JN201 Week II Blog Forum

Topic I: Social Media

Fucking kill me... I hate social media. Having said that...

1) The three people/organizations I pay attention too on Twitter are my collage instructors who recommend following them, Achievement Hunter (a Texas based YouTube gaming group), and Achievement Hunter's parent company Rooster Teeth (an entertainment company specializing in online content). Each reason for watching them is rather simple. I follow my instructors so that I can see any updates to either the class schedule, or if class has been canceled for some reason; after two instances of going to a class and finding out it was canceled I decided this was the smarter option. Achievement Hunter meanwhile sometimes announces what games they will be playing on their Twitter, so it's fun to know whats coming. They also announce when they are going live-stream a game and what game they will play during it; these streams are often in multiplayer online games so it affords me the chance to get into a game with them, just for the fun of it. The reason for Rooster Teeth is much the same as Achievement Hunter, they announce when new content is available; which is perfect since I enjoy much of what they make, Red vs. Blue, Camp Camp, and On the Spot being my favorites. 

2) One thing I was tempted to share with one of my friends and did share with my sister was when video game publisher Zen Studios tweeted a video of Achievement Hunter playing one of their games, Infinite Mini-golf to be precise. I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised since in the video,one of Achievement Hunter's members mentions he occasionally speaks with Zen Studios on Twitter. I still thought it was cool that the people who made the game found the videos Achievement Hunter makes with it entertaining. Quite frankly I don't know why other video game developers don't share the sentiment. A Let's Play video on your game is effectively free advertising. 

3) Honestly, my participation in the democratic system of this country is limited to voting, very rarely signing petitions, and (if it counts) infrequently watching debates on television. One facet of social media I do find useful though is texting. I often text friends and family like most other people on this planet with a modern cell phone. However I never text long conversations, I only ever text simple questions like if my friends are busy and if they want to hang out, or where mum is and what dinner is going to be. Texting has made communicating simple things like that a lot easier and I can say I am hanging out with friends more often than I was before because we can easily communicate and schedule say... a trip to the movie theatre. 

Meanwhile, pay close attention to the wording of the above questions. Notice how I avoided the word "following" when describing my looking at those Twitter feeds? It because I don't technically "follow" any of them. I don't have a Twitter. Or a Facebook, a reddit, an Instagram, or a Pintrest. And I don't want any of them. I have a Tumblr, and given what I can (and might want to) do with it, that will probably be enough. Further, I do in fact try to avoid social media in general; with the exception of Tumblr and DiviantArt (if that counts) because there is artwork there, and I like pretty, awesome or cool artwork. My reason being that as someone who is somewhat socially awkward (I like to think I've gotten better) social media lacks some facets of social interaction I require to function effectively. For example, I have a hard time getting sarcasm from people in real life, my friends have made that abundantly clear, and it is even harder to tell if someone is being sarcastic online since a post has no vocal inflections, tone or facial expressions to make that clear. To me social media is a minefield I do not want to try walking around in; and since texting with my phone works just fine, why would I want two or three other services or accounts for something that does fundamentally the same thing? 

I don't. 

Mr. Priewe, when you read this, if I absolutely need one of those social media accounts for this class, shoot me an email. I'll probably still be resistant to the idea, but let me know why it is so critical. I personally don't see why. Or if my Tumblr will work, let me know. 

Topic II: The Internet

This might be more my speed... 

1) The whole I idea of the internet making us (as Sherry put it) "alone together" I get. The problem I have is that I don't really see it in action that often. Maybe it is because times have changed in the five or six years since she did that TED talk (I don't remember the exact release date but I do remember it was not exactly from a year or two ago); or maybe it is because I live in a smaller town. Here everybody knows everybody, so you cannot walk two feet without bumping into somebody you know, either personally or through association, so most people I see walking around are not looking at their phones while they're at it. My family is not really phone people anyway; when we're sitting and eating dinner we're usually watching television or talking. Same thing applies to restaurants, sort of; there we're are more likely to pull out our phones as we wait for our meal. Admittedly my sister has been looking at her phone a bit more frequently than before, but that's probably because she has a girlfriend now. 

NOW for something my speed... VIDEO GAMES!!!

2) I have no games on my phone, I used to have Pocket Mortys, but I grew bored of it and deleted it. I have some games on my computer though not many and most of them are single player (on a technical level, we've figured out how to make Surgeon Simulator multiplayer... and simultaneously harder). I have far more games for my video game consoles, both downloaded onto them and on game discs. The games I think I enjoy playing the most are the ones that either require skill to accomplish something, or engage me in the games story (this is pure assumption, my taste in games is so varied it's impossible to nail a specific preference). I enjoy games with single player story-modes like Halo and Assassin's Creed but I also enjoy single player games that require skill and puzzle solving to proceed like Legend of Zelda or Mario. I also enjoy online multiplayer games, or rather the online multiplayer modes for games like Rainbow Six Siege or the aforementioned Halo and Assassin's Creed. Halo is a bit more run around and kill everything not on your team, while Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six require a bit more strategizing and thinking (both are from Ubisoft... that cannot be a coincidence). Then again there's also Super Smash Bros., Pokemon, Mario Kart... Infinite Minigolf... again my video game taste is rather varied. The best answer is I like what I like; I don't know why, I just do.

3) Obviously, since I don't have any other ones and only use my Tumblr scantly, I spend no hours a week on social networking; it would be easier to see how many hours I spent on social networking all year. Digital gaming though is a bit easier. I schedule out my week pretty much all the time, so I am generally consistent with how much time I spend playing video games. That said I don't always play online games. When I do it still measures out to about four to six hours a day when I play. When I play more than once a week, it simply depends on how many days out of the week I'm playing. When I play online though, I'm not sure how much I am part of a community. I usually avoid playing with my microphone on, so I don't talk to the strangers I am playing with, some of who may not even live in the same state or even country. I'm not really comfortable around strangers in general, including the ones I actually can see in front of me. The two people I do talk to through in-game party chat is a friend of mine who lives in Portland, and a friend of his who lives in Louisiana, so it is really the only way we get to hang out together semi-regularly. And even then the kid from Louisiana is more my friends friend than mine; but I still count him as a friend regardless.

So I don't really spend a lot of my time playing video games, but that's because I like to even things out with my other interests (like reading and writing) or commitments (like this online class). If I am going to waste time on video games though, I'd rather do so in front of a television with a controller in my hand; I've never really gotten into playing online games on the computer.

Sorry these posts are scarily long walls of text. I'd rather put everything in one place than multiple.