For the most part, I did not enjoy this reading. For various reasons I thought chapter one was extremely dull, and took a long time for me to read. First, I disliked the high use of historical references. I felt as though it made the reading harder to understand. Second, the topic came across as boring to me. Even though I tried to embrace the text, I could not find it interesting. Lastly, the length. It was small print for 20 pages, with no gaps or spaces in between. The length only bothered me because I thought the reading was uninteresting. Regardless, I still finished the reading and was able to come up with many thoughts of my own.
“Seeing Ourselves Through Technology” provided me with a lot of valuable information that allowed me to create my own opinions. My key takeaway from this reading was that the social media universe is primarily used for people to globally express who they really are. People post videos, quotes, writings, etc, to describe and depict a picture of what they are like, and what their life is like. I believe this to be true, and I believe that it is a healthy form of expression, but I do not believe that it is the best form. I was hoping that the author would continue on and tell the readers that although social media is a wonderful form of communication, face to face interaction is the most important. Having good social skills is vital for future jobs, experiences, and encounters.
Another point I want to focus on is the structure and details of the text. Besides the text being long, I thought it was very unorganized. It felt as though the information given was all over the place. It was almost like there was no follow up for anything the author said. There were also a lot of stories passed to the readers that were hard to relate to the text. I would try to make connections, but I found it very difficult to do. The reading also contained a lot historical aspects. There were a lot of terms and names that I did not recognize which made the text much more complicated. Overall, I really thought that chapter one was educational, but in a very bland, and not so neat way.
In conclusion, I still learned a lot from reading this text. I learned the different forms of self representation through social media, how media plays a part in self reflection, the meaning behind the selfie, and how filter plays a key role in presentation. I was also given a new perspective and awareness of the time I will spend online, and on the things I post. Finally I discovered that when it comes to presenting myself online, I would rather be private with my personal characteristics and situations, rather than posting them for the whole world to see. My posts about myself will always be simple and positive. To wrap this blog post up, even though I did not enjoy the reading, I can still say that it benefited me.
Victoria’s Blog 