toddlightfan53

[toddlightfan53]

Presenting: The funniest game of Among Us ever played, in 6 pictures.

[toddlightfan53]

Media Log #5: Love Me, Love Me~ Say That You Love Me~

Does the Internet make us nice or mean?

Well, let’s first start by talking about why people come to the internet in the first place: Attention and Loneliness.

It is a known fact that humans need to have friends to survive - for our species to continue on to the next generation. Social interaction is one of the most important aspects of our humanity and has remained that way for millennia. So when people are destitute of this much needed social interaction in their lives, they will usually turn to the internet for that fulfillment.  

This is a common occurrence for many children who were always the ones playing alone at recess, the ones who never speak, and the so-called “weirdos”. Remember how in the last media log I was talking about people spending time with people who are just like them? The same is present here. The lonely kids are outliers; they don’t belong anywhere, no one in the schoolyard is like them. This causes a great amount of loneliness and a great need for attention, which is not good for a child to have to go through at so young an age.

As people grow desperate for attention, appreciation and validation, they will begin to do anything to get the attention they have craved for so long. How they manage to get that attention is the actual interesting part of this. I’m sure you are aware of internet trolls, yes? And surely you know how they get the attention they seek? Yes, by being rude, insensitive and generally irritating. They will never stop talking until they get a reaction from someone. Why? Because then they would have that fulfillment of being the centre of attention that they had wanted for ages. 

An important point I would like to add is a quote from an article by journalists, Rebecca Greenfield and Jen Doll, about the jerkiness of these internet trolls and how they can get away with it so easily online: “There's no magic Internet-ness that is making us meaner than we naturally are, but it encourages rude in a way that real life doesn't. In the non-digital world, we have social codes that make us act less like the horrible humans we are at our cores. On the Internet, we don't. There's nobody teaching children to say please and thank you after receiving Facebook likes. Rather, this place conditions for jerkiness. The anonymity allows for nastiness without consequences. Trolls get rewarded with page views and fame. Things that are stigmatized (for good reason) flourish here: There are corners of this place where people just talk about being racist, out in the open.”

There will always be an internet troll wherever you go on the Internet, but there will always be at least one person who you will be on really great terms with. You’ll start talking and you’ll bond with one another, creating a new connection and setting your dopamine generator to motion because - guess what? You’ve just made a new friend. 

Online, it is so easy to make friends because - depending on where you go - there is bound to be someone just like you out there. All you have to do is just start looking and you will eventually find someone similar to you in the span of a couple minutes.

The Internet is a huge sea of people who are trying to find their place in the world. You are one of said people. So, go on. The world of the Internet is your oyster. Go explore it and find your people!

[toddlightfan53]

Media Log #4: Unmasking the Menace Behind the Screen

Constructing You, Deconstructing Others on Social Media: Online identities - are they real? Does it matter? Deconstruct a “character” on Instagram. Maybe... your own? 

I’ve been online for quite a few years and have seen a variety of different people express themselves in different ways. Some people choose to cover themselves with white lies and filters while others wear their hearts on their sleeves and show themselves to the world as what they really are. The most interesting part is that you can seldom tell which it is unless you know the person behind the screen personally. 

Anonymity is one of the many things to grace the internet and will continue to do so as people continue to use it for their own reasons. Psychologists Elspeth Harris and Aurore Bardey claim that one of these reasons is that “in comparison to face-to-face interaction, individuals who engaged in online interaction were abler to express their true selves than offline posit that ‘under the protective cloak of anonymity (i.e., the internet) users can express the way they truly feel and think.’ This reasoning insinuates that the lack of a shared social network and frequent contact with those outside of one’s social circle, as seen on Instagram, allows individuals to reveal negative aspects of their identity online and openly self-disclose”. 

When it comes to the “cloak of anonymity”, I haven’t met many people who have used it to their advantage as of yet, though I am sure that there are a bunch of people who use that cloak recklessly. They will hide the ugly sides of themselves behind photo-shopped images of them in bikinis and swimming trunks, images of them holding puppies and behind the spams of love-related emojis on a friend’s post. There are more methods of hiding your true self besides the aforementioned, though. 

Have I ever used the “cloak of anonymity” like it’s something from Harry Potter? No. I never saw a reason to do so, really. This is because - like in my daily life at school away from any screen - I find people like myself and hang out with them. In that place with those people, there is no reason why we have to hide ourselves to make people like us. All we have to do is be ourselves and people will come together and connect with us. That’s how friendships are made, right?

Now, for the interesting bit: even if I don’t see any reason to hide who I really am, does that mean I don’t play a character? No. I very well could be playing a character online. In fact, I’ve been told that I play characters when I’m offline, as well. My mother claims that I play the role of a “people pleaser”; that I just say things to make people happy (then again, my mother isn’t very kind to me and we have a rocky relationship so maybe that’s just her opinion and her way of insulting me). I feel like I play the role of the emotional punching bag; if someone is feeling down and need to vent, I’m usually always there to let them get their emotions out and to cheer them up whenever I can without even considering how this could harm me in the future. Or maybe I don’t care about my own wellbeing and think that the wellbeing of my friends is more important. 

I have also been told that I can be selfish by my mother; how I can feel pity for myself so easily even though I am the cause of every single problem I have ever had throughout my life. She says that I am disrespectful and neglectful all because I don’t talk to her anymore. She might be right because no one knows you better than your own mother, right? 

Perhaps the aforementioned are some of the ugly things I use the “cloak of anonymity” to hide (or my mother is just not kind to me). We all have our secrets and, usually, we don’t want them to be known so that we don’t lose the respect and love from those close to us. Then again, why do we hide these ugly things about us when we subconsciously know that our friends - offline or online - will accept us for who we are because they love us?

[toddlightfan53]

Media Log #3: Instagram, We Need to Talk...

A Letter to Instagram

Dear Instagram,

I’m just writing to you to thank you for giving me the chance to make friends. I’d also like to thank you for allowing me to find people like myself who indulge in the same shows and books that I do. Before I got Instagram, I only had a few friends in school and it was hard to find ways to contact them in person. Once I got Instagram, I was able to talk to my friends more easily and I got to meet other people in the process!

Instagram helped me to find people I could connect and bond with over just about anything - drawings, songs or TV shows, anything! This actually happened with one of my closest friends on Instagram. In fact, I believe she was my very first online friend on Instagram and it was such a pleasure to find her lovely artwork on my feed. It was an even bigger pleasure to get the chance to speak to her, draw together and simply get to know her. This person ended up introducing me to her other friends and I was able to become close with them as well.

I would also like to thank you for giving me a place to freely express my excitement in the things I enjoy. Before Instagram, I could only hope that the friends I had would understand or know of the things I was talking about and it was really awkward for me if they ended up not knowing a thing about what I am talking about. This was one of the things that would lead to me soon developing social anxiety. Thankfully, I was able to find a safe haven on Instagram in Grade 10 and have been able to freely express myself and the excitement I had for the things that I indulge in every day.

I am amazed by the way your algorithm works when it comes to recommending them things that you think that I would enjoy (even if I do not want to see those things at the moment. I can always fix that on my own, though). So, thank you, Instagram, for giving me a place I can go to escape the madness of reality. Thank you for helping me make new friends and help me bond with them more easily. Thank you for giving me a quicker method of communication with my friends; even if we’re miles apart. Thank you!

With love,

~ Joan

[toddlightfan53]

Media Log #2: The Adults In Your Life Have Been Lying To You Your Whole Life and Here’s Why + Other Shenanigans

Alternative Title: Thanks, Internet! I’m always reading now!

I spend a lot of time online nowadays and have been drifting further and further away from the person I was all those years ago back in Middle School - always having my nose hidden behind a book. It’s not that I don’t love reading anymore - I do love reading! The thing that has now taken that old version of myself is my laptop. But does that mean I don’t read anymore? Well, not quite...

“You used to read so much,” I hear my mother mutter from the doorway of my bedroom. “Now, you just sit there and waste the day away.”

“What makes you think I’m not reading?” I ask her in response because I do read even if I’m online all the time.

I know that if I speak for everyone that if someone asked everyone how much they read this week, they would say that they read nothing or next to nothing. However, that may not be the case as - guess what? - we are constantly reading. We read texts, we read captions on our screens when we watch a show or a movie, you read the mindless nonsense that comes out of Donald Trump’s twitter account, you’re reading the words I have typed here! You’re always reading one way or another! 

Now you may not think that and I can explain why that is! Because Literacy has been defined in a completely different way than what it is supposed to be defined as. The adults in your life have taught you from a young age that literacy is found in reading books, magazines, newspapers and other physical pieces of paper with words on them. However, literacy does not end at books and journals; it goes further than that. A definition I feel that truly grasps the concept of what literacy truly is is Renee Hobbs’ definition of literacy which she says is “a complex constellation of cognitive, social, and affective competencies that involve the use of symbol systems for expressing and sharing knowledge and ideas, information and experiences.” 

Say, isn’t that what you see on the Internet all the time? A complex collection of different forms of communication that uses symbols systems to express and share knowledge, ideas, information and experiences? Literacy isn’t limited to books and things as I had said before, my dears. It goes beyond. Literacy isn’t just whether you can read a book properly or not, it’s a comprehension of human communication. It’s a form of communication and the internet is known as the communication hub of this generation. 

That aside, you can always find a novel or book online thanks to books existing for so long that they become public domain. However, you can’t read a novel that just came out without paying for it, right? Well, you would be mistaken as there are people out there who are pumping out endless amounts of literature as a hobby and for free. These authors are people like you and me, with big dreams, low expectations and major amounts of disappointment in the world around them. These people write stories about the little things in life they enjoy, bending and pulling at the strings of an original work to make something incredible. Ladies and gentlemen and those in-between; allow me to introduce you to the blessed world of fanfiction!

Now before you go on and complain about how “fanfiction is cringey”, how fanfiction doesn’t count as actual literacy and why I’m talking about fanfiction in a media log that focuses on why we don’t read actual books anymore, allow me to explain that fanfiction is what makes up a majority of the online library today and that section of the library will just keep getting bigger and bigger as time goes on. 

You may not believe it but your favourite authors wrote fanfiction. Remember Neil Gaiman’s A Study in Emerald? Yea, that was a Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraftian Universe crossover fanfiction. How about Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson Series? Greek Mythology fanfiction. Speaking of Greek Mythology Fanfiction, have any of you heard of Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles? Yes. It is gay Greek Mythology fanfiction at its finest. And Dante’s Inferno? That was a religious, self-insert fanfiction in which Dante gets to walk through Hell and back with the love of his life his idol, Virgil.

Yes, fanfiction has been around for millennia, so it is nothing out of the ordinary.

So now that that fiasco has been settled, how do we answer the question of what is fanfiction? Leanne Stendell claims that, essentially, fan fiction is “one of the most unique outgrowths of popular culture of the last three decades, fan fiction involves stories based on popular books, television series, and films that expand and embellish upon the plots, characters, and settings found in those works.” 

It is mostly done in good fun, but there have been certain fan fiction that has managed to be profitable, either they have become movies or they get physical copies that will be able to be distributed at local bookstores everywhere! 

 Fanfiction has been my go-to when it comes to literature and I have found that I am inspired by these works and have gained that same surge of dopamine that people claim that you receive from reading a novel from it. If you really think about it though, fan fiction can be books; they’re just books found online and they can be about absolutely anything you want! No matter what you want to see there is bound to be a fanfiction that would suit you and your current reading needs.

To end this monster of a log, I am simply going to summarize the main point of this entire log which was to explain the idea that literacy is not restricted at books and physical copies of literature; that literacy can be anything that is a form of communication such as the news, social media and even this disastrous media log.

[toddlightfan53]

Media Log #1: Social Lives Online

Are we alone out there, or are we never alone anymore? Supported and connected, or lonely and isolated?

As a person who spends the majority of her time on the internet and has done so for the last 5 or 6 years, I have got to meet several people throughout this time - some of whom I still talk to this day, and others I’ve left behind. I would be lying if I said that I had more friends outside of my device than not. In theory, I am truly never alone because I’m always getting notifications for messages on different social media platforms. But does that mean I’m actually surrounded by friends I can trust, or am I being deceived by the programming of this social media application? 

Online, you can meet so many people, see so many faces, discover so many secrets, but how can you tell that any of those are true? When you’re texting someone, how can you tell that they mean every word they say and that they’re not trying to hide that compliment on your post-workout body without a Reveal-Sarcasm button? How do you know that this person really sees you as a friend if you’ve never met them in person? No matter how much fun you may have enjoying the “company” you may have with people online, does it really matter? Some would say that it does not; you’ll end up ghosting them as you move along in your life and meet more people. Others would that it does; that it gave them happiness in a time of struggle for them and that it felt wonderful to have a community of people there for them they needed them. Online relationships build in strange ways and as a person who observes the development of relationships in person and in media such as my own writing, I’m always going to dive into the process of human communication and connection. 

Let’s take this back to my Elementary school days, specifically 6th grade: this was the time where everyone (and I mean everyone) wanted a phone of their own because if you had a phone, you were instantly the coolest person in the schoolyard (that, and if you had candy). What feelings drove these kids to want a phone, other than popularity? Did they want to follow the trend or just want to receive validation from their peers? Maybe it was because everyone in their family had a phone and they were the only person in the household without their own phone. Or maybe, they were just lonely. They had no friends in school, didn’t have much of a social life, they were reserved and mainly kept to themselves. Maybe getting a phone was one way to get themselves to make some friends. They wouldn’t be able to get a phone so soon, so they resorted to virtual world games online where one of their first tasks as a new player would be to make a friend. The sense of happiness that a child will get when some other player accepts their friend request is indescribable, to say the least. They start spending more time on the device out of habit. This habit eventually builds into an addiction as the child starts wandering farther from the virtual world games to actual social media forums such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I would have said that it was like falling down a rabbit hole, but I feel like McLuhan summarizes the idea of falling into the endless void of the internet than I do by saying: “Electronic media transport us instantly wherever we choose. When we are on the phone we don’t just disappear down a hole, Alice-in-Wonderland-style - we are there and they are here - the sender is sent, disembodied.”

When I first read the “[...] disembodied” bit, I thought that this was not only implying that we don’t know who the sender really is in terms of identity, but also in terms of self. How do we know that a sender is an actual person and not just some robot made by some dude who lives in his parents’ basement at the age of 28? This is where the parents’ fear for their children’s safety comes in. There are countless amounts of people on the internet and there are many types of people to meet on them. A person may act like a 14-year-old online, but may actually 40+ in reality and converse with people the same age as their online persona - but that’s another story for a different media log. Who you meet depends on where you go online, but people who you don’t want to encounter can find their way to you despite where you go and adjusting your settings to keep you safe as much as possible (you don’t want to know how many porn bots I have had follow me and message me on my personal Tumblr.) As McLuhan himself says, “Electronic media transport us instantly wherever we choose.” Where you go is completely up to you - so tread lightly. There are people everywhere on the internet which means that - no matter where you go - there will always be someone there. When you’re online, you’re never alone. To, once more, quote McLuhan: “[...] We are there and they are here [...]”. 

Now how does this affect us as people? Do we feel more connected and supported, or more isolated and lonely. It’s all a matter of perspective! In my case, I feel supported and connected because I can have access to speaking with my friends despite our distance at my fingertips. My parents would say that I have become isolated and withdrawn, making them feel lonely, because I never talk to them anymore (though it goes deeper than that, in my perspective, at least. This would also be an appropriate time to mention that media is a common escape that our generation retreats to when things get hard). To some, it may be the complete opposite, but I have yet to meet someone who is in that situation, so I cannot say for certain that the opposite could be true, as well.