Antoine Dodson: "Hide your kids, hide your wife"

History: Antoine's sister was sleeping one night in their Alabama home when a man broke into their home and tried to harm her. Antoine came to her assistance and helped keep her safe. The intruder then escaped out of the window, but left a t-shirt behind. Dodson's sister was getting interviewed about the event and then the camera went to Antoine and he said "hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your husband," the saying and interview went viral in 2010, and almost anyone you ask has seen or heard this video. The video is so popular because of how passionate and stern Antoine is about finding this intruder and making things right!

My thoughts and comments: I think that this is a really popular video. Anyone will say "hide your kids, hide your wife" and people know what they are referencing from. I also like this video because it shows how a brother is sticking up for his sister in her time of need, and it shows that he is not afraid to speak his mind to the community.

Rick Rolling

When Dr. Nichols told us to "Rick Roll" someone, I had no idea what he was talking about. It ends up that "rick rolling" was a little online joke people would play on each other. You would send someone an email pertaining to something that had to do with work or social events or something, and then when the person clicked the link it was Rick Astley singing his famous Never Gonna Give You Up. I decided to play the prank on my dad. I sent him an email saying that Limestone College seniors had to fill out some random form for something, and that it would only take a couple minutes if he just clicked on the following link limestonecollegeseniors.com. I received an email back probably twenty minutes later from my dad saying "seriously you sent me a Rick Astley link? I remember when that song was popular..." I then explained to him how we learned in class about the on going joke, and he thought it was really funny and said he might even try it on one of his partners this week!

lonelygirl15

History: Lonely Girl 15 started in 2006 by a girl named Bree. One of her earliest videos called "dorkiness prevails" was just her talking about how bored she is and how she is starting this new video blog. Throughout the web videos she introduces a friend and things about her home life, for example how she is homeschooled. According to a source I found on the internet, Bree was not an actual girl, but an actress. Not only an actress, but an actress that had a small team of writers telling her what to say. Lonely Girl was created by three people. The NY Times and other media groups wrote about Lonely Girl 15 as if she was a an actual girl that they were interested in. Turns out that Lonely Girl 15 ended up being youtube's earliest web series, which through its viewers and the media for a loop!

My thoughts and comments: When I first watched dorkiness prevails I really did not see the point of the video. I just saw a girl named Bree who seemed really bored and wanted to play around with a webcam. However, the more videos she posted and once she started introducing a friend I could kind of see how people could be more interested (especially since this was in 2006, before everyone was trying to become "youtube famous"). I typed in lonely girl 15 on google and The Guardian came up with a history of Bree. After reading this and realizing that Bree was an actress I was so interested and shocked at the same time. It was interesting that youtube thought to do this and it ended up working because the videos were going viral. I was so shocked because I could not get over how good of an actress "Bree" was because on camera she seemed very awkward!

Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World

This reading was some excerpts from "Orality and Literacy", and parts of chapter 4 "Writing restructures consciousness." In the first paragraph the authors talk about how writing is a form of technology, in today's society we might not consider writing to be technology, but because of the use of tools such as pens it is indeed one. The author also talks about how there is no way to "naturally" write. As opposed to oral speech, where emotions can be shown. The reading then talks about how technology has become a second nature, and part of us. Something that can "enrich human psyche." Seeing writing as a technology, the reader has to realize what is writings "past," and also that writing is technology. The article touches on what script is, explaining that script is a representation of an utterance of words that someone says. Going off of scripts, the article then talks about the different alphabets that are alive in this world. It explains the differences in the types, for example, the Hebrew alphabet does not use letters for vowels. An amazing point that the author makes is that the alphabet was only created once, and it still kept consistent to this day. Towards the end of the reading, the author talks about orality and how the transition from orality to literacy was slow, and in western cultures people took for granted the fact that texts could be read out loud. This reading was very interesting and detailed when it touched on all the different factors, such as writing as technology, orality and literacy, and alphabets.

- Do you think that writing is completely artificial like the article states?
- In today's age where different cultures and societies worldwide are interacting, why do you think the Hebrew and Arabic languages have not altered their alphabet to be universally understood?
- Why do you think the transition from orality to literacy was slow?

Hello Everyone!

My name is Savannah Markey and I am in Digital Literacies I. I am a senior at Limestone College, majoring in Professional Communications. Looking over the syllabus for this class I see that we will be doing a lot of hands on assignments, following the "knowing, doing, and making" theory. I hope to leave this classroom having a stronger internet presence, and more knowledge about new media and everything that goes into it. Along with an internet presence, and new media knowledge, I also want to have a website that I am confident in, and add to my portfolio.  I hope that after this class I am more confident in myself and my technology skills, helping me in my new professional life.