Before setting up my lifestream I was a bit apprehensive. The technical aspects and the need to engage on social media sounded very daunting. Seeing the initial activity on my classmates’ lifestreams amplified this feeling. Everyone seemed really creative and had a lot to say about topics that weren’t very familiar to me.
After initial problems with getting videos and tweets from IFTTT to embed into my blog, I actually enjoyed browsing the internet for relevant articles, videos and images to include in my lifestream. More precise instructions in the course guide about how to set up Youtube and Twitter would have been helpful but I felt a sense of achievement after working it out myself. So far, I have only created applets for Twitter, Youtube and Pocket but I’m sure I will explore more over the coming weeks. I only signed up to Twitter when I started IDEL and I still don’t use it very much. I would describe myself more of a lurker when it comes to social media, which is probably why I prefer Pocket at the moment.
Aside from the technical issues, I also struggled with the freedom we have in exploring the block’s themes. Having just completed IDEL where I knew exactly what I had to read and which activities I had to complete, I felt slightly confused. There is a wealth of fantastic information out there but, at the same time, the sheer amount of information and how to navigate it can feel overwhelming.
I joined both film festival tutorials this week, which were hosted on watch2gether. I thought the platform worked really well and, again, I felt slightly intimidated by the knowledge of my classmates. Nevertheless, I found most of the clips very powerful and I enjoyed being challenged to think about cyborgs, technology, relationships and what it means to be human. Can’t wait to further explore the themes from this week.
