Final Reflections: Katelyn Dalton

My Self-Directed Learning

With this semester's self-directed learning program, I was able to develop research skills beyond my previous capacity. Perhaps this was because my studies were more intentional. After the lecture on "Industrialization and Imagination", in which Dr. Burton mentioned that the Romantic period of the arts was a response to the ideologies expressed in the early 1900's, I decided to explore music from this period. The years 1750-1900 showed an explosion of ideas regarding individuals, governments, and technology. The music produced during this time definitely demonstrated this; for example, it was during this time that it became very popular for musicians to go "freelance" and live the "bohemian lifestyle"; a major change from their previous lives of servitude. This way of living resulted in financially struggling musicians--but musicians who could write the way they wanted. To study, I decided to listen to a 45 minute symphony by Hector Berlioz, entitled "Symphonie Fantastique". This piece was considered very radical for the era, and featured a larger ensemble and a larger sound than had ever been used before.

Later on in class, we learned about the 21st century and the Digital Age (a launching point for our final project). While I've never been hugely interested in economics, the "long tail" concept interested me. I did some research and found the website of the guy who created this theory. The Long Tail theory essentially explains "niche" culture. Because production and storage costs are going down (since we do so much of our business online), it can now be economically efficient to cater to a wide variety of niches instead of just selling one thing catered to the masses. This concept alone helped me to better understand the demands of the digital age: individualism and identity.

My Evolving Project

My project definitely started out in the theme of identity, but I was surprised by how much it evolved (and how much my opinions changed) within this topic. My first iteration argued that the connections facilitated by our online identities was actually driving wedges between cultures and societies. While I ended up moving in a different direction, Mitchell Cottrell, a member of my group, ended up having a similar perspective which he developed here.

My project unfolded as I sought out social proof and tried to answer the questions posed by my classmates. Jolene Hammond, a member of my class and group project, mentioned that when we are online, we tend to be a different version of ourselves. This caused me to start thinking about how our online identities differ from our "real" identities. After my second project iteration, Adrian Foong commented with an extremely pertinent question: "does it matter how I live my personal life if I give 100% in my professional life?" Keeping this question in the back of my mind helped me to develop a major component of my final personal project, where I argue that it is completely ethical for employers to review the social media profiles of potential employees.

Once we were put into groups for our final project, I was able to see what facets of identity other members of the group would be focusing on so that I could specialize my topic. Our group project changed drastically inbetween iterations. While our first group post was centered around a video we made detailing the digital presence of our professor, our final project had a personal video that applied to a wider audience, as well as concise "hooks" for each of our personal projects.

Communication and History

I would argue that communication can define society, as as such, methods of communication demarcates cultures and generations. Whether it's the printing press that came about it the 1400's, allowing Martin Luther to more broadly disseminate his 95 theses, or the coffeehouses and salons of the 1700's that allowed the Republic of Letters to function, or the text messages and social media platforms of today that allow major news items to be announced in 140 characters or less, the way we communicate causes social progress.

Whether we like it or not, history is cyclical. In the words of Edmund Burke, "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it". By studying many eras of civilization so quickly this semester, I was able to make more connections between them and see those patterns. Perhaps most importantly, this allowed me to make connections between past eras and the current time. For example, new forms of communication always causes unrest. People resist change. It happened when the transition between illuminated manuscripts and the printing press was being made. People were uncomfortable with this new method, so printers tried to print books to look like illuminated manuscripts. However, the potential of the printing press was eventually unleashed. Because I know this pattern of the past, it doesn't surprise me when society gets stuck on the PDF file and struggles to move on to more interactive forms of text documents. I know that the potential will eventually be discovered.

The way we communicate now will determine the amount and type of social progress that will be made. The sooner we can find a balance between sticking with what we know works and being flexible with change, the sooner and more efficiently we will be able to progress.

Who Are You in the Digital Age?

Our online identity deserves to be protected and made secure, and yet it is also a presence that we want to be seen. Where is the balance between protection and presence? We want to be involved in society while still maintaining our individuality. How can we be involved in the global identity without being swallowed by it? We have an opportunity to share opinions with the world, but we don’t want differing opinions to dissolve into pointless arguments. Where is the line separating crowdsourcing and fiendish feuds?

Tracking Our Digital Footprints

 

Hi! My name is Katelyn Dalton, and I'm a college student trying to learn how to market myself in a world where our digital footprints are beginning to define us.

Perceptions of Identity: Version 2

Multiple Facets of Identity: 2nd Iteration

Our group has been considering the possibility of formatting our final project for the medium of a website. This website would be formatted simply, similarly to a blog, with all of our videos and posts available. Because we want to show how our ideas all connect, we plan to film multiple videos. One video will be an introductory video, in which we all briefly introduce our ideas. The remaining videos will show two of us at a time in a scripted discussion of how our topics pertain to each other. While we didn't have time over Easter weekend to film, the following script will be used for our introductory video. Please feel free to comment with feedback!

Looks Matter

Though I was unable to attend the caucus last night, I did decide that I needed to begin to exercise my rights as a citizen eligible to vote. I will be the first to admit that I am enormously naive when it comes to politics; however, I decided that I wanted to rid myself of some of this inadequacy and #geteducated.
 

Identity: Who is Gideon Burton online?

Would you like to know who Gideon Burton is online??

Perception or Deception?--A Video Claim

As seen in my last post (an attempt to both personalize my project as well as incorporate new forms of media), I recently posted an 11 second video on my Facebook and Twitter profiles in an attempt to find social proof, determine if my idea was valid, and spark interest. I was surprised at how nervous it made me to make my thoughts public--it's a lot less intimidating for me to share my ideas in the classroom than online for the whole world to see. However, I was impressed by many of the comments that were made, and I think that they will help me further develop my thoughts. As of right now, I've gotten 8 comments on my Facebook page but not so much as a retweet on my Twitter--probably because I don't use it much and haven't built up much of a following there.

Overall, people agreed with my claim. I expected this--after all, I posted a pretty general statement. However, I was surprised by the counterarguments that were brought up in the comment section as far as specifics go. Melissa Cox said "People will judge you based on what you post, and they will judge themselves in comparison to you. the most sad part is more and more people are taking 11 second clips of everyone's lives and making it reality." This was interesting to me, and brought another thought--are we not only defining others by their social media profiles, but defining ourselves too? 

Chris Olson brought up a valid point, one that I had been thinking about, by stating that "we don't post EVERYTHING about us, so I think we realize other people don't either." Brooke Anderson mentioned in her comment an equally valid counterpoint: "because we know that what we post of ourselves isn't the perfect reflection of ourselves, we know that must be true of others, but, even knowing this I think we paint greater generalizations on the surface to make up for any lack of depth."

After receiving input from my "homies", I think that I need to narrow down my claim a bit and clarify what I want to say.

Project Log: Katelyn Dalton

Hi, my name is Katelyn Dalton, and social definitions and online interactions matter to me because I'm a college student trying to learn how to market myself in a world where our digital footprint says more about who we are than we ourselves can.

When Worlds Collide

Image taken from here.

Perception is reality, and the way we communicate with each other dictates how we are perceived. As such, as communication changes, the way people see us may also change. In eras past, all your employer saw was your work ethic and quality, so that was how you were identified. The only people who knew you based off of your personal life was your family and friends-- work life and personal
life were two clearly distinct categories. It didn't much matter what decisions one made in their personal life, because those who they had business relationships with likely wouldn't see it. However, with the rise of social media and perpetual, prolific updates, these two worlds are edging closer and closer together.

Communicating Through the Shadow of Social Media

For this week's blog post, I decided to re-create my previous presentation in a more digital form, using Prezi. I was not familiar with Prezi, but this project is all about changing the way we communicate, so I decided to branch out. You can find my presentatiion by clicking on the image below. I'm still trying to nail down and adjust exactly what I want to say, so any and all feedback will be much appreciated!

I realized that my original presentation didn't include much of a personal aspect; however, I'm learning that Prezi isn't the best way to present copious amounts of text. I've decided to include a personal anecdote in this blog post as a way of getting feedback.

Perception versus Reality

Hi, my name is Katelyn Dalton, and social definitions and online interactions matter to me because I'm a college student trying to learn how to market myself in a world where our digital footprint says more about who we are than we ourselves can. Here is my idea: