18.

Many people, myself included, rarely think of how much is going around the world at any given time. Every single second someone is born, someone dies, something is celebrated or mourned. Even on days like our birthdays, when we tend to only think about ourselves there are millions of events happening everywhere. Nov 13. 2009. The day I officially was on this Earth for 18 years. At 18, especially on an 18th birthday, most people think the world revolves around them. I think I was different, birthdays never really were a big deal to me and I was a lot more preoccupied with world issues and events than most of my peers. Every day I wonder what is going on in the world around me? Well on my 18th birthday there were, as always, an incredible amount of life changing events occurring not only in the United States, but all over the world. Want to know what happened on November 13, 2009? Well, let’s go on a journey around the world.

How is Social Media being used in the political world?

In recent years, social media has become a haven for political discussion and information. Many people now obtain their political information from websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Buzzfeed. Social Media use is becoming more and more pervasive in the political world, because it helps politicians to keep their constituents informed, as well as to having immediate feedback about things they are doing right, and what they are doing wrong. It also serves as a place for people not in the political sphere to share their opinions on, and have discussions about, current events. Social media has become a tool for nearly all of the world’s political movements, just as most of the world’s authoritarian governments are trying to limit access to it.

Facebook, as well as Twitter, has its own Facebooks for Politics page to encourage candidates to join and advertise on their website. This page also gives tips on how to use Facebook to organize supporters, sway undecided voters, and rally people to vote.  The “Government and Politics on Facebook” page, which currently has over 375,000 likes, “highlights the use of Facebook by politicians, governments, elected officials, and political campaigns around the world,” according to its information box.

Twitter has become a foreground for political discussion as many people are quick to turn to the site to talk about their political frustrations and ideologies. Political figures are using the website more than ever; all 100 United States Senators, 49 of 50 Governors, and 97 percent of House of Representatives Members are on Twitter, according to 2013 ABC News coverage.  Twitter has a media tool for government entities to get an idea on how to jumpstart their social media presence.  “Twitter for Government” as it is called, has five separate sections: Government and Elections Handbook, Elected Officials, and Candidates, as well as Agencies and Political Organizations.

Websites such as Vine, and Buzzfeed, which generally are used for entertainment are joining in on politics.  The White House is one of the most notable political entities on Vine with a little over 189,000 followers. Buzzfeed not only has a news page, but also a comprehensive political page, which they regularly update with information in an easy to read and simple to understand manner. Buzzfeed’s political page is aimed at modern political lovers who want to see more than the generally one-sided view of politics offered on the news.

Politicians everywhere are harnessing the power of social media to increase their likeability and better relate to their voters, and appeal to younger generation voters. Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter are aiding this movement by making it simpler for politicians and people to stay connected and active in constant discussion. The pervasive use of social media for social movements also has become an incredibly important part of politics; reactionto political issues and events is now immediate and can be trending within minutes of the event occurring. Social Media and Politics now go hand-in-hand and will continue to do so as technology and social media expands.

Can Someone Tell Me What a Zork Is?

Zork is an online game that allows users to go on a Indiana Jones style adventure. The one huge difference between this Zork is completely text based, and your only visual is your imagination. I had to Google how to play this game, because I had no idea how to even get started since there are no clear directions. I have so many questions about the game….what is the point? Why are there no directions? Why do I keep going back to the same place? I definitely do not have the patience for this game. Go south. Go east. Go west. Go north. I am so confused.

What does Zork even mean? I’m going to Google it. Well, I still don’t know what Zork means…but according to Wikipedia “the ultimate goal of Zork I is to collect the Twenty Treasures of Zork and install them in the trophy case,” so there’s that. If you have the time and required patience, someone has taken the time to fully play the game and provide a walk through. It took them 49 minutes, and they knew what they were doing. I think if Zork had better directions and I had more patience, it could be really fun. Maybe I just don’t like it because I don’t particularly care for gaming. I would love to know the opinion of a gamer on this. In terms of digital humanities, I’m not sure that I could consider this a work of electronic literature.

I don’t think interactive gaming should be used alone as a teaching tool. If it’s going to be used in a classroom it should be along with other materials that can prove worthy of a great learning experience. As per my rant above, games like Zork hold no valuable knowledge, this is my personal opinion it could be different for others. I think these types of works can be used in class along with examples of how they are made and with explanations of how electronic literature has advanced throughout the years. Electronic literature and interactive gaming can be fun, but I do not believe they are a worthy learning tool on their own. This may change in the next few years; maybe I just have not been acquainted with them long enough to think of them as a learning method, but for now I will continue to say that they do not belong in the classroom on their own.

UPJ: Our Traditions are Weird and We Don’t Care

Tradition: “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.” When students think about Pitt-Johnstown, they don’t necessarily associate it with any traditions. Most people think we have no traditions at all. I disagree. UPJ does have traditions, ours are just a little different than other schools. While Pitt main students’ traditions may include going to every football game and supporting the Panthers, ours is riding the Mountain Cat statue in the campus mall. Riding this statue has become synonymous with what it means to be a UPJ student. If you don’t believe me take a few minutes to creep through your friends Facebook profiles, particularly the first-year students and graduating seniors. Go ahead, I’ll give you time….ok, are you back? So, I bet you found a few of them, and you thought I was lying to you. Rude. Anyway, I digress, back to the Mountain Cat. Riding that statue (or posing next to it, if you’re not up for climbing on it, like me) is a way of saying “I have arrived”. It provides students with a sense of community, as most of us have a story to tell relating to that statue. Perhaps yours is “I don’t know man, I was just really drunk and thought it was a good idea”, or “My friends and I just thought it would be a fun picture idea”, doesn’t matter we all love the Mountain Cat. It is our number one tradition.

You now may be thinking “this girl said traditions, but she’s just rambling about the mountain cat,” well don’t you worry because I’m going to talk about the other “campus traditions” right now. This is my fifth year as UPJ student and I know a few things to be true. Pulling all-nighters in Blackington Hall is most definitely a campus tradition. Blackington is the only academic building on campus that is open 24 hours, therefore students spend their late night hours studying there. I consider this a campus tradition because it’s something that many students do, and will continue to do, probably as long as this university stands.

The last “tradition” I am going to tell you about is the long-lasting wonderful thing that every UPJ students knows all too well; waiting in line at Subway. As I type this, there are about 15 people in the line. I consider this a UPJ tradition, because like riding the mountain cat and spending all night in Blackington, waiting in line at Subway is something I have seen students doing every day, every year since I became a UPJ student and I’m sure it will continue far after I’m gone. Pitt-Johnstown traditions are unconventional and kind of weird, but they are ours. I hope this little narrative has led you to realize the ways in which UPJ is different from other colleges. So go forth, ride the mountain cat, spend all night in  Blackington, but make sure to spend some time in the lovely Subway line before you do.

Memes

Borrowed text and image

Original text and image

Borrowed image, original text

Borrowed text, original image

Body in Pieces

“My Body & Wunderkammer” by Shelley Jackson is an incredibly interesting piece because it examined the different parts of a woman’s body. In examining the different parts of a woman’s body, these authors also are examining what it means to be a woman. Wunderkammer is a word for cabinets of curiosities, a term used in Renaissance Europe to describe collections of objects which had undefined categorical boundaries.

The  body can be considered a “cabinet of curiosity” because it is not simply understood, particularly the female body. I believe Shelley opted for this particular title because she understands the female body is many times seen as object of fascination in society; There are countless songs, poems and stories, generally written from a male perspective, about the female body. She breaks her body into pieces and tells a story about each part, while connecting it to another body part with a shared distinction. In doing so, she is saying that though the body may be different parts it all tells the story of the particular person without objectification.

The first part of the piece I clicked on was the ampersand tattoo. She revealed that her body is practically covered in tattoos, but they are almost the same color as her skin and that she teaches her lovers how to read them. Sharing her tattoos is her way of sharing an intimate part of herself. Clicking through the body parts led me to the knees, which I found to be a very interesting passage. “My knees were so often marked by scabs that they still look naked without them, and when I see someone with a skinned knee, I feel a warm fellow-feeling, hearty and a little envious.” The scabs on her knees and the knees of others, can tell a story about a person. I believe Shelley feels so connected to people with scabs on their knees because it shows that they have been through something possibly similar to what she has. I definitely recommend going through this story and trying to connect with the things she says about the body.

http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/jackson__my_body_a_wunderkammer/index.html

“Public Secrets”

Public Secrets is an electronic literature piece about the lives of women in central California prisons. The piece uses audio and visual elements to give readers an insight into what life really is like for women in prison. Due to the media ban in California prisons, the author had to act as a legal advocate in order to be able to freely speak to, and interview the women. This fact gives validity to the purpose of this piece to bring truth to the secrets behind the prison system. I think this piece did an excellent job at enlightening a reader’s perspective toward women in prison and the different ways in which they are treated from men.

One of the most poignant excerpts to go along with this was the story in which a woman describes seeing another woman get a much longer prison sentence than a man, even though they had committed the same crime and she had no previous record unlike him.(http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/daniel_public_secrets/index.html)

“I think he got a 16 months and she got five years and it was ‘to teach her a lesson’ he said-that kinda opened my eyes there that it seems to me that women are getting slammed with more time than men for the same crimes.” The woman goes on to say that she believes the reason for this is that women are easier to manage. This provides a viewpoint of how women still are seen to be lesser than men even when it comes to criminal behavior. Imprisoned men are given more opportunities for recovery and re-assimilation into society while women are more ostracized and viewed as mentally ill and unfixable. I believe pieces like this can garner reader interest into learning more about the prisoners and breaking stereotypes of how they got there.

What is Digital Humanities?

Digital Humanities is a humanities sector, which focuses on research and teaching of technology. There is no completely defining definition of this topic as it is a broad spectrum of technology. It uses various tools to establish digital communications between people across the field. Researchers in the Humanities sectors previously have focused on written works but have now begun to acknowledge the importance of technology in the modern world. This kind of humanities has brought about new and exciting forms of literature such as online interactive texts that bring readers a whole new experience in reading.

Digital humanities also enhances the average person’s digital thinking skills. It allows people in humanities sectors to think of technology in a differently and understand the ways it has become a part of daily life, even for those whose disciplines focuses mostly on tangible literary works. As the website http://www.whatisdigitalhumanities.com shows, the definitions of digital humanities vary greatly amongst everyone who attempts to define it. I particularly like this definition by Susan Brown, “The development, exploration, and evaluation of computer-based technologies and resources for enabling the pursuit of research questions in the humanities.” Brown simplifies what could be a very long and confusing definition, into a simple sentence that gets the point across of what digital humanities really is.

Another person defined digital humanities as “something borrowed, something new.” This may seem like a too vague definition, but I believe it works well for defining digital humanities, because it is exactly what digital humanities stands for; using old forms of research and literature and “borrowing” and converting them for use in the modern digital world so that they may be accessible by a much wider array of people. The joining of old humanities and new humanities is an excellent way to maintain the field and up-to-date and relevant.