At the beginning of the semester, I was very eerie about this digital literacy course. In fact, when I read that one of the requirements throughout the semester was to write blogs, I had a quick five second, "oh crap" moment, thinking I made a terrible choice to take this class. Luckily, I learned to enjoy blogging, and my blogging style, technique, and proficiency has progressed in the past semester.
Usually my posts discussed my Independent Learning Plan on cooking and nutrition. I talked about my eating habits, my plan to change those habits, and my weekly diet. I enjoyed that! It was a good practice to look back on each week to see where I made good food choices and where I made choices that could be improved in future weeks. It was just like this audit on my blogs, but an audit on my diet! Looking back on the posts, as the weeks went along, I started to become more personal with my posts. I even see some humor thrown into the posts in later weeks. In the first couple weeks, that did not happen as I was still quite nervous and unsure about the whole blogging thing. Overall, it was neat to be able to share my weekly experiences with food and nutrition. Blogging is not something that I have ever paid any attention to until this semester, so it was a great help in me becoming more digitally literate. I was able to become more comfortable and personal with my posts as the semester progressed. I am grateful for this opportunity, again, as it was a great help. Thank you to all who read my blog this semester. Your feedback and comments were much appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed coming along with me on my nutrition journey. With that being said, I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Goodbye!
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When looking at the topic of reading in the year 2020, my mind goes to multiple venues. I think of books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, online articles, etc. There are almost limitless places I can go to read information. However, if I asked my dad, who still has a flip phone, he would think: book and newspaper. When the topic of reading is brought up, many people believe that reading has completely been done away with due to the arrival of social media, particularly YouTube and mediums that have audio-books. They say that people do not dive into books like they used to because they can simply put in some headphones and listen to the information or story without much effort. While this may be true, I believe that reading still has a place in our lives: a very important place. I have been one to say, “Why would I read the book when I can listen to it.” I always thought it would be so much easier. Well, I have tried and tried, but I can never get the same information and depth out of listening to an audio-book than when I actually read the book. That statement right there has some underlying problems, though. It is difficult to actually read a book at times. When trying to read, my mind wanders off, thinking about anything and everything but the book I have in my hands. It amazes me how I can be two pages into a book, and have absolutely no idea what I have read. When I think of reading, I think of it as a skill. It is a skill to be able to grab a book, sit down, read words, and completely understand them. It is more of a skill to do that than it is to look up a “how to” on the internet, skim the material, and have basic knowledge of how to do something. During this quarantine, I have made it a point to read more often out of actual books as opposed to articles online. Yes, there are times when I lose focus and drift off, but the times when I keep focused on the book, I learn so much more and have a much deeper understanding of the information that if I were to just skim it or listen to it. Again, reading still has a place in our lives, and it is a skill that I admire. A week ago, we were asked to disconnect from social media and the internet as part of our learning. I thought this was very interesting because the class focuses on being literate online in this digital age. However, I realized the importance of disconnecting. Even though we need to be as literate as possible online in today's world, that does not mean having social media encompass our lives is a good thing.
I found that the more social media I use, the more stressed I am. The main factor in that is that I realized the time "wasted" on social media and become irritated at myself for wasting that time when the time could have been used for much more productive activities. So, on the contrary, when I was not wasting time on social media, I did not have that feeling of stress or irritation. In fact, during the disconnect, I was able to spend more quality time with my hobbies, friends, and family. This is not to say that I do not usually spend quality time with the people and things in my immediate world, but because my phone was not glued to me, I was able to actually live in the moment. My mind was focused on the discussion or activity at hand, as opposed to something else on social media. I appreciate this time we had to disconnect. Even though this class has taught me to better use the internet and social media outlets, I know that there needs to be a balance. I am glad that I know that I can use social media effectively, but still understand the importance of not living my entire life over the internet. It is funny how awareness and mindfulness are the topic of our learning for this week. I say it is funny because during this virus time period, I have been on the internet quite a bit more than I would have otherwise.
I am glad that I have noticed what my habits were and what my habits are. I find myself spending over an hour on one TikTok, and while I am using the app, I tell myself, "Dude, you need to find something else to do you have wasted so much time." I am glad I am aware of this, as others may spend hours and hours on the app while not knowing where the time has gone. Normally, with the exception of this class through tweeting and blogging, I hardly even post things to the internet. This class, obviously, has increased my digital interactions tremendously. With that in mind, I am aware and conscience that I do not spend a crazy amount of time on internet interactions for personal reasons. Based on the "Quitting the Internet for a Year", and the benefits shown of being less involved over the internet, I am glad that is the case. I have noticed that getting on the internet and social media has a way of sucking away my energy. I am more energized when I am free from those things, or at least am more energetic when I spend less time engaging with them. This week, there is nothing new and exciting to share regarding my Independent Learning Plan. I was able to make good choices based on the variety of food at my disposal, and instead of only focusing on cooking, I was able to try my hand at some baking.
This past week, we celebrated my mother's birthday! For her birthday, I decided to bake her a cake! It was very similar to cooking, as I easily followed the recipe and the instructions to bake this cake. It was a cheesecake, and the ingredients included cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and a pie crust. I was grateful that it was super easy to make and there was little chance that I could mess up! I really enjoyed baking it for my mom, and I was glad I was able to spend that day with her. Also, the cake turned out delicious, which I am quite proud of! Right now, I am on a pretty set eating schedule. It has been a lot easier to make healthy choices during this time due to the living situation with my parents. My mom likes to keep vegetables and fruits available, which is a huge advantage. Overall, my ILP is going well and I am enjoying it! Making healthy choices is not something that you can do for a couple days and master. Health and nutrition is a life-long choice. Some could argue that it is a lifestyle. In the past week, I have continued to make healthy choices, along with some subpar ones.
I say subpar, because this week, I rewarded myself with some sodas. I had a coca-cola early in the week and a mountain dew later in the week. My body had a high craving for the sweetness. I made sure to have water with me as I was drinking the soda, and I also made sure to make healthy choices after drinking the sodas as to not compound those subpar choices. So, in actuality, the poor choice helped me make more nutritious choices. I continued to eat more salads this week. Salads primarily included lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I really like this combination. Usually I would have a salad during meal time, and most of my meals consisted of a portion of protein, carbohydrate, and fat. I am grateful and lucky enough to have plenty of options to eat, including ham, beef, dairy, and fruits. During this time, even as I try to make healthy choices, my focus has shifted a bit to being grateful for the food I have to eat. As I mentioned previously in a blog, thousands of people are struggling in this area because of the pandemic. I am extremely thankful to have what I have, and to be able to eat what I have to eat. Based on the readings I chose for this week, digital activism is something that has gotten more and more popular in the last 10 to 20 years. Entire campaigns have been ran online, with no offline aspects involved. Digital activism can be both a good thing and a bad thing.
Digital activism can be great because it can get people involved that otherwise would not be. For example, if a group of people was running a fundraising event, they would be looking for donations. Without having a website where people could read up on the fundraiser and then choose to make a donation, the amount of people that would be contacted about the fundraiser would be greatly limited. Also, all ages of people can now be involved in something on a bigger scale. In the past, before digital activism, only those people in authority, and in the right physical place, (i.e. city, county) could be active in an event. Digital activism, however, has changed the way people get their message out due to the many different tools that the internet provides. Digital activism can be a negative thing because "the internet remembers everything". Once something is out there, it cannot be taken back, and it is out there for good. There have been times when opposing groups have dug deep and found dirt on eachother. They were able to do this because of digital activism that had occured in the past. In fact, it could be argued that looking, and doing that research online to find dirt, is a form of digital activism in itself when the information is used to make a point online. Overall, digital activism is something that most of us do in the form of social media. Some people take it a step further when they use blogs, vlogs, etc. to run a campaign or event over the internet. Emojis are an interesting topic. Some people love them, and some people hate them. The people who love them, use emojis all the time. The people who hate them, still use emojis all the time (insert laughing emoji). Emojis are a part of most of the population’s lives. Why are they used? Are they beneficial? Do I use them? Emojis are used to show emotion that otherwise would not be received over non-verbal communication, primarily texting. It seems like a simple concept, but I contribute that to the fact that emojis have been used in our lives every day for the past 5 years, approximately. Lots of people use emojis in place of words. Instead of saying “that is funny”, we put the laughing emoji. Instead of saying “that is sad”, we put the crying emoji. The same goes for many emotions, such as excited, lonely, embarrassed, etc. Overall, emojis have bolstered non-verbal communication. In most cases, because of the reason for using them, emojis give us the ability to better understand what another person is feeling, even if we are not there, receiving their non-verbal communication cues. However, I have noticed that emojis can be detrimental to communication as well. Many times, when we are communicating and texting, we put emojis of emotions that we are not even feeling. I do this on occasion when I use emojis. I will be texting my friend, and he will send me a joke. Right away, because it is what I am used to doing, I text back with the laughing face emoji. However, there are plenty of times where the joke is not that funny. Yes sometimes, I say, “dude that is not funny”, but there also times where I take the emoji and use it as a substitute for saying how I really feel. The list of emojis on our phones is very large, and we have so many different emojis to choose from. While emojis have enhanced communication in the form of transferring emotion, we need to be careful with how we use them. Emojis, instead of adding to the communication, have started to replace the communication in certain scenarios. This assignment was a reminder to me to say what I mean and mean what I say. Emojis can prevent me from doing that, so it is important to keep in mind. Overall, emojis are pretty cool and if used in the right way, give us another avenue for the communication we seek. Staying at home for multiple weeks can certainly change the attitude of an individual: that is not the case for me. While I have continued to make mostly healthy choices with my meals, I have been challenged with a few candies. Through this blog, I hope to share my belief of the danger of two yummy, but sugary sweets.
As you can see, the pandemic has had both a positive and negative effect on my eating and food goals. Right now, I am staying level-headed, understanding that it is a long-term quest for health, and consistency will be the most influential factor. The article that I chose to read regarding digital citizenship was Dealing with Cruelty. It is no surprise that people who post on twitter, blogs, and other online forums receive lots of scrutiny, especially if the opinion they share is not very popular. In all actuality, no matter what opinion is shared, people will disagree, and likely react in a hostile manner.
The article was great to read as it gave reasons people struggle to read negative comments and hear harmful words. It then related it to the online forums, where people can hide behind a computer screen, sometimes through anonymous comments, and be very nasty with the things they say about other people. Then, the article took a turn, and gave helpful hints about how to deal with negative comments. One I found a bit comical was a hint that advised the blogger to read cruel comments and words in a silly voice. The goal of the exercise was to take away some of the sting that could be felt if the words were said in a very serious manner. We tend to remember negative events and words way more clearly and vividly than positive moments. Think about it: How many times have you received positive reinforcement, or a compliment, and just shrugged it off? Now think about how many times someone has said something mean to you. It probably struck a chord and you remembered it for a while. There is even a chance that you started to believe the negative thing they said about you, even if it is the farthest thing from the truth. Overall, I am glad that I do not have to worry about very many negative comments. The people in this course have been educated on digital courtesy and respect. I am grateful that all the comments on the blogs that I have seen, both on my blogs and the blogs of others, have been positive, beneficial, and encouraging. |
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March 2020
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