As a computer science major, working on my digital creation skills will aid in my professional career in the future.
The statement above would be the best “honor roll” student response I could have fabricated, but to be completely honest, I enrolled in this class as a filler for the digital intensive for my graduation requirement. It also fell under the CPSC category and I was hoping to raise my departmental GPA. A bit insincere, but I’d rather say it how it is instead of sugar coating it. However…
Making that first film review post about WALL-E rekindled my love for blogging and making posts about random stuff. In the past, I ran a Instagram page about my journey to become a college golfer, recording swings, practices, and results. It was a way for me to express myself in the activity I enjoyed the most at the time.
Many of the younger kids might know what a Finsta is. It is a slang term for a “fake” Instagram where posts are more casual and is reserved for only your closest friends, used more as a blog rather than a snapshot portrait of your best life in a fabricated lens that most Instagram accounts nowadays adhere to. I really enjoyed posting on that account frequently with various posts about my favorite music, shows, rants about life, random silly photos…
Until I stopped.
I don’t really know why or how I got off the social media grind, but I just stopped. Maybe it was because of the stresses of graduating and finding a job after school, and having my time taken up by other responsibilities, but I’ve definitely felt a lack of connection within my circles. I’ve definitely seen some advantages of cutting back on social media, but there’s been days where I wonder what my best friends from high school have been up to. So much of the world is online now, and cutting back on the internet feels as if you’re pulling yourself out of your own little connected bubble.
While DS106 and the community is not private enough where I can share all of my personal life with my classmates, it definitely is an outlet where I can express myself in ways that I’ve never explored before, and I’m excited to utilize this platform to enhance the way I create things to share with my peers but also with the people most important to me. I don’t really know what I truly want out of this class yet, but I just want to start creating. Whatever form of media I need to create for the week, I’m excited for the challenge.
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