I Confess!!

I've recently been toying with ideas about how media and technology affect traditional morality. And I've discovered something. IT IS A SPIRAL THAT NEVER ENDS!! The image below essentially expresses the state of my brain for the last two days.

 Not good. So if you're reading this and all you can think is "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas (or the realm of logical thought) anymore!" then just click your heels three times and think of home. Sorry for the confusion. Or, you can stick around as I search for the yellow brick road to coherence. Bring it on.

How is media and morality a spiral, you might ask? I think my initial problem comes down to a tendency to analyze everything at once. You can't cram all million and a half aspects of morality into one blog post, Erica! Stop trying! But lets face it. Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, is swimming with sin. Like most good novels, it presents the issue panoramically, with each of the characters responding to and interacting with sin in different ways. If any text is going to set my head spinning about morality, this is it. When it comes to media, I don't think I need to tell anyone just how much is out there. We've all seen it. User-generated content (that is my primary focus when I say media) also encompasses a wide moral spectrum, ranging from innocent to offensive to who knows what! (Cat videos, anyone?) The point is- ties between media and morality are endless. Here is my highlight of the day:

Confession vs. Concealment

Not to oversimplify things, but I would suggest that every transgression eventually falls into one of those two categories. And in no small coincidence, this analytic lens applies fabulously to both The Scarlet Letter and to modern uses of technology. As we are all human, and all prone to make mistakes, it makes sense that this tendency to confess or conceal would manifest itself online. But how?

Out to Sea... Aub and Me

Ohhh the beauties of a warm summer weekend... Thats right, folks, this Saturday marked the first family bonfire of the season. Yesss!! Now in my family, this entails hot dogs, baked beans, rootbeer, peanut butter smores, you get the picture. Delicious. There was also a long and angry phone call to my soon-to-be-sixteen cousin Rachel, who forewent a trip to Utah in favor of a smashing co-ed birthday party. Psssh. Later, there was singing and ukulele accompaniment. Somewhere in between all of that bliss, however, my cousin Aubrey and I (see the picture below) took a walk down the the old field and parked ourselves on top of the old truck. (Get it? Parked?) That is where our philosophical discussion began.

Ok, so it didn't really begin philosophically... but once we got high school graduation and boys out of the way, our conversation somehow turned to the ethics of our generation. The political atmosphere seems so saturated with "Whatever is right for you" and "Who am I to judge?" If you can't picture exactly what I mean by that, check out the comments under this blog post by Erik Folgate. I left one also, expressing my belief in the unchanging moral code that Folgate references, and also recognizing his significant interest in social media. I'm not sure if the comment is up yet, it said it was "waiting for moderation", but I'll be interested to see if he has any opinions on how the media affects our moral ideals.
Anyway, these philosophies of moral relativity may sound harmless, but when applied to the character of our country, they hold grave implications. What happens when a justice system simply refuses to judge? Some things are right; others are wrong, and I trust the law of our nation to mark that line, no matter if one or another individual complains against it. There seems to be less and less sympathy for this point of view, however, as my generation grows more and more libertarianist/morally passive than ever.

Shame on You: Episode 2

In a recent blog post, I asked my peers to share their opinions on how we, in our current society of social media and digital consumption, express social disapproval. Here is a quick summary of the responses I got, plus some extra thoughts on the side.

1. Ridicule. Just think of the possibilities here- this could include anything from snide comments on blog posts (not to give you any ideas...), derogatory status updates, or disgruntled tweets. If you've got a problem, why not just say so? Technology and social media give us plenty of different options. Making fun makes a point, and can be used to draw attention to offensive behaviors, institutions, or individuals.
2. Content Creation. This was a brilliant insight that I had not previously considered. Just think of all the SNL and parody-type videos you've seen. Imagine the endless supply of BYU memes or "Dear blank, Please blank" letters. Though usually lighthearted, sarcastic, and just plain silly, they often bring out themes that unsettle the public. This could also include more businesslike content, such as political cartoons, blog posts, or online newspaper articles. If words alone will not suffice, individuals can express dissatisfaction with the help of images, videos, and a whole host of digital content.
3. Unfriend/Ignore. We've all done it at one point or another. For me, it was that old high school acquaintance that suddenly developed a very colorful vocabulary in his Facebook statuses. And that girl that got a little too happy with her camera on the beach in Mexico, and the club, and everywhere else that gives an excuse to wear short shorts and low tops... Yech. Whatever your reasoning, social media allows us to delete friendships at the click of a button. If you're not feeling quite that extreme, you can use it to filter desirable and undesirable social interactions. Creeper keeps trying to chat with you online? Easy- just

Learning Cloud-comes

Well, I couldn't help but jump on the bandwagon and try one of these word cloud things. Perhaps you're wondering exactly what words I chose to vaporate? None other than my dear learning outcomes from English 295! To get all metaphorical, I'm going to say that with sufficient personal effort, these learning outcomes can help me to leave my handprint on both the digital and literary world. It is a lot more work than I expected it to be, but I'm working on it! (Truthfully, this has morphed into an almost death match between me and those things. I WILL win this!) I know that I'd be better off writing a lengthier, more academic post about my novel, but that will come tomorrow, and I just had to claim my little show-and-tell (mostly show) moment with the word cloud. So there it is! High fives all around.

Digital Discomfort: Coming Clean About Career Doubts

Ok, time for me to be completely honest. All this talk about technosaurs, and the professors that cling to their VHS tapes, thereby halting the forward progress of our university and our world? I am one of those. Not to that extreme, per se, but I will definitely always love paper books, and will always feel that the most important kind of communication happens offline. I may not ever really immerse myself in all of our digital resources, either. I'm sorry. That is just how I am right now. I'm not saying I can't change, and I'm not trying to rebel against the order of the class. I just thought everyone should know.

But I still have a problem. Since I was very little, it has been my dream to become an English teacher. (No, that is not the problem.)