named William G. Allen and Mary King. King was a white female who was the child of  abolitionist. Allen and King got engaged. Though the school suporrted Anti-Slavery and the abolition of slavery, this engagement caused an uproar. Many thought a white woman should not be with a black man. Allen had to flee McGraw, NY to protect himself. King was unfortunetly monitored by her family and away from her fiance for a while. Eventually, she was able to escape. Allen and King exhiled to England where they married and found work.

My game would be a narrative of King’s escape. Players would be working for Allen. Their job would be getting King out of her family’s house and out of McGraw safely. It would not be that easy. There will be many obstacles that include servants and workers living in the house who would tell on King. Players would have to use strategies such as bribery, violence, or just be quiet enough to sneak pass possible threats. When King’s family hears of her escape, they will send out search parties to find her. Again, it will be up to the player to make it through this. They will have to endure the weather and other unpredictable things like animals in the woods. Eventually, King and the player would have to reach a road where a car and buggy would be waiting for them so King and Allen could be reunited.

Amorie Green

I decided to try playing candy crush for this blog post. My mother is obsessed with this game and constantly will ask me to play so I can send her different things through facebook. When I downloaded the game I didn’t think I would enjoy it much because it seems so mundane, but as I began playing it I realized that it is an entertaining way to keep yourself occupied. The basic premise it to match up similar pieces of candy in groups in order to make your way through the level. The levels do intensify as you continue to play the game. Eventually, some spaces are locked from moving and different candies are introduced into the board to either punish what you’re doing or reward it. There is also some thought that goes into making your moves, because you need to think ahead in order to know what will happen to the board if you make the move you are considering. Overall, I didn’t mind playing Candy Crush. It was a good stimulus when I had nothing to do and kept me engaged for a while.

 

Kara Smith

What systems do you interact with in your day-to-day life that would benefit from a critical reading, and what would that reading look like?

I believe that the most important system to me that I interact with in my day-to-day life is music.  I find myself listening to music throughout the day constantly because I value it so much. Music helps me with every emotion that I feel, because with every emotion you are feeling, there is a song or a genre that will help you and fit your mood for that day or even for just that second. The lyrics can be analyzed and fit a person’s needs, or wants. Lyrics are so important and greatly overlooked, so that is definitely something that would be interesting for a critical reading. There are so many genre’s- all with their own rules and narratives. Rap is generally explicit, and provocative. It’s usually what you would listen to at a party or to get pumped up. Country can be calming, or can also pump you up depending on your mood and what song you pick. It is usually associated with summer time, beer, concerts, and good times with good friends. There’s also Rock and Roll, which is usually loud, associated with drugs, sex, and more. There are many more genres with many more themes of course, these are just a few examples. Going back to the Rap genre, I believe that this has the most rules and narratives. People who listen to rap are often construed as bad kids/people, thugs, drug users, alcohol abusers, and more. I’ve heard and seen so many adults disgusted with young children for listening to rap music. I know that a lot of Rap music is about drugs, alcohol, money, and mistreating women- but that does not mean that all Rap is like that. It also doesn’t mean that all people who listen to Rap music participate, or believe in the things the artist is saying. I listen to Rap, and I have no problem admitting that I enjoy it. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m going out on the weekends and “popping bottles” or doing drugs off of a stripper. I believe that all music but specifically the Rap genre and culture would benefit from a critical reading involving lyrics of Rap songs, Rap artists, people who listen to Rap versus people who do not, the benefits of Rap versus the negatives, the list is endless. Music is a very important daily system to me as I’m sure it is to many others, but some people completely disregard some genres, and before they do that they should look into it and learn about it.

 

Megan Bender

One major system I interact with daily is an educational classroom. I am in a classroom in at least one different class everyday. These classes are made up of certain expectations and rules. If someone looked critically at the set up of a typical college classroom they would observe students sitting in the same assigned or unassigned seats every class. This unofficial “rule” is unspoken but almost always observed. The professor is always the head of the room and in complete charge. The students are all expected to follow what is told of them without challenging them. A critical reading of this circumstance would be interesting because these standards are rarely challenged. The critical reading of this circumstance would include these unspoken rules and how the student rarely challenges them because of the unknown consequence.

Another system I interact with daily is the library on campus. I work at the library and it is an interesting job to have. The rules regarding how I act at my job are relatively simple but not common for ever job. I am not able to be on my phone while people come to ask me for help and I am expected to be friendly and fulfil their needs. However, I am able to do schoolwork, eat and essentially do whatever I chose to do as long as there isn’t a student waiting for me to assist them. This would also be an interesting critical read because my job as a supervisor at the library is unlike a job a Neubig. This brings into question the different tasks involved and expectations. If a student came to the desk and I was rude and refused to help them I would at the very least be reprimanded. This expectation to be kind and helpful no matter the disposition of the person I am helping is an rule that is rarely challenged because it influences job security which has a rippling affect on other aspects of my everyday life.

Overall, the unspoken interactions held by people daily are a thought provoking critical read because these “rules” are rarely challenged. When challenged, the reaction to the change is typically negative because it disrupts the expected order of things.

 

Kara Smith