Laura Schwulst, My website is a shifting house: I appreciated Laura's choice to turn websites into multiple analogies. The one that resonated with me the most was “Website as room” since that's what I see websites as. Another detail that could make this analogy even better is that sometimes people like to rearrange the furniture in rooms in the same way that people like to redesign their website and the layout ever so often.
Ursula K. Le Guin, A Rant on Technology: I really hadn't thought about how bastardized the word technology has become. Nowadays, when you hear the word technology, you automatically assume it runs on some sort of electricity. We make “low tech” out to be some inferior thing because it lacks electricity when in reality it can be just as useful as “high tech.” Unfortunately, as society relies more and more on electronic-based technologies, the divide between “high” and “low” will only grow wider.
J. R. Carpenter, A Handmade Web: Reading this opened my eyes to realizing how increasingly common it is for someone who needs a website to use a cop-out such as Wix with premade templates used by millions of people instead of crafting one themselves. I've noticed it for a long time, but I didn't ever realize the true weight of what was happening until now. While it may be true that people resort to premade websites because they don't know how to build them from scratch, I certainly didn't before this class, but fewer and fewer people are actively searching for how to. It honestly confuses me, wouldn't you want a unique website that caters exclusively to you instead of a cookie-cutter website that is made to fill all their users' needs at once?
Taeyoon Choi, Hello World!: I was fascinated to learn that the word “computer” came from the practice of human computation. It's one of those words that you're numb to because you've heard it so many times that you never stop to think, “Wait where did it come from if it existed before electronic-based technology was invented.” Similarly, I've often wondered where other computer-based words came from such as “delete” and “online” since they have been hardwired into our brains to be associated with exclusively computer-based technology.
Callum Copley, A Friend is Writing: Briefly into experiencing the overwhelming nature of this website, my stress levels went down when I realized that this isn't any different from my own computer. If you could see my computer, you might get just as stressed out as this website. I have so many tabs open that I'm sure that I'm close to the limit if there even is one. There are so many open that the tabs are so small that they one show the favicon. It's the same for my phone browser and even with my Adobe Illustrator files. I'm used to working in a stimuli-heavy environment and I honestly don't know if that's helpful or a bad thing.
Mindy Seu, The Poetry of Tools: Penelope Umbrico's “All the Catalogs (A-Z)” stood out to me because it made me realize how links can show the age of a website. I interpreted this project in two ways: macro and micro. On the macro level, it can be viewed as an overview of all the internet's websites and how over time we lose more and more of them due to inactivity or getting shut down. On the micro level, this can be interpreted as one website that shows its age as its links start to die. It's like counting the rings of a tree, although it's not always accurate. Some websites could even be extremely old, but its age is hidden by someone updating its links.
Frank Chimero, The Good Room: The part that stood out to me was when he talked about how people don't go to libraries anymore. I made me stop and think about why I don't go to my local library. The main reason for me is that I like to own my books, so I never was interested in borrowing, although I always appreciated that it was there if I ever needed to. However, libraries now also have plenty of space to work or study, so why don't I go there for that? I honestly don't have a good reason. A brand new multi-story library was recently built near my house, but I haven't once stepped foot inside even though from the outside it looks like perfect place to work or study. For no good reason, I guess I've gotten used to working on my laptop in a quiet, boring room in my house. I guess I'm one of those people who don't like change when it comes to their routines.