While looking over my posts from this semester, I realized that I usually wrote about things that intersected with my natural interests. These topics included literature, social media, and personal implications from the reading/viewing material. I think that overall my posts have gotten less introspective and I’ve become more comfortable speaking about the topics without relying on personal anecdotes. For example, one of my earliest posts was “How would I want my persona built after I die?” and my last post was “Can robots have ethical dilemmas?” (clearly, I also like asking questions in my titles).
A lot of my blog posts built on material from other classes I’m taking this semester. For example, in “Can robots have ethical dilemmas?” I discussed a reading from my class Time In Space In Creative Nonfiction with Professor Perry about the warping of time in life-or-death situations that applied to the ethical decisions that self-driving cars must make. In my haunted media project (not a blog post but still a post of mine on this site).
The most interesting thing I discovered when reading my posts was the connection from my first post to the last few days of class. I discussed how technology, or the lack thereof, can elicit horror. I wrote: “This desire to be less dependent on technology could play a role in horror movies. Soon, movies may soon be able to realistically rely on the setting of an isolated home that lacks technology. Viewers would understand why the characters would want to go there because they realize that it can be a relief to escape the technologically-saturated world.” I think that this relates well to Station 11 because that novel dealt with the horrors of life after technology collapses. This connection, and reflecting on my blog post in general, made me aware of just how pervasive the subject of death in the digital age really is.