Daily Creates
“You’re turning into a chess piece. Which one will you become? Show us an intermediate stage of your change process.” This is why I enjoy the daily creates. It gets my mind off of the stressful tasks in my life and allows me to have fun, random thoughts! To answer the question, I would most definitely be the Queen. High in status. The pictures representing me as Queen would most likely be my 2010 pageant of my 2016 senior prom.
“Automated Diaries”
While reading chapter four of Rettberg’s “Automated Diaries,” I did not find anything too surprising. Everything that was mentioned in the chapter was most definitely disturbing, but not anything that society did not already know. When I just read the title of the text and began reading, I thought the author was going to focus on the negative aspects of technology “watching” us. I did not get too much of that when reading, but I did find myself agreeing with the author. It is no shock that technology has developed over the years, and today’s society, specifically the younger generation, is so into having the latest and the greatest technology. This ties into Rettberg’s statement that “part of the reason we take more photos is that technology makes it possible, easy and cheap” (54). Some individuals will go out and buy a new phone, although nothing is wrong with the one they have, simply because of the camera the new iPhone has. Companies make it so easy for us to get sucked into buying their newest items. The Narrative Clip that the reading discusses is something that I have not come across, but I also would not consider using it. For one, the author did not give a good review, but I also felt creeped out when reading about the device. I can imagine myself going about my day and the author trying to capture meaningful photos but instead gets home to find images of my blurred face in her camera roll. It’s weird, to say the least. Something that I was able to connect with was when Rettberg had “scored 100 for work-life balance on the week I was on a family vacation and spent no time at places categorised as ‘work’, and 73 for spontaneity the same week, presumably because I didn’t do the same things as I do most weeks” (49). Just this past week, my iPhone informed me that my screentime percentage went down. I can imagine this is because I took a week off from work and was not constantly checking Gmail, GroupMe, and Slack. Besides going on Tik Tok, that is what I usually check my phone for. I was able to spend time away from my work tasks and even Tik Tok to fully enjoy being home with family. I never really used a journal or diary. Still, after reading Rettberg’s statements on automated diaries, maybe it’s for the best that society begins to take a few steps back from the numerous applications that are made available to us.