Springpad as a Curation Tool

I get really inspired and curious whenever we talk in class of different findings from my peers and things our professors find in what the internet offers. I was absent both classes last week, so I have yet to completely understand what our curation project is about, but I started to research different curation tools in the mean time. I really do love Pinterest, but I wanted to find another tool that I'm not as familiar with. I came across Springpad.

To be perfectly honest, I wanted to abandon it after spending 20 minutes on it. I've never heard of it before and I missed familiarity!! Because it offers so much more than I was expecting, I wanted to grab my blanket and crawl back to the comfort and simplicity of Pinterest. Alas.... I refrained. Good thing, too!

Here is the Springpad's video introduction for its website:

Springpad is a giant personal organizer in curating content that extends beyond only being able to pin/post a picture. You can create a "notebook" on a subject that can consist of "springs." These springs could be photos, videos, notes, voice memos, etc. You can upload or link. I think that is the part that I especially loved. I loved looking into people's notebooks and seeing their own notes and thoughts in addition to what they have curated from other users and sites on the web. It was like a historical journey they were taking me on in their findings from the past up to the present, so you can see the relevance and clarity of info evolving. I started a notebook about learning how to cook, (because as my grandma keeps reminding me, it's time I start learning, now that I'm married.) It's really fun to post a note with my thoughts and then a recipe I think is possible, then my post-recipe notes, and other thoughts or videos that I've found online that were useful to me in learning. It's like a blog in a format similar to Pinterest.

People who are experts on a subject, such as digital culture, create notebooks on their expertise and gather relevant posts from around the web. I'm already following one who claims to be a digital culture expert. I can see all of the info they have gathered and find important and worth reading.

It's also neat, because it serves as a personal assistant for you. When you go to the search bar on the site, it asks you what you want to do (cook, watch a show, listen to music, etc) and it will filter for you based on your answer and given history in the site.

I'm still exploring and learning about the site, but so far I really see its potential in becoming something really big and effective. I do struggle a tad with how much it covers in its features (again, I'm used to the simple Pinterest format), but I think I really enjoy Springpad's form of curation more than Pinterest's. Sometimes I feel like Pinterest feeds me a lot of repeated pins or pins that are not relevant to what I'm searching for. So far in my personal experience with it, Springpad seems to have a great filtering system and compartmentalizes well.

I encourage you all to check it out and share your thoughts on it!

Midterm 2

This post is going to be a variety of thoughts and research collaborated in efforts to eventually produce something more refined. I've been struggling a little bit in tying Moby Dick into my topic without stretching it too much and while still having enough to write about, so please share any thoughts or suggestions if you have any. 

Ok so the question that I proposed in my first question was: 
How do gatekeepers determine what is and is not permissible for the digital world, and are these decisions biased or intended to improve the quality of life for the public as a whole?

So I'm going to be focusing on the "how", the "why", and the "what" of gatekeeping.... What the consequences of gatekeeping are. Eli Pariser made an argument in a TED Talk where he argues that the gatekeepers are hindering the growth and learning of the public by how they filter the internet. I did more research and there are quite a few people that support his argument as well. I was planning on furthering the support, but found that I couldn't maintain a strong enough argument. I just disagree with it. I talked with my team members about it today and they really helped in making me feel confident in my decision to change my side and be against it. 

This article interviews Steve Wozniak and quotes him saying how the internet has gone from being a very free open space to do anything you wanted, to being much more restricted and confined to social norms and personal interests. 


The TED talk by Eli Pariser argues that the filtering done by the internet gatekeepers is more detrimental than beneficial to us individually and as a democracy. He also discusses how gatekeepers have gone from being human, to algorithms.

I'll include more research in here as well, but I'll be sure to not make it a research paper.

My team helped me to start thinking about how gatekeeping doesn't restrict, but it opens doors. Brittany made a great point in how I can look at Ahab's relationship with Pip and show how that's an example of gatekeeping opening up opportunities that were unexpected and unrealistic had it not been there. I also love Victoria's comment below at looking at the production of Moby Dick instead of solely its content in regards to gatekeeping.


Moby Dick
- The vast ocean is the digital world/internet
- Ahab is the gatekeeper. He decides what is acceptable or not on the voyage and what the crew are allowed to do.
- As a sidenote, I feel he is also a person who negatively and unhealthily uses the digital media in an excessive way. The obsessive hunt for Moby Dick has become his only reality. 
- Ahab's desires are biased, self-serving, selfish. 
- Whaling used to be an experience with a larger common goal and objective. Whaling with Captain Ahab however, is more restricted and confined to HIS goal and objective. 



Digital Culture:
- Wikipedia article on gatekeeping communication
- Net Neutrality is what Steve Wozniak referenced 

Midterm 1

Here is the index of my blog posts thus far:

• Introduction! (A brief introduction of myself)

• Digital Culture Follow-Up (Some thoughts on quantity versus quality with information on the internet)

• The Other (Morals and judgements passed on social media)

• Children and Social Media (Prompted from one of my Google+ posts discussing how young is too young for children using social media)

• The White Whale (Moby Dick representing God, but not an evil God)

• Ahab and Machinery (Ahab represents the person who excessively uses digital culture and becomes obsessive and unhealthy)

• Conference (Praising the Church's use of technology)


I reread my past blogs and saw a reoccurring theme in several of them that focuses on who determines what and how do we know what is permissible. How do we know if what we post online is acceptable? I reviewed all of my class notes and I loved the long tail discussion we had with Dr. Burton and how gatekeeping is at the point of production. In addition to this article, I was reminded of different tensions within digital culture and how some of the core ones include authority and control.

My question for research is two-fold:
How do gatekeepers determine what is and is not permissible for the digital world, and are these decisions biased or intended to improve the quality of life for the public as a whole?

Conference

This weekend has been fantastic and so fulfilling!

Click here for posts on Conference

The LDS General Conference has given me a great opportunity of self-reflection in how I can improve in my life. I have loved so many talks, as they strike personal chords as I am about to form my own family now in less than a week. I wanted to blog about how much of a blessing digital culture and technology have been in my efforts to view this Conference.

Yesterday was great. This morning was... stressful. 10 minutes before the morning session was supposed to begin, the TV wasn't working. So we whipped out our laptops to watch the live feed... only to find that the landlord's internet router was turned off, for some reason, and we had no access to it. After desperately trying to call her, we gave up and then proceeded to watch the morning session on my little iPhone screen. I think I sucked up a lot of cellular data, but it was worth it. I began to think of what a great blessing it was that we even HAD all of these many options in viewing it. I know this isn't as extreme as maybe back in our parents' childhood years, but I remember being a child and sitting on the couch and only being able to listen to the conference feed from the computer, with no visual. Now, there are so many different avenues we can take in order to watch and listen to the words of the prophet, apostles, and other church leaders.

On my mission last year, Elder Oaks and President Rasband came to visit and address us. In that zone conference, Elder Oaks shared that President Packer had convinced the quorum of the twelve apostles and they should all be more involved in social media, because it was a great way to stay in touch with their families and it would also become a great way to preach and share gospel principles and values. We were then encouraged to spend a significant amount of time that week on the computer to familiarize ourselves with http://mormon.org.

Even my cousin, who is in the engineering program at BYU has shared how advanced the teleprompter in the Conference Center is and that its technology is marveled by other organizations within the nation.

Today Elder Cook made a comment in his talk about not letting ourselves become addicted to things such as social media, where it obstructs our agency. The Church sets a wonderful example in using digital culture in a healthy way.

I am so grateful for the messages I have been blessed to hear this weekend, thanks to the technology created. I am equally excited to see what strides the Church will make in implementing technology and social media more and more in the future.

Ahab and Machinery

I love tying Moby Dick to the technological age and see how the same principles apply. In class today we were encouraged to not worry ourselves so much with what the whale symbolizes. I wanted to analyze the story more on my own in regards to Ahab and machinery, inspired by today’s class discussion.

In his “Approach to Moby-Dick,”  Stephen C. Ausband states that “several critics of Moby-Dick have suggested that Ahab’s chief sin is his separation from humanity.” We have talked a lot about the machinery and why they serve a purpose, but I also started to think of what the character of Ahab symbolizes and suggests in terms of machinery. 

I think that Ahab symbolizes the one who over-indulges in technology and digital culture. Kristen gave a great blog post last week of needing to do all things in moderation. Then Brittany also gave a wonderful blog post that discussed the benefits of playing video games and how they help us. For me, Ahab represents the person who ignores these bits of wisdom and allows himself to be succumbed into the digital world so much so, that he separates himself from humanity. 

He withdraws himself so deeply from human connection then he is left to his own thoughts and desire for more power that comes with machinery. It begins with his leg, which we’ve established in class that it represent Moby Dick and it shows the end result of using machinery. He also has his crew which labor for him and his self-serving will. He relies on bits of machinery such as the quadrant and compass that he even will rebuild to give him what he wants. Even the words that Melville chooses to describe Ahab throughout the novel suggest a tint of industrialization and lack of human quality in his inability to feel emotions or empathy. 

Does Ahab represent what could possibly happen when we are too deep into the digital culture? Will we lose the ability to relate and communicate with other humans on a personal level? Will we lose our deep thinking part of our brain? Will we slowly be shedding from ourselves our capacity of intellect and ethics?

I don’t think any of these things will happen so long as we do what was mentioned earlier, and that is to do all things in moderation and not let the digital culture swallow us up. But just like Ahab, if we let even one thing govern our lives, then we can end up dazed and lost. 

The White Whale

After reading this week's assigned chapters from Moby Dick, I really started thinking of the significance of the whiteness of the whale and what Moby Dick represents. I've had a loose idea so far that for me, the whale represented Deity. Not an original and unique idea, by any means, but I've struggled with this position because of the damage and danger that the whale brought to Ahab and those who chased it, and then with Ahab's vengeful hunt for the whale. It didn't make sense to me that if he represented God, then why were bad things happening to everyone trying to follow him? I started thinking about this and exploring possibilities yesterday when someone asked me the question of why I think bad things happen to good people (You know you're an English major when you subconsciously relate all aspects of life to Moby Dick!).

I think it's a common question for believers in a God to wonder why God allows bad things to happen to us, especially when we consider ourselves good people. I believe that Moby Dick does in fact represent God and Ahab's search for him is not for religion or mercy, but to avenge his misfortune - the bad things that have happened to him, such as losing his leg.

Ishamel describes, "But not yet have we solved the incantation of this whiteness, and learned why it appeals with such power to the soul; and more strange and far more portentous - why, as we have seen, it is at once the most meaning symbol of spiritual things, nay, the very veil of the Christian's Deity; and yet should be as it is, the intensifying agent in things the most appalling to mankind" (175).

What I interpret from this passage is that Ishmael isn't quite sure what is so alluring about the whale's whiteness. He considers it parallel with the veil of Deity, but he also deems it to be appalling and fearing. Ishmael makes other references in this chapter to the whiteness being terrorizing.

Is God not one to be feared? I think within the nature of God, He is one to be absolutely feared in His omnipotent self. Moby Dick is also to be feared; I envision him to be the omnipotent creature in the depths of the sea. He should especially be feared if he is being chased for spiteful and vengeful reasons in order to remove him from his superiority. Perhaps maybe Ahab is even trying to kill Moby Dick so that he can become the all-powerful figure of the sea. Perhaps he is trying to become godlike and feels that the rite to become such a figure is by killing the current king - Moby Dick.

I came across several different blog posts and scholarly articles arguing that Moby Dick does represent God, but an evil God with an intention and desire to inflict misery and pain, and that the sailors and harpooners have the right to hunt the whale. I don't agree with this position. I think Moby Dick does represent God, but not an evil God. I think a lot of times, bad things happen as consequences from a person's actions. Ahab has only malicious and selfish intentions, so he brings a lot of the bad situations with them. I don't know the ending of this great American novel, but I cannot imagine it will end well.

Children and Social Media

I recently posed on a question on my Google+ site regarding youth using social media: How young is too young? 

Last year when I returned home from serving my 18 month mission for the church, I decided to stay off of Facebook. I don't think Facebook is bad if it's used wisely, but I really enjoyed the 18 month break I had from it. I felt happier, I had more free time, I felt secure. When I went home for Christmas and explained that to my younger siblings, they were shocked. My 10 year old sister could not believe that I didn't have a Facebook. I couldn't believe that she had one!! Then just last week my 8 year old brother was equally shocked to find out that I didn't have an Instagram! He really wanted me to see the pictures he was taking of his Minecraft skills, so he taught me how to sign up for my very own Instagram account. The next morning I woke up with a clear mind and thought how bizarre it was for my younger siblings to be teaching me how I needed to be more connected in the interest. Because as my sister told me, "People won't know you even exist if you don't go on Facebook." 

I'll save the internet identity issue for another day. Right now I want to focus on my original question of, "how young is too young?" I talked to my parents and apparently they set up accounts-with their parental monitoring- for my younger siblings. 

I personally think they're way too young for these sites. There are so many risks of exposure to adult content that a child could easily stumble upon. I found a great article from a parent website that addresses my question as well: 

http://www.thirdparent.com/kids-teens-and-social-media-how-young-is-too-young/

Do you think parents typically follow COPPA laws? If you were a parent, would you allow your underage children to participate? Why or why not?

The Other

Have any of you ever seen the TV show, Lost?

For those of you that have, bear with me while I quickly summarize part of the show to those who haven't:

Lost is a show about a plane crash where the surviving passengers are stranded on a very mysterious island. While they're on the island they soon discover that they are not alone. The island is inhabited by the Others - people that have wild and ferocious exteriors and have mannerisms that resemble savages. By the end of the show we meet and learn more about the Others and how a lot of them are good people that center their lives around a spiritual foundation, trying to survive.

To me, Queequeg is an Other.

Queequeg!

In class today we talked about how Queequeg essentially embodies the new age. He is the character that is different and foreign to the others. He's not the mainstream sailor boy. He is feared by many and catches the attention of passerby's. He doesn't fit the conventional American sailor like many of them do. He's of different race, different status, different religion... heck, he even enjoys sharing a bed with complete strangers! Despite these things, we soon unearth that he is perhaps, more civilized than the other characters on board the ship (minus the cannibalism thing).

Ishmael, anyone?

I thought of how Queequeg's character could possibly relate to the digital culture and this is what continued to play in my head: I think we often judge each other too quickly based off of what we see on a Facebook page or twitter posts or even the lack of a Facebook page (like me!). We instantaneously create for others their backstories and character traits, level of kindness, level of spirituality, and then we compare it all to ourselves, where we then suddenly have a newly justified dislike for a person. This all happens through one quick viewing of someone's social media corner. Where are the morals in that?? I can't find them. We're taught to exercise good judgment - righteous judgment - to keep ourselves safe from harmful people and situations. Oftentimes we get caught up in that dutiful task, that we become overly-judgmental and that righteous judgment turns into self-righteous judgment. I can see this happening in Ishmael in regards to Queequeg.

Over time though, we see Ishmael gradually tolerate Queequeg and that tolerance then becomes friendship and sincere care. The whole progression of their relationship is similar to a relationship founded in digital culture. We come across someone who at first glance, may not be the most inviting (or sane) looking person, but as you allow yourself to understand them more, rather than trying to get them to understand you, then your relationship deepens and you have formed a strong bond. Just like that of Ishmael and Queequeg.

So what's the lesson here? Judge less and snuggle with strangers more? Maybe not. But Melville is using the contrast between Ishmael and Queequeg to captivate the spiritual differences in conventionalism versus radicalism in Christian and pagan beliefs.

Digital Culture Follow-Up

I am really excited for this class! The conversation we had last Wednesday regarding digital culture was very interesting to me. 

I had a reoccurring thought during the discussion about quantity vs. quality. I may not be able to make this a general application to all students, but when I go into a library for research, I revel in the walls of books that surround me. When I do research online, however, I get easily overwhelmed. I'll be in the middle of reading an article when there's a link off to the side directing me to another article. Then when I go to the new article, there are more links leading me to other similar sites. I get easily distracted and read lots of snippets of literature, but not enough to formulate quality ideas with sufficient support. It's at that point in any online research that I throw in the towel and finish up my studies with web surfing for the quickest delicious recipe that I can later attempt and probably fail at making. 

I'm excited to jumpstart blogging and develop skills that will improve my work.

Introduction!

Hello, everyone!!
My name is Shelly Russon.... but soon to be Shelly Lystrup!

I am getting married next month! October 12th in the SLC temple and to say I am ready and excited is an understatement. My fiancé and I met on January 2nd on my first day teaching at the MTC this year. He was another teacher in my department and quickly became my closest friend and rock of support. We got engaged on June 8th, the day before my birthday. Thankfully, we're reached the downward slope of the engagement and I have become numb to discussions of luncheons, colors, announcements, etc. Make the madness stop! No one tells you how stressful it is to plan a wedding!

Let me share a little non-wedding info about me. I am a born and raised Californian. I am from the bay area, about 20 minutes south of San Francisco on the peninsula. I'm a senior at BYU. Last year I returned home from serving a mission in Dallas, TX (Don't worry - I rooted for BYU this weekend). I come from a pretty vibrant family: I am the second oldest of six. Three of us came from my parents and then my dad remarried and he and my stepmom had three together. The ages range from 27-4 years old. I love going home and having young siblings again.