The Machine is (US)ing US

I genuinely enjoyed the beginning of this video; the simplicity of the entire intro really left a mark on me because it smacked me in the face with reality. Starting “Text is linear” with pencil then going into the computer text with “Digital text is different” showed me how different both texts were, especially with writing erasing with pencil and writing and deleting with digital text. Stating that digital text is more adaptable is so true, especially with how I live my life today, with writing notes for class to writing online to friends. Seeing him link words into the one sentence and then cutting and pasting them in a different section of the sentence made me realize how everything connected and fit with one another. For example, when he linked the hypertext with one word to another was interesting because I am just so used to clicking a link without a second thought. I am used to not asking myself, “I clicked on this hyperlink and it brought me somewhere completely different, but how?” Taking a step back and watching him do the hyperlink in front of me reminded me that with everything thing I click/post online, something happens within an entirely different world to make that happen. I also learned that you could view the code of a page by clicking on View Source and reading the script and learning how that page was put together, which also informed me more about how earlier websites were written in HTML.

What I Want Out of This Class

I really like how this class came to me at a time in my life where I am finally opening up my eyes and seeing how it is taking over/consuming my [social] life. The fact that I could subconsciously let something like the Internet control my free time, and even when I did not have free time, was never a thought that popped into my head. I always said, “Oh my gosh yes I am on social media I am actually addicted LOL” and would always play it off because basically every single one of my friends were addicted to some form of social media, so it was not abnormal for me to be addicted as well. I always would shiver when I heard about technology ‘knowing who I am’ and it recommending things to me that I never even looked for, yet would be things I was actually interested in. From this class, I want to gain knowledge on the true history of the World Wide Web and the Internet and understand how something like my phone and laptop could make something like Facebook or Snapchat so fascinating. I want to learn which people came up with which ideas that helped shape everything I know about the World Wide Web and the Internet. I want to be able to go around informing my family and friends about the history of URLs and how exactly they work. From this class, I want to be able to tell myself to do something creative with technology, rather than aimlessly roam about the web on my phone.