Green Class

The experience was very.. green. I mean that in the best way. I arrived to Kiokoffer today to be redirected by one of my classmates to the back staircase of LAC and informed that we would be having class outside today. Aside from wishing I had brought the sunglasses I had contemplated on wearing today, this news was literally a breath of fresh air that I happened to need desperately since I was unable to acquire my coffee until after I had arrived to Naperville. (Getting out of bed today was harder than usual) My drink tasted even better outside. The last time I had a class held outdoors was spring term of 2013. Upon arriving, I heard an old professor of mine giving my current professor a hard time about treating us to this type of academic environment claiming she had "given up." It was funny, I guess. I laughed anyway. There is something about being exposed to an excessive amount of vitamin D that made me want to listen and interact today despite the fact that it's Friday of week nine and I have a lot to look forward to upon returning to the city. Today we covered some of Phyllis Wheatley's work, and the initial prompt for discussion took an interesting turn. Rather than the usual thematic analysis and the practice of prose we usually cover in 18th century context, we shifted today to a more contemporary analysis, one that analyzed the social implications of Wheatley's work in today's society. We ended up discussing socioeconomic status and the manner in which it tends to limit the potential of education. It ended up being a more open ended sort of class, one that was rooted in conversation and a very meek form of debate. It was interesting because it was relevant. I like hearing my classmates speak and I like responding to what they have to say. It's fun comparing our perceptions and realizing that the variance in our ideas is molded by where we come from. The places we grew up have molded our reality to at least a certain degree, if not a very significant one. I enjoyed it a lot and it woke me up a little before our exam. Happy Friday.

Social Media Dependency and Drugs

I liked the correlation the authors made between the research they did on social media dependency and research on drugs. I say this for two reasons. The first being that I feel as if it has become far more common in recent times for teens to be openly experimenting with different types of drugs which made the comparison even more relevant, and also because I think the comparison is accurate to a significant degree. Referring to users logging on as them getting "a fix" is something that seemed entirely plausible when I read the article. As I had previously mentioned in my former blog post, half the time I log on, I don't even know why I do it. I am not searching for specific information or in need of knowing what's going on with everyone I follow at that very moment in time. I feel that this truth is representative of regular drug users as well. Despite the fact that drug abuse does usually stem from a person's circumstances as a method of coping, I feel that eventually, once they become regular users they certainly do not have a specific explanation for every time they use either. They just do it to get the rush out and it helps them in some way feel okay for a larger portion of their day. Social media has become a part of my daily routine. I wake up and while I'm still in bed I log on to twitter to see who tweeted over night. It isn't because I care or need to know but simply to pass the time, I don't even think about it. My problem, however, with the comparison to drugs is that I do not personally believe social media addiction has the  same degree of potential to cause harm as regular drug use inadvertently does. The distinction happens between physical harm and psychological harm. This is where I feel the comparison is potentially unstable.

My "Selfie Addiction"

In regard to the "Selfie Addiction" article, I felt the title was a bit misleading, as I literally expected to read all about some sort of new serious phenomena exclusive to selfies. I did, however, find the article extremely relevant and interesting, as I myself am an avid social media user. I have no problem admitting that I spend far too much time connected to the mobile apps on my phone. I often get incredibly frustrated with myself about this truth. I know that being connected to Twitter and Instagram as often as I am is not an entirely good thing. Half the time I don't even know why I log on, because on more occasions than none I find myself temporarily frustrated or annoyed after reading people's posts or seeing certain things online. I've learned now how to shake this sort of turbulence throughout the day and sometimes I resort to staying off of the sites all day (yes, this is a significant amount of time.) Other times, I'll take a tweeting hiatus and not tweet for a solid week. I do still, however, long on and read other people's posts despite the fact that I haven't actively engaged on the timeline that day. I guess this stems more from me not wanting people to know what I'm doing..