Welcome to my final blog post!

Let me tell you guys how my experience was during CT101…

 

 

 

 

Although it was hard learning all these new things and making sure my blog was perfected,

To reiterate what I said in the mid-semester reflection, this class did teach me how to be more creative and how to use the website and the writing I have for good. All the technical stuff I learned was new but the impact that digital technology has on us and that it continues to make in this world is something I took for granted. For example, the idea that memes are art might be weird and bizarre to some, but in this day and age, it’s true. As Lessig argues in his TED talk about copyrights, technology is a “tool of creativity…[and] of literacy for our generation. It is who our kids are.” My parents tell me all the time that I’m not focused enough in school because of my phone or that I’m lazy because of my phone and all sorts of things. I admit I am a bit dependent on it, but after taking this class, is that necessarily a bad thing, given what it has done and what it can do?

Therefore, in addition to making me more creative and improving my communication skills, I would like to thank this class for making me reflect on my relationship with digital technology. It has its cons, but I am truly grateful for it!

Because I’m a journalism major, I have no choice but to apply these skills to my career in the future. Given that I’m a college student and have a part-time job, it will be hard to maintain my website, but during breaks and maybe even after college I’ll keep it as a blog for me to keep posting on and expressing my thoughts (assuming that I have access to it a year from now). My website will be a blog to me but also a way to share to the world things that are going on, to bring awareness, and to provide people with resources that they can use to make a change. Also as a journalism major, this is really helpful and can help me practice those skills. It definitely took some time figuring out how to delete all the defaults that came with the site and make it my own, but it was worth it. After all, good things come to those who wait! 

In terms of what grade I think I should earn in this class, I think I serve an A- because all though, I haven’t caught up on all the assignments on time, I made sure I did everything with all of my efforts. My blog isn’t as creative as others, but there was just as much effort put into it and this blog post. As you can see here, I think I made use of all the skills we learned in this class! But in the end, you’re the teacher so…

 

 

 

 

As I said before, being able to create a website is easy and accessible, but making it your own is what takes time (but then again that’s up to your discretion, you could leave it as is). Using apps like WordPress does aid in the process and gives you easy ways to customize your site. Regardless, it’s cool what you can do, and if you would like to have a blog or website, then this is a great place to start. I 100% recommend it for beginners like me!

It’s bittersweet 😢 to be writing this and have this class end, but I’m glad I was able to take this before I graduated. Thank you Mr. Seslow, to all my classmates and viewers, and have a good break! 

*and scene* 

May we meet again 🙂

―The 100 (THE best show on earth)

 

There’s one quote that I think pretty much sums up the argument of Lessig’s video and it’s this: “The architecture of copyright law and the architecture of digital technologies, as they interact have produced the presumption that these activities are illegal. Because if copyright laws at its core regulate something called copies, then the digital world, the one fact we can’t escape is that every single use of culture produces a copy, and therefore every single-use requires permission, and therefore without permission you are a trespasser.” I love this quote because it’s essentially saying these copyright laws halt innovation! 

Technology reproduces and innovates itself based on past mistakes and past innovations; it is constantly making copies and reproducing copies in different ways. That is how success and innovation is created, and as Lessig argues, this is the culture. Similar to the planes who were trespassers back then flying over other people’s land, planes or any other aircraft can’t function without flying over other people’s land, that’s their purpose, like technology. Therefore the functions and opportunities that technology is meant to produce, what makes it a tool of creativity and a tool of speech for our generation and many more to come, are being limited by this age of prohibition. 

I do agree there needs to be some sort of artist choice on how their work is available because the presumption that these activities are always illegal  (sometimes people are just flat out stealing other people’s work) is “dangerous” to our generation and the very function of technology. A solution like this allows us to continue being creative and produce innovations because as Lessig says, it gives us “the opportunity to develop creativity and that competition can teach one lesson to the other.” What a great TED talk!

Vaporwave can be seen as multiple things. According to Wikipedia, it is a microgenre of electronic music, a visual art style, and a type of internet imagery. Thinking in terms of the purposes of this class, it includes culture from the 1980s and 90s, for example, glitch art, 1990s web design, greek and roman statues, and 3D art. I honestly think Vaporwave is pretty cool in terms of a visual style. I really liked the “choppy” triangle picture of the vulture. Not all are really appealing but some are, as I’ve provided above. I can’t see myself making such art based on your tutorial, but it would be a nice addition to my website. When I checked the student vaporwave gallery, the choppy triangle picture of Spiderman looked cool as well. From afar, the choppy picture almost looks really clear!

Here are just simple examples of the “vaporwave” I created:

This is just an image of the Brooklyn bridge at night (I know, it’s beautiful), but if I didn’t tell you that you wouldn’t be able to tell! I just love the colors. 

This is an image of my cousin and other people in her play during her freshman year of college. They have this event every year for MLK day and this year’s theme was Sankofa. I love the unity in this picture. In the background, you also see the Malian flag, which is where I’m from! 

 

Sell Ads online – The world of digital Marketing. I don’t know if this is Adrian’s business, but so far. He has a really nice aesthetic to his site, and as a business owner, I would definitely take a look at his recommendations on how I can maximize my budget on online ads. That idea for a website was also really creative :).

Another favorite of mine was this website: $imply Psycho (simplypsycho.com).  Everything about the site is so unique. Not only do I love the look of the page, but the content could also be extremely useful to me as well, as I’m not an expert in money management. I’ll definitely be using one of those apps that they mentioned on their page that helps one keep track of their money. Great job and keep up the good work. I need to step my game up!

Outside of social media, I didn’t really think it was accessible to create a digital identity. In fact, I thought the way most people created their digital identity was through social media!

Not only did I learn what a domain is and its purpose,  I learned how to use this to create a website.  I thought this was something only coders knew. One of my biggest takeaways is how simple the process is. I can definitely say it has made writing an easier process for me. It definitely has allowed me to be more creative because I was blogging and personalizing my posts. I was also more reflective because I don’t usually “journal” like this for the rest of my classes. In terms of my strengths and weakness, I’d say I’ve become a better writer, but I feel like I need to catch up with my blog and use it to do more good. Sometimes, I tend to take a break from social media and just being on my phone; however, I want to be consistent with my blog and continue to talk about things that matter in the world. Because we had to create a series of blogs which is kind of like journaling to me, I was able to write in my own voice, be creative with it (something I can’t or just don’t usually do on social media) that is clear to my viewers. I understand how you can’t communicate the same way to different audiences (especially because of the difference in culture). I decided to call my domain name this:

THE Blog 💅 – Author: Fatoumata Minaj (fatoumatakoureichi.com)

I think I’ve earned a B in the class so far, and I will continue to put more effort into my blog. Moving forward, I want to use this site to talk about my life and bring awareness to the things going on in my community. Besides just sharing things about BLM on social media, I can now write about it and share resources with other people so they can get involved as well. 

 

It was a bit tricky at first because when I downloaded WordPress and tried to log in, it wasn’t working and It was because I didn’t verify my email. However, there wasn’t really anything to dislike about the process; it was pretty straight forward.  But because it was so easy, it shows how easy it is for anyone to create a digital identity (although it cost $32 to create our domain, I’m pretty sure there’s somewhere on the internet where you can get a domain for free!). With a computer and some money, creating a WordPress site seems pretty accessible. With this new website, I’m excited to see how I can personalize my site and create a unique digital identity. 

Honestly I am unsure about the kind of website I should create however, I do know that I love to bring awareness to things that affects my community for instance police brutality, low income families, Sexual harassment and etc…. Honestly I like to think of my self as an activist

Therefore I would love to create a platform where people all around the world is able to voice the struggles and dilemmas that they are going through so that we can bring awareness to those cause. With that being said I’m not really sure of a name but here we go

CBH.org (Change Begins Here)

LetsTalkAboutIt.com

But feel free to leave a comment if you have any suggestions!!!!

For my second DS106 project I’ve decide to do the combo photo assignment. For more details on the assignment just click here , Theres also an image of the assignment below

The assignment actually looks a bit cool I can combine two pictures in one how cool is that !!!!!!!!!! But wait a min what two pictures am I going to combine Mhmmmm

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https://www.photopea.com

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My PostThe first assignment I will attempt to do is called “Places Of Peace” from the DS 106 website. Click Here for a deeper look into the assignment, also on the bottom there’s an image of how the assignment looks.

I used this to place my images into a collage , Heres what I got

The collage illustrate four images that brings me peace, The one on the top left hand corner is my boyfriend. He is literally my peace , he knows to how to calm me down when I am mad or comfort me when I am sad and he’s always there no matter what. On the right hand corner is money, making money is what brings me peace and prosperity and keeps me from being depressed. The image on the bottom left hand corner is food, something about food just makes me feel so peaceful and calm. Especially that first bite of food when it taste so delicious, it just an unforgettable feeling. last but not least is Islam, the word islam already signifies and aims for a peaceful society and I just feel so pure and connected with Allah.

Before I began the Ct102 I thought the class will be learning how to tell story and a lot of writing which will really be stressful as a journalism major.

However its actually less complex and really easy, the Ct101 Class actually is extremely awesome and great! Im learning. new things about the internet and the best part is I get to be creative which will help me in the Long run since the internet has. become apart of our norm.                        

Ct101 compared to my other class is just….. Honestly there’s no comparison Ct is by far the best class I have ever looked in college. As I am doing the assignments its not like I can have writers block or solve a problem that makes my brains explode but I am at ease and just having fun!!!                    

The internet has become a powerful tool for people across the world and has made a way to emotionally benefit may lives.  However, what I love about the internet are the following :

The Entertainment –  The internet has a unique way of entertaining the viewers such as social media, Social media has provide a platform where we see all types of people from all over the world show off their talents or their life-styles and it just brings everyone all together as one.

The Connections- The internet also allows us to connect with people from across the. world like family , friends, and even work.

Brings Awareness- The internet allows us to share things that are happening across the world, we are able to see things such as police brutality and gender inequality and because of that we are able to bring awareness to those issue causing us to form movements and hashtags.