Tonight I did something I haven't done in awhile, I wrote by hand my homework that needs to be posted online. There was something amazing about being away from a computer for 3 hours rather than being in front of one. I was at my friend's room, which made me not want to lug my laptop the mile it takes to get to her residence hall. Instead, I printed the prompts to which I needed to respond, plus my documents on Microsoft word I needed to review, and brought along some reading materials that need to be blogged on later.
Somehow, all the work I needed to get done didn't seem so intimidating without the blank screen and blinking cursor ruining my eye sight. Also, while I was doing my homework, my friend was editing another friend's paper. For an hour she read to me sentences which needed to be rewritten, and I helped just by listening, not by reading. It occurred to me (as it should since reading Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death) that we have become such visual learners. It was nice to just listen aloud to my friend's paper, and edit it without having the whole paper in front of me. I was able to reword the sentence faster than she was, because she was faced with retyping the thing, and all the words were jumbled in front of her.
After I stopped editing the paper, I went on to read this article for my Contemporary Media Issues class, one that correlates strongly with Social Interaction. It seems a bit long, but I think you will be comforted to see the effect that social media has on our lives, long term. Plus, I don't think this could better illustrate the connection between the two classes, our friend Danah Boyd was mentioned, although a different article where she described the parasocial relationships as people we follow closely using social networks or microblogging even though these people might be unaware of it.
The article also talked about how social networks seem like a requirement for 20 year olds to monitor their online identity, because, let's face it - who knows what pictures of you will be posted if you don't check? Basically, it's intriguing and I think my Internet Marketing teacher would be enlightened, as it enforces her love of Twitter. Now onto my homework for my Contemporary Media Issues class. We post all of our class comments (homework) on our class blog.
I hope you'll try doing work without a computer soon, because you may find it inspiring! Which is why, I said aloud to my friend ""It was nice not to be in front of a computer, for once, I think I will blog about it when I get back." Alas, I've continued the vicious cycle.
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