https://blogs.ubc.ca/rchiang540/2021/03/20/task-10-attention-economy/
Summary: In this task Rachel describes her interactions and ensuing frustration with the User Inyerface activity and the multiple attempts it required to progress through the platform. She primarily uses screenshot imagery accompanied with anecdotal text to share her experience.
Reason:
I chose to link this task as it was obvious that my colleague’s experience was vastly different from my own. Starting off Rachel laments “Oh the frustration! I tried User Inyerface for 3 times and I couldn’t get through the first page” (Chiang, 2021). She was skeptical about the possibility of the activity having an ending until she spoke with Ernesto and her peers. She ended up following a YouTube tutorial to complete the task. Rachel’s experience appears to be near the opposite end of the spectrum from my own as I found the exercise largely simple to interpret and interact with and frustrating primarily in its tedious and repetitive nature. The differences in our experiences leads me to believe Rachel may have less exposure to dark patterns in her everyday computing interactions where I find I run into these constantly. A common one I see every week or so is when I update the free software I use to monitor my hardware on my computers: HWInfo64 which injects an option to install a third-party application in the spot the download button should be for the monitoring application.
Another difference between our tasks was that Rachel presents most of her information accompanied and directed by imagery. We both organized our descriptions by page but she “shows” rather than purely “tells” which allows for a greater range of literacies to engage with her task. Her presentation of information also does not require the viewer to have experienced the activity first-hand.
Rachel’s insertion of screenshots helps guide the reader through her experience
It is always enriching to share in others’ experiences and to acknowledge the different privileges afforded to us by our different literacies; in this specific instance I could navigate the digital world with relative ease which is important to remember as an educator that I have an important role to play in helping others reach the same level of literacy.
Chiang, R. (2021). Task 10 Attention Economy. The Noise I Made with My Tiny Laptop. https://blogs.ubc.ca/rchiang540/2021/03/20/task-10-attention-economy/