Task #10: Attention Economy
I AM SO FRUSTRATED!!!! My blood pressure is at an all time high. I initially sat down to do this, took two attempts, got way too frustrated, walked away, ate breakfast and then came back for a third go at it. After trying to pass the CAPTCHA pages multiple times, I ended up just taking a picture of the last page I was able to get to. Here are a few things I noticed about the game:
1. Incredibly misleading/confusing from beginning to end. Like I stated above, I had to restart twice as I thought I was doing something wrong with entering my email information before realizing it had to do solely with poor web design. Even to start the game, I tried clicking on the big green dot that said NO just to see if it was almost like a mind game. But as Lesley stated below, to get into the interface, you had to click the word here even though it wasn’t underlined, italicized, capitalized or had any significance to it whatsoever.
2. The lock screen that would pop up every minute it seemed like was a big distraction. It definitely threw me off my game which is interesting looking back because there is absolutely zero significance to it.
3. The whole thing about my title not matching my gender at the end was a bit disturbing, especially since there were only two options for title “Mr” or “Mrs”. What happened to Miss, Ms, No title? I could see how many would take this very offensively.
4. The CAPTCHA prompts are very misleading as you can justify selecting all of the pictures to describe the word “light” for example.
5. The Help pop up in the bottom right corner. I tried writing a word in the box and it autofilled the word to some bizarrely long word after I pressed the space bar every single time. I laughed at this, but auto spell/autocorrect was definitely used in this interface to the users disadvantage!
Task 11: Algorithms of Predictive Text
This was an interesting task in my perspective because although my microblog post on Instagram stories doesn’t make much sense, one could find out a lot about me based on a number of things. Predictive text is based on an algorithm compiling all of the keywords used in recent and past texts and then predicts what you may write next considering those findings. In my post, it is apparent that I clearly talk about dogs and working out a lot (I really do). I also use the term “you guys” a lot and often arrange meeting friends or my parents for “lunch” using texting as my main tool of communication. Although my microblog post doesn’t make much sense to the viewer, it does give the viewer very good insight as to what it is I am interested in. This auto-generated microblog post differs drastically from a post I would actually write to express my views. First of all, I actually have an opinion about how education should be perceived which does not include anything about dogs like my auto-generated post expresses. The sentences in my auto-generated post rambles on with completely separate ideas with no uniformity to thoughts or perspective on education. A post I would ideally make starting with the statement “Education is not about…” would be thought-provoking and carry meaning related to education in the sentences that follow. My predictive text sentences portray my ‘voice’ in the sense that I use proper grammar when I text, as well as I use many emojis to describe actions that I am doing. My voice in this auto-generated example, however, is definitely not portrayed as organized and thoughtful like I usually am in real time. I believe the auto-generated version makes my voice sound insignificant and scattered whereas a reader or viewer could expect a much more thoughtful and organized statement from me in a real microblog post situation.
Task 12: Speculative Futures
I have selected an image that has two narratives:
Image source: https://www.ft.com/content/aa8ac620-1818-11e9-b93e-f4351a53f1c3
#1. It’s 2024.
John and Ken are chatting back and forth on their phones. They haven’t seen each other in years and finally are back in their hometown at the same time. Through their instant messaging app, they decide to meet up in a bit for drinks. John is the guy in the picture with the grey ball cap and grey vest, Ken is in the blue jacket with the light grey ball cap and is leaning against the side of the building. They make plans to meet up later all the while passing one another without lifting their heads from their phones to realize they’re in the same place at the same time.
#2. It’s 2024.
Everyone nowadays is so private about their lives…or at least think they are being private. Little do these people in the photo realize their every move is being manipulated and watched by both their handheld device and the camera above their heads. It’s startling how oblivious everyone is in such an obvious and stimulating environment.
These two narratives reflect on how distant we have become from the simplest forms of interaction in our everyday lives. Technology, mainly our smartphones as portrayed in this image, aims to connect people but takes an artificial approach to doing so. In 1984 (the year written on the side of the building in the image) the absence of technology allowed much more face-to-face ‘real’ interactions between people. Nowadays, in 2019, smartphones allow for so much instant gratification and personal satisfaction than face-to-face interactions such as walking by someone and making eye-contact or smiling is considered an anomaly. Five years set into the future, I can see this limiting our ability to communicate even more as more and more is becoming accessible to us on our handheld devices. We need to find a balance as a society to look up and find peace in our physical surroundings more-so than resorting to finding peace on a screen. Considering the quote written on the side of the building “Brave New World”, I believe in order to become a healthy communicative society, we need to be brave and adopt the old ways of thinking and communicating sometimes to journey into a new and better world.