CT 101 Final Blog Post/ Elijah Adkins

Final Blog Post

What I have learned: My Reflection

Before arriving to CT-101, I heard of the class prior. My journalism class with Professor Moore kept reminding me and the rest of the students how useful the class would be, especially for those into Journalism. I knew nothing about this class so I took what was said with a grain of salt and did not expect to be using my creativity in a class such as this. When I heard about the class, I thought it would be some sort of online art class and it was something I had no plan on taking due to my terrible artistic drawings. I cannot draw and the thought of taking an art class brought nightmares of what I dealt with in my high school. However, doing advisements with Professor Moore, I was informed that the class would help with expanding your Journalism skills to the next level by using the art of the internet. I decided to give it a try, putting myself at risk and not really knowing what I am in for, but it was a great decision.

 

My initial reaction to hearing about the class

The Introduction:

Upon enrolling in the class and missing the first day of class due to being tired and accidentally sleeping past the class time, I did not know what I was in for. I was already saddened by the fact that I missed my class on the first day due to not waking up on time, but I was also confused as to what the class would be. I joined the class group chat and saw some fellow students speak about the class, but not that much engagement was happening. So what I did was go on blackboard and checked the class to find out that we will be doing our activities on commons which I was also introduced to in my English class. Commons was a new site to me in the fall semester and I was still learning how to use it. Our first homework was commenting on a post and I never knew how hard that could be, being in the position that I was in. I eventually found a post that said “Welcome back” and I commented on this post, but later realized that it was the wrong post to comment on and I saw the rest of my fellow classmates commenting on the correct one. So already, the beginning of classes were a learning curve for me even though it should have been basic.

The Blogs:

After homework week 1, even though I struggled, I was starting to understand what I had to do and assumed that this course was going to be easy. That was until we were assigned assignment #1 which made us create our very first blog post and it’s also where the journey begins. Creating a blog post was not new to me as ironically, I had to create many blogs for my Journalism class with Prof Moore. However, I never had to create a blog post in the fashion that I had to for this class using the commons website. Not to mention, the usage of hyperlinks, images and the media to help assist with creating a great blog post.  The post asked what makes you happy on the internet and my creativity came into play since I used Gifs, videos and hyperlinks to express that Youtube, the social media platform on the internet that I use everyday is what makes me happy on the internet. Specifically, the reaction videos that showcases various different Youtubers giving their expressions on certain things such as sequences in films. The example I used being reactions to the new Spider-Man game coming out next year and their reaction to the main Villain being Venom. Assignment #2 tasked the class with expressing their thoughts on how they feel about the course so far in which I went into detail similar to my reflection about my thoughts and experience with the class so far. This assignment mainly was for testing our abilities to use Gifs and Memes to which goes into the next assignment asking whether Memes are Art or not. I answered this question in my blog post stating that Memes are Art and I even made my own meme. The next following blog posts went to a more advanced level that I was ready for.

Assignment #4 – DS 106 Assignment Bank (Looking for your best skill and worst skill and using a prompt by the site to help create your masterpiece and translate it over to a blog)

My Blog: I discuss writing as my specialty and I find an assignment that challenged me to write a poem about the point of view of an object.

Assignment #5 – Creating digital art using the mmm.page (Testing your ability to create art digitally on this new program, also testing your creativity)

My Blog: I used the mmm.page and created a page that showcased my dreams being to live in a Cabin, be financially stable and just have a genuine good time with family.

Assignment #6 – The Mid-Semester reflection (Reflecting on the class and how it is so far)

My Blog: Probably my longest blog until this one where I reflected on my experience with the class so far and what I am still looking forward to.

Assignment #7 – Creating Domain Names (Having the class think about what domain name they want to use for their website building careers)

My Blog: My weakest blog due to having to think of a domain name which is important to the website’s identity. This was something hard for me to do as I never thought of what would be a a great domain name that I would use.

Assignment #8 – Process of creating the Domain name and web hosting account (Students had to write about their thoughts and opinions on creating their domain name and getting started with web hosting)

My Blog: There was no blog. The assignment required the class to learn how to set up their domains and their web hosting accounts which was confusing at first, but I got the hang of it.

Assignment #9 – Using WordPress and creating a Website (Students finally got the opportunity to work on their envisioned website and play around with the tools in WordPress.

My Blog: I actually made two blogs to this assignment without even realizing it.

My other Blog: ^

Assignment #10 – While also working on your Website, publishing a new blog post on Commons and on your website (Continuing to use the WordPress tools and creating that first blog on your site)

My Blog: I advertised my website and I still hope the rest of the class sees the Website.

Assignment #11 – Commenting on the assignment post, visiting your fellow classmates websites and leaving them a comment on their progression and publishing a new blog post (3 part assignment)

My Blog: I saw two websites that I enjoyed viewing and it showed me how creative the rest of my classmates are.

My reaction to my classmates fantastic websites

And then there’s this. The Final post, the final assignment, the finals. 

My Blog: This

Grade Assessment:

I have no idea what my grade is for this class and I dislike assuming what grade it will be due to that risk of disappointment and let-down. Especially when it’s almost Christmas and a new year where people are meant to be happy. However, if I had to guess my grade, I’d say a B+ or higher because I completed all of my assignments, but I know what I have done wrong. For example, I am not much of a peer reviewer and I don’t think I ever peer reviewed anyone, besides the websites and assignment #11 which told students to look into the peers website and leave a comment. Another reason is I unfortunately did not have much time to edit my previous post and fix the errors. Such as assignment 1 where I was informed to add in more videos which was something that should have been easily completed. Or assignment 5 where I was asked to show more of the mmm page into the blog so people can see the full spectrum and layout of it. Although, I feel like I should do it justice by posting it here which is what I will do.

My mmmpage:  Added the hyperlink to the page this time.

The full mmm page

The numbers within the screenshot are gifs that are moving under my progression work which were the assignments I had to do before Assignment #6.

Next up are some videos I would recommend of reactions that are just great to look at and feel the emotions that they are going through while also still getting those goosebumps.

This video shows people reacting to iconic villians of Spider-man making an appearance in the new movie.

Or this video that is a spoiler of the movie, but showcases the audience reaction to certain scenes in the movie, which gives that goosebumps feel to people like me who have already seen the movie.

Or if marvel is not your cup of tea, you can just search for whatever genre you like and put reaction to it and watch reactors react to your favorite series or genre. For example:

I watch these two and I enjoy their reactions and their review after the series that I enjoy. The Witcher season 2 just released and seeing people’s reactions is what makes my day as it is also insightful.

People’s Voices

Remember when I said I was having trouble with creating a domain? I remembered having a thought to myself which will usually happen at random and coming up with the brilliant idea of calling it People’s Voices like People’s Court because Journalism specifically Social Journalism, involves spreading awareness on the injustices within the system of America or any other country and giving people that voice that should be heard which is the point of my website. Giving people the platform to voice their thoughts and opinions with the use of the 1st amendment which is why my background picture is a document of the 1st amendment.

 

My frustrations with building a website is pretty much the tools involved due to not being familiar with them and not wanting to mess it up. There are a lot of advanced tools that will take getting used to, but other than that I like the layout of my website and the idea behind it. Knowing myself however, I probably wouldn’t be continuing to work on the website due to myself being so busy. Although, I am grateful for the opportunity to create my own website and showcase it to my fellow classmates and expressing the creative vision.

Last, but not least, my hyperlink to my website.

The ending of my Assignment 2 post and now the ending of this Finals
The beginning of my 1st assignment and now the end of my last assignment

Assignment 11: Peer Review & Sneak Peak

Assignment 11 – Part 2 & 3

So the first website that I explored was Nader’s and I was already introduced with an intriguing background picture of the oceans which I’m guessing is in Yemen due to the theme of the website being about Yemen’s history. Usually a history lesson would bore me, but the pictures is what kept my attention. There are so many places in Yemen that are fantastic to look at that it almost feels not real. If that’s really how Yemen looks, I would love to go travel there. Nader definitely peeked my interest in Yemen and I enjoyed learning that it’s one of the oldest centers of civilization. There is always gossip and rumors about how civilization started and all things of that nature, but I haven’t really cared enough to do my own research. However, things like finding out Yemen is apart of that old civilization and the unknown of what is there is very intriguing and interesting to me. I am a fan of conspiracy theories and Marvel movies after all. All this is doing is getting my creative brain flowing and thinking of ideas in my head. I really enjoyed his website as you can tell.

My reaction to Nader’s website
Nader’s home page
My favorite picture on Nader’s website

The next website I viewed was Alejandra’s and I like the way its formatted and easily navigational. The first thing I checked was her blogs and my favorite blog of hers is the Poetry on TikTok blog. I don’t even like TikTok, but I gave the blog a try and already that gif she used looked wonderful. I would be ecstatic if the future looked like that picture.

A great eye-catching Gif

The blog post itself is a wonderful read though. I genuinely enjoyed reading the poem she shared on her website about this woman who wants to be alone because that’s exactly how I feel most of the time, just without the added dilemmas of her parents. I also gravitated to the poem which is a surprise to me because normally I hate poems, but I guess things can change since I have made one on my own for one of the assignments. I then checked out the photos and although it was random pictures, I understood the reoccurring theme. The photos were all locations in New York and it was most likely her favorite photos. I also checked out her recommended music and J.Cole is who stood out to me mainly because I love his music and he’s wholesome in real life from what I hear.

I have added a new blog post to my website and it takes a more sadder approach, but brings awareness to an issue I found out through my own father who has a step daughter with a mental disability and she always gets taken home with a school bus, but there’s been a shortage of bus drivers making her extremely late and ruining his regular schedule. It was only right that I wrote a story about this an bring more awareness to the issue.

A sneak peak

I hope you enjoy!

Assignment #10: “Creating a Website for CT 101”

Assignment 10 – Look at the new Blog!

Since my website will mainly focus on the voices of the people and their opinions on various news topics, I decided to make a blog on the assignment of creating a website. I decided to write a blog about the process of creating a website and how the students in this class were excited, but also confused.

Me working on the blog all day

Dear readers, this is my very first blog specifically made for my website and I would appreciate it if you checked it out! The website still needs to be worked on, but it will eventually get there.

My website

Assignment 9

Assignment 9

Messing around with the website:
Share those opinions

Since I’m new to this website building format and all the tools for it, I was very confused at the options presented to me. The easiest parts were adding in the logo and the background photo because I want my website to be built around the same idea America had; to give the people the right to speak their minds and share their opinions. Freedom of speech is important and it’s shown to be very useful at times, but harmful in other times. However, my website main focus is to present different opinions and views by the people on recent news issues or anything worth of interest. For example, a lot of people were torn whether Travis Scott should be blamed for the incidents that happened at his concert. This is an engaging news story that is very conflicted.

Now onto the hard part about creating a website for the first time. Creating a website for the first time was difficult mainly because the brain can easily think creatively until it’s actually time to do something. That is the dilemma I had for this assignment. I saw many tools that I have no prior knowledge about and I panicked. Even choosing the colors was a difficult task because it’s a website and you want it to look presentable. Amongst choosing a color, I saw sections such as widgets, homepage settings and “Additional CS” to where I just stopped what I was doing and made sure to stop before I mess around with things I don’t know anything about yet.

My reaction to the tools

However, I am looking forward to learning about these tools to help me create this website. It’s still intriguing and it feels great to have this opportunity to do something this special and hopefully create a passion for it. I can tell it’ll be useful in careers such as mine that deals with writing and interviewing. The website is a great way to spread opinions and views on the latest news because it still keeps that Journalism feel to it.

 

Assignment #9: Domain & Website

Creating a Domain & Website

Like stated on assignment #8 about thinking of domain names, I am excited to create a website. However, this process of setting up a Domain and the path to creating a website was challenging.

“My reaction to the steps”

First of all, having to think creatively and choosing a domain name was very difficult. Especially when your creative ideas were taken, which I did not expect them to be. Even the name I eventually chose proved to be a difficult task, but just adding in two letters allowed me safe passage across this obstacle.

Second of all, the screen showing the money being spent was dealt with caution by me because I did not want to make a fatal mistake that could easily have been avoided. Thankfully, nothing went wrong here and it was a page just meant to scare people even though Halloween had passed us already.

Thirdly, I would have had no idea about the client area page. Seems easily unnoticeable as well as the cPanel section which is what helps you find your WordPress website information.

Lastly, If it wasn’t for the video recordings of classes, I think I would have had a hard time with this process and would have had many questions emailed to the professor. This task was not easy whatsoever and I am glad that we had this video recordings to look back to for future references such as this scenario. It helped me finally create a website and I am looking forward to what’s next.

Good luck to everyone else

Assignment #7: The Domain

Assignment #7

I never thought of Domains I would use for my own website. This is all new to me and it has challenged me to think creatively of what would be the best options for me. I definitely have an idea of what I would post on the website though. It’s just the challenging part of thinking of a good domain and choosing which domain fits me the best. These are what I have came up with so far:

SlickRickEA.com – “SlickRickEA” is my Instagram handle and it originated from my liking of the name “Slick Rick” which proceeded to becoming aware of the rapper himself. The name always stood out to me more than any other names and I continued using it as a username for most sites. I feel like using this as a Domain is a good option because it’s easier to remember and its a common username for me.

Eadkins.com – This really doesn’t have any creativity to it. It’s just a basic domain using my first initial and full last name which is the same format for my login for this school’s app.

AdkinsElijah.com – Another generic and basic name that just has my last name first and my first name last.

“Risky , but effective”

EAnews.com – This name is tricky because my initials can be mistaken for the gaming business “EA sports”, but I like it due to me being a Journalist and it goes into my plans for the website.

Writing&Sharing.org – Another Journalistic title domain that is self explanatory.

EAPassions.com – A domain that focuses on what I am passionate about.

“How I feel about creating a Website”

In terms of what my website will be about, I plan on it focusing on everything and in Journalism format. I feel like I can use the website to post my blogs on stories I have covered and will write about. There is always a story in the world and my plan is to write about it. I feel like sticking to just one beat will be tiresome and not as interesting as switching up the categories and giving the reader a much more diverse layout.

I am excited for what’s to come in creating this website because it’ll be a first for me, but it’ll be another tool that I can use in the future. It will probably inspire me to create other websites that focuses on other things such as opinions, sports, or even my favorite website YouTube. There are many creative websites out there such as Giphy and the New York Times which I adore because one site allows you to create your own Gifs while the other informs you of the important news within the world. The point of the websites I have listed are to entertain the reader, but all 3 are unique from each other just with a common theme. All 3 are also tools that can help the reader. Youtube helps with understanding the internet and giving people the opportunity to have a career. Giphy helps with creating your own gif and sharing it with others to potentially getting it popularized. The New York Times helps with learning how Journalism works and how to indulge their audience into their articles.

The Mid-Semester Assessment Post

The Mid-Semester Assessment Post

CT 101 – “Makes Me Smile”

Before taking this course, I had no prior knowledge to using the internet and crafting your creativity onto it. I had to do an advisement and due to my former Journalism advisor, professor Lewis retiring, I needed a new one. I chose Prof Moore and we discussed what courses would best fit my path and schedule. When going over courses I could take, CT 101 was brought up as a potential option and I remembered it being mentioned in his classes every time as something that’ll help Journalism students with using the internet to their advantage. I decided to enroll into CT 101 and wanted to try it out, without fully knowing what I was getting myself into. Reflecting back to that time now, I have realized that I made a great choice in choosing Ct 101 as it heightened my internet skills and made it more diverse.

Currently in the semester, I feel like I am doing alright with the blog posts. There are some blog posts that I did fantastic on, but there are others that I have yet to expand on. The reasoning is because I have four other classes and of those four other classes, three of them are Journalism. Journalism deals with a lot of writing and every course, but this, has made me write about 750-1000 words while also having to do homework almost every day. It takes a toll and takes time that I could have spent on blog posts to make them better. However, I am still determined to go back to my blog posts and add in more to them.

The current grade I believe I am maintaining is a B+ to an A-. I feel like it’s not hard to get an A+, unless I make it hard on myself. Editing is a skill that is taught in this course and it is certainly something I need to do to achieve a higher grade. Also, I am lacking in the peer review since it’s an requirement in other courses as well. Once I get these dilemmas solved, I believe I will be in a better position and have the potential of earning an A or A+. Blog 1 was my first blog for this class in which I discussed what made me happy on the internet. I think I could add in more videos to illustrate the excitement of the reaction videos. Blog 2 presented the challenge of using Gifs which I was familiar with, but did not do often. I was informed that I did a good job, but a step was missing so that’s another Blog I will have to look at. Blog 3 presented the challenge whether memes are art to which I answered yes to in meme form, while also creating my very own meme. I did a good job considering it was my first time creating a meme. Blog 4 made the class write about the work that they decided to do on the ds 106 assignment bank to where I am mostly familiar with writing and found an assignment that challenged me to write from the point of view of an object. It was fun to do and I put it into poem form. Blog 5 I made a critical mistake in forgetting to hyperlink my actual assignment and instead, hyperlinked the website. However, this blog I will not make the same mistake.

Just Edit The Blogs

In terms of what I have learned the most and what skills I have acquired, it would be a great list. I have learned how to make a meme, I have learned how to organize a blog, I have learned how to hyperlink better, I have learned the importance of the sizes of images, I have learned that memes are art, and I have learned the most that the internet is a tool that uses people’s creativity as an advantage. I have acquired skills such as using gifs within blogs to express something. I have rarely used gifs before and it’s fascinating how something that would be viewed as only entertaining, can be educational and helpful as well. These sets of skills will definitely help branch out my Journalism work and create a more entertaining and open field to writing. No longer is writing tiresome and boring if you add some style to it.

Yes, I indeed see my weekly work expanding creatively because in every assignment, there’s always something new that I do not expect and it’s fascinating to say the least. It feels like I am in a class of skills where the objective is to learn a new skill every week. This class is enjoyable and unique as it challenges your creativity and makes you use that creativity to craft something spectacular. I have a feeling we’ll be revisiting the ds 106 assignment bank because we were told to only do one assignment, which was the easier one. I am guessing now we will dive into the more difficult one soon.

WK #6: Creativity with Digital Art

Creativity with Digital Art

Creativity flows through my mind on a daily basis. Creativity is what helps people think of abstract things and it also helped in advancing towards the future. I can confidently say that I have a creative mind because it feels like a whole new world inside. My mind illustrates and provides an illusion of a world in which I am the main character. These thoughts are usually depicted from previous movies, videos or scenarios that happened in real life to cause my brain to begin working.
The most of my creativity comes from either superhero shows or musicals. My brain created two separate worlds where I can either be the vigilante who isn’t really a superhero, but has the “cool, bad boy” persona or a world in which is filled with music which is basically derived from High School Musical. Either way, my brain will often create these narratives and unique stories that is very hard to explain, but very interesting to contain. It’s been like this for years now and it still continues either after finishing a movie, or listening to music. The creativity flows through these activities and that brings me to the assignment.
For the assignment, it requires students to put their creativity to the test and translate it to digital artwork. Now I could have attempted to bring the illustrations my mind creates into the digital artwork, but it would take too long so I opted to focus on a future.
Dreams for the Future
My mind instantly went to the basic thought process of what I really value and would want in the future. Automatically, my brain thought of a Cabin. For some odd reason, I really like the look of a Cabin. Even though, movies have depicted cabins as a dangerous place to live in. I am more of an introvert rather than extrovert so a Cabin would definitely resonate with me. I like the quiet, ominous feeling towards Cabins and I feel like it speaks to me more than the typical mansion. Also, during my thought process of what to focus on, I found stickers and stumbled upon a sticker of Michael Myers. I thought the clever thing to do was add the sticker of Michael Myers stabbing a pumpkin into the photo since Halloween is nearby and movies that often have Cabins are horror films.
The next photo I chose from Pixabay is a Money picture because in the future, I want to be successful. My definition of being successful deals with money. Money does not buy happiness, but it can dictate your life. I added a sticker that says “get rich or die blogging” only because it was a funny sticker to me and then I added a gif of an animated cartoon looking character holding money.
On the third photo which should have been first now that I think about it, I put family up there. Not family of my own, but the family that I have right now. They are the most important people in my life and I am still going to try my best to make them proud in the future. The sticker on the pic is the marvel character Deadpool making a heart sign with his hand.
After the pictures, I started checking the other tools. I learned that you could change the font and the colors and so that is what I did for the heading. Firstly, I moved around the heading and added a shape of a heart underneath. I then added random shapes next to the headline which I still can’t describe, but after turning the background page Black, I decided to just call it Stars. In terms of the Colors within the heading, I remembered during class about the discussion on “what’s your favorite color?” My favorite color is Red, specifically Dark Red just due to how it looks. I definitely favor the colors over the rest and I prefer it over the lighter Red. So in conclusion, this was my creation of dream future.

 

Week #5: DS 106 Assignment

Week #5: DS 106 Assignment

https://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/monologue-of-a-household-tool/

Writing is a specialty of mine and my strongest attribute. I enjoy writing and thinking creativity which leads to putting the pen onto paper. When going on the ds106 assignment bank, there were many choices I could have chosen, but the one I’m familiar with is writing. After clicking on the writing assignments, I looked through the newest, but didn’t find anything of interest until clicking the ratings tab. This assignment caught my attention because it was unique and fun to think about. I decided to remix it and put the assignment into poem form.

I can be messy, I can be dirty, I can be whatever you make me be.

I wake up when you wake up.

You need me to hold you

As you gaze upon the stars.

I am heavy so be careful

You cannot lift me by yourself.

Sometimes I struggle and pain is what I felt.

I can come crashing down if not screwed right.

Mess me up and I won’t be the same.

I can be comfy the most.

Or hard as a rock.

Place a pillow on me

No door, but you are going to knock.

Morning or Night

Whichever one you like.

Give me sheets and a mattress

It’ll be a Good Night.

The reason that I chose this item/tool is because it’s comfortable and helps me do the activity I always do. It’s a very useful tool and thought it would be fun taking its perspective since most people use it as well. I am also not a big poem guy so this is all just my interpretation of what a poem would look like. I made the item obvious, but thoroughly enjoyed writing this poem due to the mystery aspect within it, which is what I usually invest in.

I chose this assignment because after seeing what was done during class, I felt inspired to give it a try. I have messed around with photoshopping a long time ago, but it was very mediocre and I did not know anything. I was young at the time and loved wrestling, specifically World Wrestling Entertainment or in short, WWE. I loved it to the point where I found a community that also favored the product and roleplayed as their favorite wrestlers. I decided to join in and roleplay as my favorite wrestler “Randy Orton” known for his finishing move, R.K.O. which is his real life initials. In doing so, I would grab photos of him from google images and photoshop things such as a championship belt or him talking on the mic. It was sloppy and wasn’t very well done, but it was an attempt at photoshopping without knowing how to do it. Now I’m more older and I see this as an opportunity to gain photoshopping skills by taking on this assignment which seems very simple based on the description.

I think a project of this stature will probably require at least 2 or 3 times in order to learn how to photoshop. 1st time will obviously be your first attempt and it’ll help you learn from your mistakes once you do the 2nd one. It’s like a draft and then a final draft. I think photoshopping skills are important because it brings the creative flow out of people and helps them think of many ways that they can pair whoever and whatever together. For example in Avengers Endgame, people could photoshop the X-Men into the scene with all the heroes and it would be cool to see. On this website, they go into further detail on why photoshopping is important.

WK 4 Assignment: Memes are a form of Art

Like the title says, “Memes are a form of Art”. Art is derived from creativity and it exists all around us. Everything we look at can be considered art depending on the context. I am currently typing this out and thinking to myself that this blog post is another form of Art. Art can be beautiful, sad, happy, confusing, or funny. All of these aspects exists within memes and I would describe memes as the digital version of Art.

The one quote that stood out to me when searching on the web “Are memes art?” is “Art is constantly evolving, but if the purpose of art is to express human truth, the Internet meme fits the bill.” The quote makes sense and relates to my opinion that memes are truly art. Memes are a form of art that exists within the internet and it’s also gaining more publicity due to the evolution the world has transitioned into. Art such as paintings and pictures give the same feeling that a meme would give depending on what it is. A benefit to memes is also that it’s on the internet and can be easily shared amongst friends and family.

In Kate Knibbs’s “Are memes the pop culture art of our era“, she brings up an interesting point that I did not think of. She mentions the importance of memes and bringing them into mainstream art. She then uses the example of Grumpy Cat and how the meme was brought to real life and inspired 30 studio Artists to create themed artwork of it. I never thought about the fact that memes can also be brought to life and in mainstream art. This is another example on why Memes should be considered art. Artists are now creating galleries of memes in real life to showcase to their audience and it is a fascinating thing to think about. This ultimately means that anyone can  possibly have their memes be on display in real life.

In the video “Are LOLCats and Internet Memes Art” the Youtuber discusses how memes are indeed Art by relating it to quotes that historians have said. Such as Leo Tolstoy who says “To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movement, lines, colors, sounds or forms expressed in words so to transmit that feeling that others experience the same feeling.” with the closing quote from the Youtuber that says “this is the activity of art”. Pretty much what this all means is Tolstoy was ahead of his time and defined memes to be art by expressing one’s personal feelings and others being able to express the same feelings. That’s what memes do and continue to be doing nowadays. In fact, the world seems to be transitioning more into memes and gifs a opposed to the natural art format of pictures and paintings.

Another video I found worth watching on YouTube is titled “Memes: Art of the Internet Age” where it goes over the history of art and memes and discusses whether or not Memes are a form of art.

Assignment 2: Feelings About CT 101 So Far

Before taking CT 101, I was taking a bunch of Journalism classes. In the class, there would be mentions of students who either majored in CT or who are currently taking the class CT 101. My professor would usually vouch for the class and inform the students that taking the class will help towards the path of Journalism in learning editing skills and transitioning Journalists digitally. However, I did not think much of it and brushed it to the side.

My reaction whenever CT was brought up.

 

As the semester came into a close…

My excitement over the semester ending
I started doing my advisements and since my old advisor retired, I needed a new one. I chose to do advisements with Prof. Moore and he gave me suggestions on courses I should take and gave reasons why. He spoke about CT 101 as a potential course to take due to it’s versatile and unique way of providing students a learning of how to use the web to it’s capabilities.  

When it came down to officially enrolling in the courses, I chose CT 101 without being sure of what I’m getting into.

My brief reaction to being unaware of what’s to come

Now fast forward to the first class in which I did not appear due to sleeping late and waking up later, I was off to a bad start.

Me looking back at myself for that mistake

However, things picked up once I attended the second class since it’s when we really started working. I learned about the usage of Gifs and captions and using the two to create a masterpiece. Not to mention using hyperlinks and YouTube videos to add more flavor into the blog. Overall, the second time attending the class I learned a lot of computing skills and created my first blog on this site.

My reaction after completing my first blog on this site

Now this will be my second blog and my concluding thoughts is that I hope I get to learn more on using the web to my best capabilities and I aspire to use this for my Journalism work.

Blog Completed

Assignment #1: What makes me happy on the internet? Youtube

Assignment #1: What makes me happy on the internet? YouTube

YouTube is a social media platform for many creators to express themselves and create content for viewers to enjoy. It’s been around for years now and it continues to grow as more content creators provides a great experience for their audiences. I personally enjoy watching YouTube videos daily ranging from reaction videos to gameplay videos. 

Reaction videos are interesting content to me mostly because it’s reacting to other people’s thoughts and feelings towards something. Watching a reaction video to a funny video will often have me laughing more at the reaction rather than the funny video itself.

 

Me laughing at a reaction video
Me laughing at a reaction video

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not only do reaction videos peek my interest, they also have me wanting to watch more. The content creators do a fantastic job in peeking my interest because of the way they react, no matter if it’s exaggerated or not. Bringing more comedy in a video is something that makes me thrilled to watch another video and it’s something that can be laughed about with friends or family.

How I act when there's more reaction videos
How I act when there’s more reaction videos

Like previously stated, I also like watching gameplay videos. Meaning I like watching people play various of games. I would rather see someone else’s way of playing a game rather than playing a game myself. There are times when I decide that I would like to play a game myself, but most of the times I enjoy watching others play the games. I have watched reaction videos to the recent reveal of Spider-Man 2 & Wolverine video games being made by the same developers who made the first two Spider-Man games and seeing the reactions of the content creators to the end trailer of Spider-Man 2 had me like…

Me and Reactors reacting to the ending of the video game trailer for SpiderMan-2
Me and Reactors reacting to the ending of the video game trailer for SpiderMan-2

This is the video that had me and content creators shocked and surprised by the Spider-Man 2 trailer. I enjoyed many of their reactions and it created more of an excitement for the game that wasn’t as prevalent as it now.