First Draft
My history with digital literacy is rather on and off, as at times I would run to the internet for the answers to all my problems, while at other times I would simply scoff and say that it was just a place full of idiots trying to trick other idiots. Regardless of my initial views, however, the fact remains that this technology has connected countless people and I on a daily basis. People half the world away can argue with me about movies at the simple press of a few buttons, and at the same time can do any other number of things like giving advice or telling me of their lives and experiences. This level of unity still blows my mind today whenever I think about it, and I’ve always made sure to use it to its fullest. And through all the sites and searches I made, no site quite gave me the same feeling of real world connection as did a site called reddit. One of the largest message boards on the web, the actual community is broken into thousands upon thousands of individual, specialized communities called subreddits, each with their own theme and community built around them. These sites aren’t limited by character counts or censored by filters, and even the backlash of public opinion has no place here as anonymity is just a few steps away at all times. This level of freedom created a place where people were free to be themselves with other people, and give their true, unaltered opinions. For this reason I had done my best to heed the advice of the site when I sought it out, as no ideas were hidden away, and all comments can be judged by myself and hundreds of other people. In the past, I thought of this as the perfect system, as a sort of way to filter the best ideas to myself by simply having all ideas laid out to be judged until the best rose to the top of the “pile” as it were.
I soon came to learn the most important digital literacy lesson of my life, however. These people that I connect with are just that… people. Individuals with secrets and biases, however small or insignificant, and at their very core failable. I learned that while the internet and digital literacy may make life easier and make us feel smarter, we must still keep our sense of self sharp above all, as human error is present in all things, and sometimes the idea that rises to the top is not always the best one.
I soon came to learn the most important digital literacy lesson of my life, however. These people that I connect with are just that… people. Individuals with secrets and biases, however small or insignificant, and at their very core failable. I learned that while the internet and digital literacy may make life easier and make us feel smarter, we must still keep our sense of self sharp above all, as human error is present in all things, and sometimes the idea that rises to the top is not always the best one.
Second Draft
My history with digital literacy is rather on and off, as at times I would run to technology for the answers to all my problems, while at other times I would simply scoff and say that the internet was just a place full of idiots trying to trick other idiots. Regardless of my initial views, however, the fact remains that technology has connected countless people and I on a daily basis. People halfway around the world away can argue with me about movies at the simple press of a few buttons, and at the same time can do any other number of things like giving advice or telling me of their lives and experiences. This level of unity still blows my mind today whenever I think about it, and I’ve always made sure to use it to its fullest. And through all the connections I made online and through technology, I still to this day feel that the strongest connection I made was to my mother.
The reason this connection through technology was so important is due to the fact that my mother was born with a degenerative eye condition, and as a result has been blind since I was born. For most of my childhood this was no issue, however, as I would see her on a daily basis and such. Around the age of twelve though, my parents divorced, with my father winning custody over my brother and I, my mother leaving to go stay with friends. Due to the arrangements that followed, I would rarely see and spend time with my mother through my teenage years, with our most frequent contact having been through phone calls. The problem with this was that many nights i would already be asleep by the time she called me, or I would simply miss her call and have no interaction with my mother for the entire day. While texting during this time had become commonplace, my mother’s inability to see meant she could neither send texts herself nor read any text I sent her, which greatly limited my connection to my mother compared with the other people in my life. This coupled with a father who was never keen on the idea of my brother and I spending extra time with our mother lead to the sad situation where I found myself in a world where I could connect with anyone at the push of a button except for my own mother. We found ways around this when we could, such as having someone read her texts and compose her own, but there were still times when she found herself without someone through which to use the tech available to her, and our communication was never quite stable.
This all changed, however, with the advent of the voiceover technology that was introduced to make everything from computers to phones more accessible to the blind. It all started one weekend I had been spending with my mom, when a package arrived at the door.
“Its finally here!” she had nearly shouted from the kitchen as she tore open her package
“Whats finally here?” I had curiously asked as I had walked into the kitchen myself. As her response, my mother turned and proudly presented me with a new iphone, cased in pink and ready for use. “Wait what? Why did you get that? How on earth do you plan on using it?” I asked in quick succession, almost sure my mother had been taken in by some kind of online scam.
“Just wait, you’ll see!” She said with excitement as she let the phone charge. For the next half hour we sat watching movies together, my mother refusing to tell me what was going on. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, she decided it was time to show me what she had bought.
“So you bought yourself a smartphone that you can’t even use?” I asked sarcastically, rolling my eyes as the phone booted up. My attitude changed entirely when her phone spoke “hello brandy!” upon booting. “Whoa wait it talks!?” I had asked, shocked.
“It talks, it reads, it spells out words for me, it does everything! Its called voiceover, and I made sure it came preinstalled when I bought the phone!” she said proudly. After some quick set up she began getting used to the phone and all its features, testing it by sending out a few texts to let people know she was “hip” now and had use of the technology. She even visited the internet for the first time in years afterwards, getting used to google and all the different sites she had at her disposal, quickly making use of online shopping to order herself audiobooks before using online sites to help her and I pick out a horror movie to watch.
“And do you know what the best part is?” she asked me happily after a bit of time had been spent playing with her new phone.
“What's that?” I replied
“Now I can talk to you anytime at all! And I can read all your texts!” she told me with glee in her voice. And text she most certainly did, because as soon as i had left for the day she texted me and my brother, loving her newfound connectivity with the world and with her children.
While I’ve always been big on technology and connecting with people all over the world, I never truly got the chance to stop and think about just how massive a connection like this is. Seeing how my mother could finally connect with the world around her through technology gave me pause to think about just how much of a boon these machines we have in our lives really are. Not only did it allow my mom a means of communication she had never even dreamed of, but it also helped me bridge the gap between her and I, and all of a sudden, I could talk to my mom every day again, just like when I was a kid.
The reason this connection through technology was so important is due to the fact that my mother was born with a degenerative eye condition, and as a result has been blind since I was born. For most of my childhood this was no issue, however, as I would see her on a daily basis and such. Around the age of twelve though, my parents divorced, with my father winning custody over my brother and I, my mother leaving to go stay with friends. Due to the arrangements that followed, I would rarely see and spend time with my mother through my teenage years, with our most frequent contact having been through phone calls. The problem with this was that many nights i would already be asleep by the time she called me, or I would simply miss her call and have no interaction with my mother for the entire day. While texting during this time had become commonplace, my mother’s inability to see meant she could neither send texts herself nor read any text I sent her, which greatly limited my connection to my mother compared with the other people in my life. This coupled with a father who was never keen on the idea of my brother and I spending extra time with our mother lead to the sad situation where I found myself in a world where I could connect with anyone at the push of a button except for my own mother. We found ways around this when we could, such as having someone read her texts and compose her own, but there were still times when she found herself without someone through which to use the tech available to her, and our communication was never quite stable.
This all changed, however, with the advent of the voiceover technology that was introduced to make everything from computers to phones more accessible to the blind. It all started one weekend I had been spending with my mom, when a package arrived at the door.
“Its finally here!” she had nearly shouted from the kitchen as she tore open her package
“Whats finally here?” I had curiously asked as I had walked into the kitchen myself. As her response, my mother turned and proudly presented me with a new iphone, cased in pink and ready for use. “Wait what? Why did you get that? How on earth do you plan on using it?” I asked in quick succession, almost sure my mother had been taken in by some kind of online scam.
“Just wait, you’ll see!” She said with excitement as she let the phone charge. For the next half hour we sat watching movies together, my mother refusing to tell me what was going on. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, she decided it was time to show me what she had bought.
“So you bought yourself a smartphone that you can’t even use?” I asked sarcastically, rolling my eyes as the phone booted up. My attitude changed entirely when her phone spoke “hello brandy!” upon booting. “Whoa wait it talks!?” I had asked, shocked.
“It talks, it reads, it spells out words for me, it does everything! Its called voiceover, and I made sure it came preinstalled when I bought the phone!” she said proudly. After some quick set up she began getting used to the phone and all its features, testing it by sending out a few texts to let people know she was “hip” now and had use of the technology. She even visited the internet for the first time in years afterwards, getting used to google and all the different sites she had at her disposal, quickly making use of online shopping to order herself audiobooks before using online sites to help her and I pick out a horror movie to watch.
“And do you know what the best part is?” she asked me happily after a bit of time had been spent playing with her new phone.
“What's that?” I replied
“Now I can talk to you anytime at all! And I can read all your texts!” she told me with glee in her voice. And text she most certainly did, because as soon as i had left for the day she texted me and my brother, loving her newfound connectivity with the world and with her children.
While I’ve always been big on technology and connecting with people all over the world, I never truly got the chance to stop and think about just how massive a connection like this is. Seeing how my mother could finally connect with the world around her through technology gave me pause to think about just how much of a boon these machines we have in our lives really are. Not only did it allow my mom a means of communication she had never even dreamed of, but it also helped me bridge the gap between her and I, and all of a sudden, I could talk to my mom every day again, just like when I was a kid.
Third Draft
My history with digital literacy is rather on and off, as at times I would run to technology for the answers to all my problems, while at other times I would simply scoff and say that the internet was just a place full of idiots trying to trick other idiots. Regardless of my initial views, however, the fact remains that technology has connected countless people and I on a daily basis. People half the world away can argue with me about movies at the simple press of a few buttons, and at the same time can do any other number of things like giving advice or telling me of their lives and experiences. This level of unity still blows my mind today whenever I think about it, and I’ve always made sure to use it to its fullest. And through all the connections I made online and through technology, I still to this day feel that the strongest connection I made was to my mother.
The reason this connection through technology was so important is due to the fact that my mother was born with a degenerative eye condition, and as a result has been blind since I was born. For most of my childhood this was no issue, however, as I would see her on a daily basis and such. Around the age of twelve though, my parents divorced, with my father winning custody over my brother and I, my mother leaving to go stay with friends. Due to the arrangements that followed, I would rarely see and spend time with my mother through my teenage years, with our most frequent contact having been through phone calls. The problem with this was that many nights I would already be asleep by the time she called me, or I would simply miss her call and have no interaction with my mother for the entire day. While texting during this time had become commonplace, my mother’s inability to see meant she could neither send texts herself nor read any text I sent her, which greatly limited my connection to my mother compared with the other people in my life. This coupled with a father who was never keen on the idea of my brother and I spending extra time with our mother lead to the sad situation where I found myself in a world where I could connect with anyone at the push of a button except for my own mother. We found ways around this when we could, such as having someone read her texts and compose her own, but there were still times when she found herself without someone through which to use the tech available to her, and our communication was never quite stable.
This all changed, however, with the advent of the voiceover technology that was introduced to make everything from computers to phones more accessible to the blind. It all started one weekend I had been spending with my mom, when a package arrived at the door.
“Its finally here!” she had nearly shouted from the kitchen as she tore open her package
“Whats finally here?” I had curiously asked as I had walked into the kitchen myself. As her response, my mother turned and proudly presented me with a new iphone, cased in pink and ready for use. “Wait what? Why did you get that? How on earth do you plan on using it?” I asked in quick succession, almost sure my mother had been taken in by some kind of online scam.
“Just wait, you’ll see!” She said with excitement as she let the phone charge. For the next half hour we sat watching movies together, my mother refusing to tell me what was going on. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, she decided it was time to show me what she had bought.
“So you bought yourself a smartphone that you can’t even use?” I asked sarcastically, rolling my eyes as the phone booted up. My attitude changed entirely when her phone spoke “hello brandy!” upon booting. “Whoa wait it talks!?” I had asked, shocked.
“It talks, it reads, it spells out words for me, it does everything! Its called voiceover, and I made sure it came preinstalled when I bought the phone!” she said proudly. After some quick set up she began getting used to the phone and all its features, testing it by sending out a few texts to let people know she was “hip” now and had use of the technology. She even visited the internet for the first time in years afterwards, getting used to google and all the different sites she had at her disposal, quickly falling in love with online shopping and making use of it to order herself audiobooks before using online sites to help her and I pick out a horror movie to watch.
What followed after that was plenty of questions about popular web pages, internet traditions and customs, so on and so forth as I taught my mother all about the digital side of the world around us. This would once again prove, as shown by Hawisher and Selfe, the digital literacy and knowledge can flow upstream in a family, as I taught my mother everything she needed to know. (1)
“And do you know what the best part is?” she asked me happily after a bit of time had been spent playing with her new phone.
“What's that?” I replied
“Now I can talk to you anytime at all! And I can read all your texts!” she told me with glee in her voice. And text she most certainly did, because as soon as i had left for the day she texted me and my brother, loving her newfound connectivity with the world and with her children.
While I’ve always been big on technology and connecting with people all over the world, I never truly got the chance to stop and think about just how massive a connection like this is. Seeing how my mother could finally connect with the world around her through technology gave me pause to think about just how much of a boon these machines we have in our lives really are. Not only did it allow my mom a means of communication she had never even dreamed of, but it also helped me bridge the gap between her and I, and all of a sudden, I could talk to my mom every day again, just like when I was a kid. I can also send her funny pictures that she can’t quite see and little emojis of wrapped candy over and over again to screw with her voiceover, just to make her laugh. I think my mother herself put it best during my interview with her years later: “... Im able to have access to the things everyone else has access to, my friends and such. … it’s just wonderful.”
The reason this connection through technology was so important is due to the fact that my mother was born with a degenerative eye condition, and as a result has been blind since I was born. For most of my childhood this was no issue, however, as I would see her on a daily basis and such. Around the age of twelve though, my parents divorced, with my father winning custody over my brother and I, my mother leaving to go stay with friends. Due to the arrangements that followed, I would rarely see and spend time with my mother through my teenage years, with our most frequent contact having been through phone calls. The problem with this was that many nights I would already be asleep by the time she called me, or I would simply miss her call and have no interaction with my mother for the entire day. While texting during this time had become commonplace, my mother’s inability to see meant she could neither send texts herself nor read any text I sent her, which greatly limited my connection to my mother compared with the other people in my life. This coupled with a father who was never keen on the idea of my brother and I spending extra time with our mother lead to the sad situation where I found myself in a world where I could connect with anyone at the push of a button except for my own mother. We found ways around this when we could, such as having someone read her texts and compose her own, but there were still times when she found herself without someone through which to use the tech available to her, and our communication was never quite stable.
This all changed, however, with the advent of the voiceover technology that was introduced to make everything from computers to phones more accessible to the blind. It all started one weekend I had been spending with my mom, when a package arrived at the door.
“Its finally here!” she had nearly shouted from the kitchen as she tore open her package
“Whats finally here?” I had curiously asked as I had walked into the kitchen myself. As her response, my mother turned and proudly presented me with a new iphone, cased in pink and ready for use. “Wait what? Why did you get that? How on earth do you plan on using it?” I asked in quick succession, almost sure my mother had been taken in by some kind of online scam.
“Just wait, you’ll see!” She said with excitement as she let the phone charge. For the next half hour we sat watching movies together, my mother refusing to tell me what was going on. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, she decided it was time to show me what she had bought.
“So you bought yourself a smartphone that you can’t even use?” I asked sarcastically, rolling my eyes as the phone booted up. My attitude changed entirely when her phone spoke “hello brandy!” upon booting. “Whoa wait it talks!?” I had asked, shocked.
“It talks, it reads, it spells out words for me, it does everything! Its called voiceover, and I made sure it came preinstalled when I bought the phone!” she said proudly. After some quick set up she began getting used to the phone and all its features, testing it by sending out a few texts to let people know she was “hip” now and had use of the technology. She even visited the internet for the first time in years afterwards, getting used to google and all the different sites she had at her disposal, quickly falling in love with online shopping and making use of it to order herself audiobooks before using online sites to help her and I pick out a horror movie to watch.
What followed after that was plenty of questions about popular web pages, internet traditions and customs, so on and so forth as I taught my mother all about the digital side of the world around us. This would once again prove, as shown by Hawisher and Selfe, the digital literacy and knowledge can flow upstream in a family, as I taught my mother everything she needed to know. (1)
“And do you know what the best part is?” she asked me happily after a bit of time had been spent playing with her new phone.
“What's that?” I replied
“Now I can talk to you anytime at all! And I can read all your texts!” she told me with glee in her voice. And text she most certainly did, because as soon as i had left for the day she texted me and my brother, loving her newfound connectivity with the world and with her children.
While I’ve always been big on technology and connecting with people all over the world, I never truly got the chance to stop and think about just how massive a connection like this is. Seeing how my mother could finally connect with the world around her through technology gave me pause to think about just how much of a boon these machines we have in our lives really are. Not only did it allow my mom a means of communication she had never even dreamed of, but it also helped me bridge the gap between her and I, and all of a sudden, I could talk to my mom every day again, just like when I was a kid. I can also send her funny pictures that she can’t quite see and little emojis of wrapped candy over and over again to screw with her voiceover, just to make her laugh. I think my mother herself put it best during my interview with her years later: “... Im able to have access to the things everyone else has access to, my friends and such. … it’s just wonderful.”