Category: Group D

When I think of trolling on the internet I think of it as a joke, not something serious or present in everyday life. For example, Chrissy Teigen trolling Donald Trump and others on Twitter. Trolling never really seemed like a big deal to me, but the articles “Yelp, The Red Hen, And How All Tech Platforms Are Now Pawns In The Culture War” and “Could Russian trolls have helped elect Donald Trump?” show examples of how trolling can actually have an impact on the world. The Red Hen restaurant got an overwhelming amount of negative attention for asking White House Press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to leave due to her political actions that the owner disagreed with. I never really considered this trolling, because I always just thought of trolling as offending someone or attacking them via social media, usually over something stupid and immature, but really this is an example of just that. If social media was not in existence then this encounter would have led to some angry phone calls or maybe a small number of people boycotting the restaurant. However, due to social media’s role in the issue, the argument became a national news story and quickly escalated. Trolling on social media such as review sites like Yelp and Twitter is prevalent because it is so easy to do without repercussions. You can post a review of a restaurant anonymously and never have to talk to anyone or explain your bad experience. It is easy to criticize someone online and may not be in person. Trolling seems like a small issue, but if it had the power to actually impact the 2016 election, like the article suggests, then it becomes a much  more serious problem.  

With the advent of the internet, spreading information has become easier than ever. Anyone can create content and publish it online. As a result, a lot of what gets added goes unchecked. It becomes harder to pinpoint the source of information making it challenging to find a credible source online, hence why we’ve all heard […]

Twitch.tv is a streaming site where the streamers will broadcast their content on the internet to the million-viewer base. Each stream also has a “chat room” feature where the viewers write text or send emotes to interact with the streamer and the other viewers. Twitch emotes are usually customized and uploaded by the streamers themselves. …

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My blog post for today does not have anything to do with GIFs, unfortunately. However, I found it relevant to Digital Studies 101 and the constant use of technology that is quickly growing in our society. This past Friday while enjoying my tacos with friends at Sabor in Davidson I was disrupted by a group of children and their parents. It was not just the loud sound of children or their salsa covered hands that disgusted me; it was the electronic glow seen on each of their faces. The seven children were using a total of five iPads and an iPhone while their moms sat across the restaurant chatting. Like most people, I’ve seen a toddler use their parent’s phone during dinner to keep them quiet and entertained and give their parents a break. I understand why parents do this. I know that today’s children use electronics significantly more than I did, but somehow this was different. Seeing seven children all around the same age using their own personal electronic devices and watching television instead of talking to each other was disturbing to me. Like our case study on Friday, these kids were constantly connected to technology via their devices, even when eating dinner with friends. I use my phone a lot, definitely too much, but these kids made me think more in depth about the effects of technology. I didn’t have my own electronic device until I got my brother’s used iPod nano when I was about 10. Before that my only electronic use was watching television when my parents were kind enough to allow it. But even with a lack of childhood technology, I managed to become the frequent iPhone user I am today. If these children are using this much more technology at even younger ages I can see how in the future technology could take over our lives, as predicted in Feed.

  The invention of internet has changed the way people communicate with each other. While spoken language and text still remains the dominant instruments for communication in real life, the virtual world has seen the rise of other ways to convey ideas and express emotions. In the paper Never Gonna GIF you up: Analyzing the …

Continue reading “The Killer Meme”