Hello once again.
This 6th week was pretty action packed as far as very interesting information that was being discussed and tapped into. We have some thoughts and experiences regarding that of a short story titled, “The Soft Truth”, an article in the New York Times titled, “Making of a YouTube Radical”, as well as some thoughts about our flowchart, some projects we were able to analyze, and my digital fortune teller in which you all will be seeing very soon.
Firstly, “The Soft Truth“, is about a woman who works at Footprint Consulting and her quest to find a video of a blue gelatin on YouTube. This whole story is very much an allegory on the dangers of addictive behavior on the internet as well as how it affects our dopamine levels within our neurochemistry, our brain health if you will. This video was very interesting to discuss in depth as everyone was relating it back to the idea of the social dilemma, like the documentary of the same name, as well as bringing in other great points about the video itself as it is a real video that you can find.
Secondly, we have “Making of a YouTube Radical.” This video is all too real to me as it definitely relates back to some of the activity I’ve seen gone on within the redpill community in addition to the conservative think tanks that we already had going on. The redpill community for those who don’t know (and thank god if you don’t know) is one of the most toxic things to ever rise up from the internet in a very long time. They are infamous for their juvenile debates, their cross overs with the incel community, and moreover their intense misogyny. However, a lot of the most celebrated figures within this community also just so happen to be a part of the radical conservative pipeline, which also posses a danger.
Thirdly, we have the flowchart, which was a very interesting activity to roll through, taking us through a thinking process of all the goings of even making a simple decision like what you do after getting in your car. You may need to go home, or get gas, or go to the bank to get money for said gas, etc. The digital projects were also very intriguing, the one that my group explored was that of “Spent”, which is powered by a non-profit organization in Durham, North Carolina that helps homeless and struggling families get food and amenities. Spent itself though, is a game that simulates the life of a working class individual, going through all of the ups and downs of decision making and financial responsibility, and making you make really tough choices that you put you in danger of losing all of your resources, which paints a picture of how this is true for folks in real life as well who face this.
Finally, my digital fortune teller will be that of a fortune cookie generator, where you can simply type “?”, or type a question mark into the text box and press submit to receive a random fortune telling. I wanted to make this interesting and relatable to whenever you would go to a Chinese restaurant and get fortune cookies just to get an interesting fortune or outcome from it.
Well, that’s it for this week. Next week, you will be able to see the fortune teller but this week has been really fun as far as content and planning said fortune teller. Thanks so much for reading and I’ll see you soon.
