Here is your first blog prompt--remember, you do NOT have to answer this prompt, though you may choose to do so. Refer to the syllabus for the grading criteria.
Two options:
1. Hector Carral on Medium recently argued this:
“I’m just not able to comprehend why should we be forced to interact with those physically close to us instead of with the people that we really want to interact with. Is it so bad to prefer talking with a long-distance partner using a smartphone than with someone who does not interest me but happens to be next to me? To prefer reading how the people you’ve followed [for] years on Twitter are doing instead of making small talk with that friend of a friend sitting across the subway car? Maybe you think that yes, it is bad, that people should always prioritize physical interaction to digital one. I disagree. Except for obvious occasions … I think people should be able to interact with whomever they please without being judged by people for using a smartphone to do so.”
This is obviously a differing opinion from the one I voiced on Friday. Of course, I was being a bit polemical; nonetheless, I'd like to ask who has is it right--should we try to talk to strangers more, or should we be comfortable staying within our established social networks? Is there a middle ground to be struck here? What does that look like? In thinking about that middle ground, might there be a role for digital media technologies in producing common experiences? What are some examples of that?
2. Can you write in the style to Tim Maughan's "Your Gaze" about another filter? Mimic the content--a protagonist looking around, then looking at a woman, but with a different filter. What would "Sea of Red" by UNL look like? What would a "Steampunk" filter look like?
