SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
10AM: alarm
10:30: texted my brother
11AM: wished friends a happy birthday
12PM: reached out to someone via text
Articles online for classes (New York Times, Washington Post, reading for Black Mirror and Digital Culture)
Email French and Communications professor
Go on Canvas multiple times
7:30PM: call friends and text my figure skating coach
8:00PM French study through Canvas
8:45PM and 10PM: text friends on Snapchat
After 10PM: Write blog post while listening to music
Looked through Snap and Instagram throughout the day
I am mostly online for coursework when I need to read articles for class, access Canvas, or communicate with my professors to clarify and fulfill assignments. I use the Internet to communicate with my friends and family back home, as well as to meet up or talk to friends here. It is a quick and easy way to have a conversation with someone, near or far, or make plans. In terms of my personal fulfillment, I use Spotify to listen to music – an essential for when I want to decompress. I also just enjoy being able to contact my friends. That definitely fulfills me because I consider myself a people person.
I have to say that it is amazing how many articles and how much reading material one can access on the Internet. I find that the Internet is necessary for all different components of my day. The best part- I have endless sources of music to stream for my personal enjoyment. The Internet is truly amazing, but it also raises so many expectations for response timeliness (with friends and for classes) and makes comparison culture hard to avoid. Additionally, it has made it easy to become wrapped up in the negative aspects of the news (especially with COVID). At times I catch myself being concerned with what is happening online when I should be focusing on the present moment. I am worried, though, that this will spill over into motherhood.
In the reading “The Quantified Baby.”, the author talks about her concerns during her pregnancy cycle and obsession with logging everything her son did during the early months of motherhood. I hope I won’t be too caught up in the discussion forums and analyze every day of the early parenthood stages. However, with the strength of participatory culture, I know I will find it difficult to avoid engaging – especially as I try to navigate parenting (and try to be the best mother I can).
I know my parents found it tricky to keep in touch with friends and family when they went off to college, but it is now something that I do not even need to worry about. The Internet seamlessly weaves into our everyday lives – whether for the good or the bad.
Warzel, Charlie. “Twitter Is Real Life.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/opinion/twitter-debates-real-life.html.
Dannagal Young, Shannon McGregor. “Perspective | Mass Propaganda Used to Be Difficult, but Facebook Made It Easy.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 14 Feb. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/14/mass-propaganda-used-be-difficult-facebook-made-it-easy/.
Prushinskaya, Anna. “Should I Be Tracking Everything About My Baby With an App?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 10 Apr. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/the-quantified-baby/389009/.
