Shifting Attention: Chpt 1 Reading

The opening passage to this reading both grabbed and peeked my attention! The idea of having to choose between “reality” or the Internet has been an on going battle for parents, educators, and those who are not educated of the true functionality of using media/technology in a productive manner. When I first began the reading, I could not help but think of Dr. Zamora’s little story of how fellow moms like herself view technology as some type of stigma that is “rotting” kids brains. When in all actuality, our brains have this code switch that allows to function with both physical and virtual information.

“Many of our children learn to code-switch between two or more oral languages, and we can teach them also to switch between different presentations of written language and different modes of analysis (pg. 35).”

This reading brings many important facts that many should take into consideration before shunning the idea of constant use of technology. Instead of putting a negative cap on usage of technology, lets emphasis on it! Open learning is the best learning! Delving into the example given by Rheingold, brings up another interesting point. He goes on to talk about one of his most brightest students is guilty of the multitasking between class and surfing the web. But in all due respect, this is the way the student can retain information and actively participate in class.

Rheingold goes on to make a valid point:“Gaining control of your attention while you are online requires, first of all, intention. When you formulate a goal, you need to intend to achieve it (pg. 42).” Between pop adds, the urge to check emails, post a “I’m in class!” status on social media, or any other attention grabbing activity is what makes the internet so dangerous for the mind to drift in another space. This idea of having “selective attention” goes a long way; we choose what we want to do/use online access for. I thought it would be very interesting to insert the video of the distinguished by black or white T-shirts to test selective attention.

The idea of distraction and negative annotation behinds and attaching it to online use is what the reading would consider “selective attention”. Your attention is fixated on the idea of put the red X mark on online use. Why is that?

Active Participation: Chpt 3 Reading

This next reading matched up with the first reading perfectly! To give a snippet from the above reading, we are living in day of age where I attention is both focused to the space in front of it and the life/media on our screens. We as online consumers tend to use selective attention to what is most important, at the time, to see where our attention lies. This reading goes on to emphasize on the importance of active participation online, and the importance that our selective attention makes us better online participants.

“Knowing how to blog, tweet, wiki, search, innovate, program, and/or organize online can lead to political, cultural, and economic value (pg. 111).”

Before entering the M.A. Writing Studies Program, I was not fully aware or even present to what my online activity meant to me and t world. My Instagram post, my tweets, my online presence as a whole was my “participation” to the online communities that I live in or belong to. Was I being an true active participant to the online community, or was I just brainwashing myself of the actualities happening around me?

While reading the article, some interesting percentages were addressed about the type of online users the live on the internet. Grant it, these numbers may not be completely accurate, but they do hold a value point.

• 37%: made their own contributions to news coverage
• 18%: of online Americans have used social media tools to participate in politics (I will address this a bit later in my blog post)
• 20%: have contributed to health related content
• 19%: have posted civil and political material
• 1%: ???

When looking at that 18%, I can not help but think of so many different politics that have taken in the handle of social media to get the leg up on their competition. The digital age history has shown that active online participation can translate into real power.

Where we, as online producer and consumers, plays a major role in the power of how we use our online voice. Not to say that we all must be these “enlightened online activist” seeking to uncover the truth to society; but if we take the time to think, analyze, and engage as online citizens, who’s to say where to will lead us.

• Think
• Consume
• Digest
• Analyze
• Produce