Monthly Archives: October 2013

So… Jeff Rice came to lecture about Beer?

Posted in DePaul, Events, Proseminar, Reading by

Last week, Jeff Rice from University of Kentucky visited DePaul’s Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse to lecture about his coming book, Craft Identity. It’s all about social media and society told through the lens of craft beer. Rice is really seriously into craft beer.

The flyer for Jeff Rice's Lecture at DePaul Univeristy on October 21.

The flyer for Jeff Rice’s Lecture at DePaul Univeristy on October 21.

I noticed immediately that Rice is heavily influenced by Marshall McLuhan, the author of The Medium is the Massage.

A short aside: McLuhan is extremely abstract. He argues that society is now governed by print media rules, logical uninterrupted arguments that flow from beginning to end. But digital media now dominate we continue to judge digital media by print media standards.

Now back to Rice. He argues that to understand the power of social media we have to throw out the print standard that arguments flow from one complete thought to the next. In social media, it’s more like a series of thoughts that interrupt and overlap each other and make a complete argument or pattern.

Now comes the interesting part, he made this argument by writing his book as a series of thoughts that interrupt and overlap each other. It was an interesting concept, although a little hard to follow, given the venue.

After a serious mulling and a talk with a professor who attended the lecture as well, I was able to piece together the description above.  I’m certain Craft Identity will be required or recommended reading for one of my upcoming classes. I hope I will better understand once I am able to read to whole book for myself.

Find Rice’s other books here.

Drawing a Blank… I forget everything

Posted in Discussion Leader, Proseminar, Reading, Self Reflection by

So of course the week I volunteer to be one of the class discussion leaders I have nothing. The reading was not cool or interesting and I had the hardest time coming up with something dynamic to engage my class. Yay for me! The following is my attempt at questions to stimulate the discussion my class will have later:

Before reading this I had never thought of the computer as an encyclopedia, but now more than ever we turn to our computers whenever we have questions. Nine out of ten conversations I have with my mother at some point one of us says, “let’s just google it.” Our computers remember everything for us. I know only two phone numbers by heart, my mother’s and my grandmother’s. I have hundreds of numbers stored in my phone though. Not just phone numbers but email addresses and physical addresses as well. I don’t even try to remember things anymore. I just store them on my computer and go on with my day.

Do our computers allow us to forget everything?

In a different class we talked about the idea of trust. We just trust that our machines and networks will work properly although we don’t really understand how they work or know how to repair them if the malfunction. A primary example is an ATM. We simply trust that the ATM and its network will just know that we deposited $200 and our online bank account will reflect.

Do we trust these machines to remember forever?

We know these. They're all over campus. And when we see them we assume that when we use them they will work.

We know these. They’re all over campus. And when we see them we assume that when we use them they will work.

What happens on that God forsaken day when we wake up and the computers have decided to forget everything too?

The Big Bang Theory: Hot Troll Deviation

My class has been discussing Turkle’s Alone Together, in which she decribes several people who have seperate lives online. I talked about Pete, who had a second wife in the online game Second Life, in an earlier post.

It all reminded me of this clip from The Big Bang Theory where one of the main characters looses his girlfriend because she catches him “cheating” on her with a troll in the online game War of Warcraft. I talked about it in class but no one watches the show so I thought I would upload the video for everyone to see and enjoy.

In the video, Howard, guy in trouble, is asking Penny, friend of ex-girlfriend, for help on how to repair his relationship after the “hot troll deviation.”

Enjoy! The show really is hilarious.

The Key to this is Awareness

Posted in Proseminar, Reading, Self Reflection by

Last week, my best friend and I attempted to have a conversation via text, nothing serious just some gossip about a mutual acquaintance being pregnant, and I was having a complete slow moment; my brain just was not comprehending what she was typing. Finally, she just gave up and called me. We ended up talking for at least an hour and it was enjoyable but I kept trying to check Facebook, Twitter, and email while she was talking to me.

I had to tell myself to stop it, just be in this moment, this phone conversation, and be ok with it.

On this journey with new media, I’m becoming much more aware of my use of computers and the Internet. Author, Howard Rhiengold asks his readers to do the same thing the excerpt my class is reading this week from his book, Net Smart: How to Thrive Online. We are not as good at dividing our attention as we think. In our attempt to remain connected to everyone, the whole world, we are starting to lose a grip on those closest to us. I noticed the same thing happening to me. My relationships with those I cannot text or Facebook, mainly my older relatives, falter greatly. Rhiengold also talks about his students using devices in class and how it bothers him; he knows he doesn’t have their full attention. It reminded me that I used my computer and phone during class. There are only six of us in there!

Where do I get the gall to just go off somewhere on my phone or computer in the middle of a class?

Finishing up Turkle’s Alone Together made me think about how I could be more healthy about my use of media in my life. She tells the story of a young man named Brenden who does not like to text because it cannot relay all the nuances of face- to-face communication. His need for face-to-face communication bothers his friends and girlfriend. But why do the people that claim to love him not want to talk to him? Why are they so picky about format? I thought that was unfair of them. After noticing these events I’ve decided that more telephone calls are in my future, less text messages. More house calls, less Facebook messages.

Even if I’m not totally unsuccessful, more “physical real” is good for me. If nothing else it will make me more aware of what is happening around me. I won’t misunderstand my friends text. I won’t space out during lunch with a friend. I will hear the entirety of my professor’s lecture.

This week I am determined to live in the physical real. No compromises.