For my final blog entry, I will briefly discuss what I feel I have learned and will take away from my experience as a Student in GNED 1403. Most of all, I will discuss my new found familiarity with the usage of different social media outlets, blogging, and better understanding of meme and online culture.
Well, where else is there to begin but at the start of the semester? Fresh out of summer and starting off my second year. At this point in time, my understanding of web culture was certainly below average. The full extent of my awareness was basically my Facebook page. I rarely used my laptop for much else beyond You tube and researching academic papers for assignments. Although I was aware of blogs, social media (such as Twitter, Google+, etc) and some web culture (reddit, memebase), I had never taken the time to look at them. This changed with the start of this class, and I was soon familiarized.
Blog writing was my first challenge, as it is very different when contrasted with say, writing a formal essay, report or research paper. Blogs carry opinion, they carry thoughts and emotions from the writer onto the web. In addition to this, blogs are available to anybody who feels so inclined to read them. For example, if I so desired, I could take the time to find blogs written from perspectives all over the world and read them. Talk about a huge difference from traditional media! 30 years ago, quick and easy access for anyone to post their writing simply did not exist. The closest thing might have been a newspaper or magazine, but even then, multiple barriers existed (physical, financial, etc). The first thing I've learned and will take away from this course: Blogs are not traditional, they carry opinions, ideas and voices and they are available to all at any time without traditional barriers (except perhaps ownership of a computer and internet access).
The next thing I have taken away from GNED 1403 would be my ability to understand, acknowledge and ultimately contribute to online communities. GNED 1403 required me to join a community, and I selected the 4Runner Forum. It was a great experience to be on a website where I could share a common ground with individuals all around the world. This opened my eyes to the huge variety of different communities that exist. To me, the most astonishing thing about this is how the internet has allowed for people anywhere in the world to join groups and participate on websites regardless of physical boundaries. This new avenue of communication is no doubt highly beneficial to the spreading of information and ideas. In fact, my participation with the website allowed me to quickly contact someone and gain the right information to perform a small repair on my vehicle. After GNED 1403, I now have a better understanding of the power of the internet to bring like minded and similar individuals together.
The final item I will highlight as learning from GNED 1403 would be a better understanding of internet culture. Before taking this course, I had never visited memebase or reddit. However, after the first few days and than especially after the meme unit, I learned exactly what role they play in the analysis and communication of observations, ideas and opinions over a multitude of large issues and daily events. Topics for posts on these websites range from politics, news and extreme weather (hurricane sandy) all the way down to everyday life. It feels to me that basically anyone who lives in western culture would be able to relate to the material found here. Although I do not relate to all of the posts, I find myself laughing and enjoying the humorous approach that is taken when addressing basically everything. I will continue to frequent these sites into the future.
In conclusion, I believe that my enrolment in GNED 1403 has resulted in a beneficial learning experience for me in terms of communicating and understanding the online community. Although I had much going on this semester through my other core degree classes, GNED 1403 was by far a course to do assignments for. Writing blogs based upon my observations was much easier than I originally thought, with the hardest part just finding the time and getting started.
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