Week Twelve Refective Post.

Reflective Post

It was only in one other unit studied during my time at university where I had posted on a community blog. The unit was an art history unit, entitled, Art and Games: From Dada to Data. Like this Women’s Studies Unit, the blog was designed to act as both an extension of the tutorial sessions and also a space in which people could comment on topics of interest which may be relevant to the unit.

While blogs may offer a broader opportunity for people to express themselves and also enables them time to process and structure their thoughts, I do find them to be quite time consuming. Unlike a real-time conversation where response in communication must be prompt, a conversation within a blog is a slow and drawn-out process. Wouldn’t it be much better to have the same conversation in a face-to-face situation where bodily expressions may be exchanged and thoughts teased out? And while the blog offers an opportunity to express thoughts in a highly constructed and materialised way, I do not believe it betters communication or conversational skills. In fact, I believe that as we rely on, and become accustomed to a blog to be the space in which we interact and express our thoughts and opinions, that our person-to-person interactions and our ability to interact and socialise, diminishes.

As far as learning purposes are concerned however, the blog does offer an opportunity for those less inclined to speak in a tute or workshop to speak and offer their contributions and opinions. So in this way, the blog is very much a democratic and open space. However, I don’t think, at least in my experience, that the conversations which take place on the blog extend into a real-life conversation. That which is posted on the blog, tends to stay only within that space. Conversely, conversations which take place in real-life, stimulate, and provide the foundations for the blog. So it would seem the blog does not stimulate conversation, but rather that conversation stimulates and provokes the blog. Reasons for this it would seem, could be found in the separation between the blogging world and the real world. The two exist as separate entities, different realms, which are constituted by their purposes and necessities.

For these reasons, I do not consider myself a cyborg but merely a student participating in the necessary assessment criteria. My body has not been altered and my cognitive processes remain the same. I may be participating within technology, but I myself have not been technologised. I remain the same.

Blake Chitty.