#it honestly is tiring to take a course and expect engagement with the medium in a meaningful way and then have it feel.

[maletofujoshi]

i cant believe i found porpentine's art because of a teacher assigning howling dogs. and then i later played that maggot yaoi game. which fucking owned, goty, perfect sequel to shadow of the erdtree. and then i scrolled their twitter and saw this tweet

which kinda sums up my problems with my prof and that new media course if i project all of my thoughts into the empty space of it.

so now the real question is: how do i get "perfect tense: maggot therapy" taught in all schools across the country?

side corner:

[iadprocess]

Week 1 - Into the Wild!

The first day conducting field research we wanted to focus on our main interests for our project. We agreed that an AI-based application to create a sensation of help, not to replace therapy, but more companionship would be a suitable idea to pursue, seeing the current situation. For two weeks all citizens, who do not work in a field that is viewed as essential, have been constrained in their homes. When this quarantine will end is uncertain. This to maintain a social distance and avoid the spread of COVID-19. In these moments, people have to start to deal with a situation of isolation. We thought that loneliness and boredom could become a growing problem for general wellbeing. 

We wanted to get in touch with a wide variety of people. We got in touch with persons from the age of 14 to 80+. We were interested in how the quarantine is affecting people’s behavior and mood. If the restrictions and disruption to their daily routine would affect them negatively. We thought of a set of questions that could give us a first overview.

·        Who are you? (age, occupation)

·        Who are you spending your quarantine time with?

·        how has your everyday life changed since the quarantine?

·        how does quarantine affect your mood?

·        What do you do to improve your mood at home?

·        Where would you rather be right now?

We wanted to contact workers who are working at home, workers who are still working outside, students, retirees and unemployed. We wanted to discover if there were any patterns with the answers. Our Expectation was to recognize categories of people who react and respond in a similar way (I am fine, I am not fine).

Phone Interviews

David got in contact with seniors who live in a retirement home, through his mother who works there. He conducted 4 interviews through the phone, all respondents were over 80 years old. Two of the three people are fully cared for and the third person lives in an apartment right next to the home. The fully cared for people had difficulty understanding my questions and could not answer open questions. We think it would be better to do something visual and have contact in real life. Because of the coronavirus, we have to find out how this could work best. Cultural probes could be one possibility. Here a snippet from an interview:

Getting information from the people in the home was very difficult. A visual Observation in everyday life would be more effective.

Themes: occupation, entertainment, social interaction, time for oneself.

The statements on the phone seemed quite cold. One notices the loneliness and possibly also boredom. The question whether they would appreciate it, if acquaintances would call more often, they would say yes. But can one trust this answer? Do they answer honestly or is it just politeness?

Person 1 Occupation: - Read - Number game (Lotto, Bingo) - Wandering around the home - Set the table! ⇢ Feeling needed.

Person 2 Occupation: - Lying / dozing - „zvieri näh“ - Talking to people - read the Bible The situation is calm and "grave". She prefers to make phone calls. She doesn't want a change now. "It is the way it is" is probably the most heard sentence in the conversations. She says the situation hasn't changed much since the quarantine: she still and always felt a sense of helplessness. She takes each day as it comes and still is alone. Residents have the same perception of the atmosphere in the home as before.

Person 3 Terrible not being able to see anyone. Still meets with the neighbors. No longer allowed to have lunch with the other residents. "Unecessary information" comunicated. When I was asking if she is using the phone, she told me about her phone provider and how much it costs, even thought that was not part of the conversation.

Person 4 Made more shopping, to prepare. Everything is still working normally. Says that 15 and 16 year olds have no trouble at all.

Video Interviews

Conclusion

For 1/3 the quarantine has brought little change in the routine.

1/4 misses the direct contact with classmates

1/7 misses seeing her family

1/3 is more in virtual contact with people than before the quarantine

1/3 is feeling less productive because of the quarantine

2/3 are scared of the current situation and of the uncertainty of the future

What helps to lift the mood

2/3 feel better when they exercise

1/3 contact with people online and thorugh the phone

1/3 feel better when cooking

1/6 feel better through entertainment (tv shows, games)

Instagram Poll

We decided to ask three short questions in our Instagram poll, here are the answers we got:

How has the quarantine affected your routine? 

From lab work to home office for paper research and report writing, from fitness center to jogging and online courses

Routine has become really important to keep the feet on the ground

Home School :D

Can’t go outside for no reason, little afraid to visit my parents and sad that I can’t see my

grampy’s

Saving time and money. At work: slowly losing immediacy with clients and colleagues

I can not meet my friends and family :’(

I have exams in June and I have no clue of what will happen because I’m doing online school but it’s literally 2 hours a day (I live in Italy)

All activities acquired the same value: it’s not worse to wash the dishes than take care of plants

I have more time, I go to sleep later however less structure

Watching Netflix more

I’m more concentrated during lessons

0 change. I’m a natural isolationist. I was born to do this.

Got more time to read and spend in the kitchen now

Almost nothing changed

I have to practice stuff for work at home but the crying ain’t helping (hairdresser)

I discovered that I’m a morning person, I started making the bed

100% smart work, self-quarantine for every individual of the family

How do you entertain yourself or improve mood during the quarantine?

Playing chess

Watching Netflix

Watch “dumbest purchases I made in my 20s” videos to feel better about myself

Self-penetration

More cooking and eating

Dreaming of me jogging

I plant mushrooms in my garden

Drinking alcohol

Youtube workouts and yoga apps

Watching porns

Playing switch, doing sports and reading books

Scrolling through social media, chat a lot, movies, sit on the balcony, rearrange and clean home

Playing sims

Online apéros

How does quarantine affect your mood and why?

Negatively because I can’t go to restaurants/clubs or travel

I am nervous cause I see the same people all the time and staying in the same rooms

All good

Everything is fine, I work from home but at the weekends it gets harder and if the weather is bad

Feeling balanced, try to keep daily routine (work, sport and social contact)

I recognise that I can’t go outside, especially in the evenings I am tired

Sitting in front of a computer the hole day is exhausting

My mind is very relaxed, because I don’t hear the word corona all the time

Sometimes a bit lonely, then I call someone, and I am happy again

There is nothing better than this situation, let’s go for a drink after everything

Doesn’t affect me, because I throw a corona party every weekend

I can still work, so I am not that quarantined. I know what to do

The quarantine is not the thing that is annoying, it is the way how we have to work from home, everyone expects you to be online 24/7

More difficulties to get up in the morning, more exhausted in the evening

Sometimes I feel irritable or anxious, but most of the time I feel relaxed and good

I am not in quarantine I have to work

I watch more Netflix

Video Diary

Ramona asked a friend of hers to document her day with her phone camera. This was a quite playfull and fun way to discover the routine of a student who now has to stay home, for both us researchers and for the subject. In the video she says she mostly works on her computer. To lift her mood she goes outside in the garden to catch some sunlight. She’s trying to stay positive and that seems to work.

Google Survey

Click here to see all the answers. 61% answered positively - they are well 19% answered negatively - they are not doing well 19% answered positively and negatively. Either they are doing medium well, or they are slowly getting quiet, or sometimes good and sometimes bad. 71% of the people left their contact datas, if we want to contact for new survey.

Feedback from a psychologist: “What answers do you hope to get? Maybe give someone to read again, so that it is clear, everyone is understood correctly. Questions 1 and 3 are a bit similar. If you want to get more out, a reward would be helpful. From a psychological point of view what is important is anonymity, if any sentence is written that the whole thing will be treated anonymously if you don't give your email address. Added: either people don't fill this out if they think it’s too uncomfortable. Answers become more honest when anonymity is guaranteed” 

Feedback from a anonym participant: “Quantitative surveys are easier to evaluate with multiple choice questions.” A lot of participants left their email address if we wanted to contact them. We were quite surprised how many participants left their contact.

Send a picture of what you are doing

We asked 13 people to send us a picture of what they are doing. Most of them are young adults, some of them are employees, most are student. We can see that most of them stay in front of a screen. Some are playing board games, other are cooking, taking a break of pursuing their hobbies.

Facebook livestream

We saw in this facebook group that many users did livestreams. They talked about their personal lives and communicated with the viewers who were commenting. We tried to go live and engage in a conversation with the members of that Facebook group. To start a conversation and get viewers to answer questions was very hard. This is probably because the main focus of such a livestream is the livestramer and not the viewers.

Why did we select those highlights?

Instagram Story Questions We liked the spontaneous answers people gave us. Also the length of the answers is limited so people have to focus on the core of their statement.

Google Forms Survey Interesting more in depth answers. It is easy to share the survey link and therefore can reach people outside of our bubble.

Video Interview The interviewed people are more freely to communicate compared to a phone call. They can show environments or objects through the camera. Furthermore the interviewer and the participant are “closer” together.

Audio Interview Negative highlight. It should that not every medium works for every target audience. Elderly or children would probably benefit from communication mediums where they don’t have to articulate sentences.

Were the expectations fulfilled?

Like expected the answers to our questions were very different. Most people were relaxed and others are scared and sad about the quarantine. Most people know how to entertain them self. Most people feel bad to have social distance and are afraid of infecting someone.

Which changes have to be made?

We need to find a better way to improve trust, so that we are able to ask morepersonal questions. Furthermore we need a better way to express more “hard to explain” topics like loneliness in the online medium. Maybe it would be a good idea to have group discussions and we as the interviewers stay in the background. Especially when talking about difficult topics.

Older people (some have slightly dementia) are having difficulties to answer to open questions. Furthermore they are not so technical advanced that they could use smartphones or other tools to communicate in a more visual way. A way to get a better understanding of their situation would probably be cultural probes. Unfortunately we can not meet them in person, due to the coronavirus.

We want to test if anonymity could help to communicate more personal topics.

What could be the next steps for field research?

Inform better about the topic communication.

Discovery: What is on the market that is used for communicating online or online multiplayer games.

Explore how people in different living situations (home-schooled, home-office, still working outside, retired and unemployed) use communication tools (which ones? for what purpose? how often?)

Unpack your topic further, see what angle you would like to look into

Playful humorous communication, connect people who are in a similar situation orhave similar interests and bring them to communicate and play with each other.

How do you want to get in touch with people online? How do you find your online community?

Contact people we personally know

Use Online Forms

Use social media to find interested people

Friends of friends

Public online groups

What type of media could you use to collect and record your impressions (chats, online video, sound, a mix of different media, etc..)

Chat

Video Interview (single and groups)

Telephone Interviews

Video or Photo diary

Cultural Probes (notebook, drawing and writing down thoughts, giving theminstructions on the pages)

[berryshortcakes]

Yoonkook social media AU: Strawberries & Cigarettes

PART 13/20

(first / previous / next)

High school senior Jungkook is a perfect student and son. Rarely goes outside, does all of his homework, reads books, writes poems and draws people. But what his parents don’t know, that he also goes to parties and night adventures with his older brother and best friend…

What happens when Jungkook meets college junior with the attitude of a bad boy, Yoongi, at one of the parties..?

*

Yoongi stood on the porch of a medium sized, two story house, his hands full with two bags filled with snacks and alcohol, and dwelled for a moment in front of the front door. The reason why he’s standing here is because Jeongguk was having a hard time and he reached out to Yoongi for help and it’s not like they haven’t hung out before but this time it felt more serious and complicated and- why was there a sinking feeling in his stomach?

 Yoongi took a deep breath and rang the doorbell hesitantly. He heard some muffled bumping and a few seconds later the door revealed a really tired-looking boy in front of him. He was wearing sweatpants and a big dark hoodie with the hood almost hiding his really messy hair. His eyes were still red from crying earlier. Yoongi’s heart dropped at the sight of this Jeongguk - so gloomy and worn out.

 “Soju delivery for sad boys,” Yoongi says, shooting a smirk towards the younger boy. He felt like he accomplished a very important task, even if it’s just seeing a small smile appear on Jeongguk’s face.

 “You don’t really look like a delivery boy,” Jeongguk responded, eyeing the usual leather jacket and ripped jeans Yoongi was wearing.

 Yoongi huffed, “Yeah, I give more of a really angry, careless, scary bad boy vibe, don’t I?” he smirked, slipping through the door and setting down the bags he brought.

 Jeongguk seemed to think for a second. “No, more like a caring softie who comes to help his friends when they’re sad right away,” Jeongguk mocked, but there was a note of thankfulness in his voice and he had that small hesitant smile on his face. Yoongi didn’t wait to smile back.

 “I’m always happy to help a friend when they feel down,” he admitted while slipping off his boots, when Jeongguk took the bags with snacks and alcohol into the living room.

 When Yoongi joined Jeongguk in the living room, the younger boy was already halfway through taking out the contents of the bags. There were various kinds of chips, cookies, chocolates and a few bottles of soju and cans of beer covering the table. Jeongguk took out what looked like to be the last items from the bag.

 “Oh, you even brought ramyeon,” he said, surprised, while turning one of the cups of instant noodles in his hand. He took a deep breath. “Thank you, uh,” Jeongguk trailed off, looking at his feet sheepishly, “for all this.”

 “There’s no problem,” Yoongi assured and grabbed a can of beer from the table, opening it and flopping himself on the sofa. Not long after, Jeongguk was also sitting on the sofa a foot away from him, hugging his legs close, chin on his knees.

 After a few minutes of not saying anything, Yoongi broke the silence. “So, do you want to talk more about what happened?”

 A few moments passed in silence and Yoongi thought that Jeongguk won’t answer his question, but just as Yoongi was about to give up and just offer him a shot of soju, the younger boy turned his head towards him. “I…” he took a breath, “not really. Let’s just watch a movie and drink alcohol,” he reached out to take the bottle of soju and a shot glass from the table, poured himself a shot of the drink and gulped everything in one take.

 “What movie do you want to watch?” Yoongi asked as he took the remote which he guessed was from the TV in the living room.

 “I don’t know, maybe… a marvel movie?” Jeongguk thought for a second. “Let’s watch Iron Man.”

 “Well, whatever tickles your pickle. You turn it on, then,” Yoongi said, handing Jeongguk the remote. Yoongi wasn’t really much of a fan of most marvel movies (or superhero movies in general) but he could bear watching a few if it meant that Jeongguk would feel better.

 Jeongguk started the movie and they watched it sitting on the sofa (Jeongguk had also brought them both blankets just when the movie started), mostly in silence except of some movie related comments, eating their snacks and slowly consuming alcohol.

 Halfway through the first movie and two shots of soju later, Jeongguk sighed, wrapped up in his blanket, staring at the screen of the TV and holding a bag of honey flavored chips in his hands. “You know, I wouldn’t ever admit it to anyone”, he spoke quietly, “but I had, like, a huge crush on Tony Stark back when I first watched the movie a few years ago. He was probably like some sort of a gay awakening for me, or something,” Jeongguk took a few more chips after he finished speaking.

 “Wait what.”

 “Yeah, I know, it’s really embarrass-“ Jeongguk started to explain himself, flustered, when he was cut off.

 “You had a crush on that jerk? There are much better superheroes to have a crush on. For example, Cap America looks like a much better guy,” Yoongi claimed. “Why- why would you even like that asshole?”

 Jeongguk took a deep breath and started counting down on his fingers. “Well, he’s really smart, ambitious and handsome, he does have flaws but he always tries to do the right thing and he-“

 “Yeah, but he still is a real jerk,” Yoongi cuts him off again. “I mean, he doesn’t save people because he’s a good person; he saves them because the world wants and expects him to. Also he doesn’t care about others, only about his money and reputation,” Yoongi retorted.

  “Still, that didn’t stop me from having a crush on him.” Jeongguk sighed, smirking. “Also, the suit is really cool,” he adds.

 Yoongi huffed. “Whatever. But my point still stands, Captain America is a much better guy.” he took a sip of his beer, continuing to watch the movie.

 The two went back to watching the movie just as before. The movie ended when they had finished two cans of beer, a half of a bottle of soju and three bags of different snacks. Jeongguk went to boil them both cups of ramyeon before starting the second movie. Halfway through the second part of the Iron Man movie Yoongi felt something heavy and warm plop against his side. He looked to his left only to see that Jeongguk has leaned himself on to Yoongi’s side, also covering half of him with his own blanket.

 (Yoongi tried to bury that strange feeling in his stomach he got while looking at Jeongguk snuggling in closer to him.)

 It was already past midnight when they finished watching the second movie, but Jeongguk still insisted on watching The Avengers, saying that he still wasn’t tired at all, although his sleepy voice and occasional yawning said otherwise. Despite that, Yoongi still did as Jeongguk asked and started the movie, even though he himself was already tired and felt his eyes closing.

 When about half an hour of the movie passed and Jeongguk had snuggled even closer to him, Yoongi was pretty sure that the younger boy was already sleeping, but the sudden voice from between the blankets denied that assumption. “You know… my parents never really understood me.” Yoongi flinched at the sudden words coming from Jeongguk. His voice was small, unsure. It sounded so fragile, Yoongi thought it would break immediately if something went wrong. “They always did what they thought was good for me and never what I actually wanted.” Jeongguk takes a breath before continuing. “It was them who wanted me to apply for business school, not me. They never even listened to what I really wanted,” Jeongguk sounded hurt, talking about his parents and their intentions like this.

 “Well, your parents are assholes,” Yoongi mumbled under his breath, not knowing what else to say.

 Jeongguk sighed before going on. “So, in the end, I didn’t listen to what they said. I secretly applied to the universities I wanted, the first being the Seoul national university to study art.” Jeongguk stopped for a moment to think and then continued. “I also applied to some other universities focusing on music and literature because I’m still not sure what I actually want, although I think art is the most engaging option I want to chose from.”

 Yoongi hummed, still not knowing what to say. He was still surprised at the sudden speech coming from Jeongguk, as the younger boy didn’t want to talk earlier. Yoongi was glad that Jeongguk chose to tell him about the things that bother him (even though the sudden outburst of conversation was probably because of alcohol. Still, Jeongguk didn’t drink that much so maybe the alcohol wasn’t the only reason.) as he knew it must be tough, but Yoongi still didn’t know what he could say when Jeongguk was putting his feelings and thoughts on display right in front of him this way.

 Jeongguk sighed. “I thought that I would keep the applications a secret from them until I knew that I got in and then I would tell them the truth. Of course, I knew that they would be furious and all that but…” Jeongguk took a deep breath, nuzzling in closer to Yoongi. “But now that they have finally found out that I didn’t apply for business school and instead applied for arts, of all things, and even more so that they found out earlier than I planned to tell them, it all just feels… wrong.” when Jeongguk speaks again his voice sounds even smaller and more broken than before. “Now I don’t even know what to do.”

 Something in Yoongi’s stomach shifts at Jeongguk’s words and the voice in which he said it. Besides, the more he thinks, the more this whole situation reminds him of his own.

 “Honestly, I have never been good with giving advice,” Yoongi starts, “but I have one thing to tell you.” He sighs, turning his head to look at Jeongguk. “You should do what your heart tells you to do. And, yeah, before you say anything, I know it sounds really cheesy and not really convincing or something, but…” he trails off for a second, “it’s what got me to where I am right now.” Yoongi remembers his parents not approving of his career choice, being really mad at him for choosing to study music over their so desired medicine, but he still went his path, not listening to his parents. Then he also came out to his parents regardless of them being really unsupportive, before moving away for university. But despite all the bullshit he came through, he is still happy now, studying the thing he loves and having great friends, even if he barely keeps in contact with his parents now. (They were assholes anyway.)

 “And believe me, I am fairly happy now, keeping in mind everything I came through,” Yoongi continues, glancing at the TV that’s still playing the long forgotten movie. “There also were times for me when I didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what the right decision was.” He sighs. “I guess I just didn’t let other people control my life and just did what I thought was better for me. So, although I may not be the right person to give this kind of advice, I still think you should do what your heart tells you. I think that it’s definitely your own choice to which school to apply. It’s your future, not your parents’. And, if you don’t want to live with your parents, you can move out, like, right now. You’re already an adult anyway, so I don’t think there’s really a problem. I think that your brother would let you stay at his apartment, you visit him often anyway.” Yoongi then looks at Jeongguk sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. “Or… if that suits you, you can stay at my apartment for a while?” the statement comes out more like a question. “Namjoon spends most of his time at Seokjin’s place anyway, so I don’t think it would really be a problem or something…” At this point Yoongi was certainly blushing; he was more flustered than he thought he would be.

 At first Jeongguk’s eyes widen at Yoongi’s suggestion but then he seems to consider it for a moment before visibly relaxing and giving Yoongi a small but surely sincere smile.

 “Thank you,” he says. “I’ll consider the offer.”

 Jeongguk shifts in his position again, now practically laying on Yoongi’s lap, and yawns.

 “Also,” Jeongguk adds, “uh, thank you for everything. That you did today. For me. I really appreciate it.” Jeongguk smiles up at Yoongi shyly while the older boy just smiles back.

 “Of course,” Yoongi answers. “Everything for my favorite dongsaeng.” he smiles sleepily and ruffles Jeongguk’s hair, to which the younger boy just chuckles.

 Soon the both boys feel themselves drift off to sleep, laying in each other’s embrace, the movie silently playing in the background, completely forgotten.

 - 

There are three things that Yoongi understands as soon as he wakes up. The first one is that there was a sudden and loud bang of the front door opening, which woke him up and made him try to open his eyes.

 Still sleepy and annoyed from just waking up, he registers the second thing: there is someone really soft and warm nestled against him, his own arms wrapped around the said person. The memories of last night quickly flood his mind and suddenly he feels a little bit more awake.

 The third thing Yoongi knew that morning was that just when he heard a loud and clearly displeased gasp from the doorway of the living room, he fucked up.

*

this part was written by @ajilime pls go and give her some love. She poured my thoughts and feelings into this, she knows me so well. I gave her ideas and she was so excited to write it so here we are. I almost cried while reading... personally I think that she did a great job considering she’s a writter beginner. (i’m telling her to make a side blog so she could post her amazing drawings and sketches, and post fandom stuff... but she’s too afraid and insecure, pls give her love bcs she deserves it:()

anyway, tell me what you think, ily guys. and also I’M SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING FOR SO LONG OMG :(((