Week 13: Have we surrendered ourselves to technology? Is it possible to return to the way things were?

I’ve really enjoyed our last few class discussions — thanks for being prepared and staying focused on the text! On a similar note, last night’s writing workshop seemed very productive from my vantage point, and I hope the “Swalesian” approach to drafting introductions propelled your research project forward a bit. If you’re worried about any aspect of your project, please send me an email or stop by during office hours (T 1–4; W 9–12) so we can work together to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.

Next week, we will wrap up our discussion of Alone Together, and Shelby will demonstrate how to use Instagram. During the second half of class, I will briefly review the expectations for the methods section of your research design, then we will spend the rest of class critiquing one another’s professional electronic portfolios, so make sure that your site is live on the web and as close to “finished” as possible.

To read before class:

• Alone Together, pages 151–305
• “Social Media’s Small, Positive Role in Human Relationships,” by Zeynep Tufekci

Checkpoint assignments:

• Make any necessary adjustments to your electronic portfolio based on the feedback that you get from me after submitting your draft on April 19. (I’ll try to get brief comments to everyone by Monday, April 22, and you’re welcome to stop by during office hours on Tuesday or Wednesday if you’d like some additional feedback.)
• Begin drafting the methods section of your research design paper. This draft is due on Friday, April 26, and should be submitted in your shared Google Drive folder.

Bonus reading (as time and interest permit):

Turkle’s Alone Together is just one of several books/articles in an ongoing debate about the distinction (or lack thereof) between “online” and “offline” life. If you’re interested in this topic, you might enjoy a few of these articles:

• “The IRL Fetish,” by Nathan Jurgenson
• “The Line between Offline and Online,” by Nicholas Carr
• “The digital dualism of ‘digital dualism’ critics,” by Tyler Bickford
• “Online/Offline/No Line,” by Michael Sacasas

Please drop me a line if you have any questions about these plans. Otherwise, keep plugging away on those portfolios and research projects!