For one day, pay conscious and close attention to the way digital media are shaping your life. Make notes and take pictures or screenshots: What ways of seeing, hearing, moving your body have become intuitive and natural to you because of the ways you use digital devices? Are your movements through the world at the mercy of Google Maps? Do you see the world through an Instagram, Tumblr, or Tinder lens? Do you encounter different digital experiences through work, family, or friends?
As you go about your day, think back through the readings we’ve done, which show how racialized and gendered structures are embedded in the technology we use every day – for better and for worse – and which speculate on how things could be different. Remind yourself of the concepts that have been most meaningful to you so far, and practice thinking through some of the more difficult ones. Are there moments in your digital day when particular readings come to mind?
Now, bearing in mind everything you’ve attended to over the past day, write a response to the following question:
How do race, gender, and/or queerness shape your digital practices?
I am not asking you to write a thesis-driven paper, though one of your options for a final project will be to extend this exploration into a researched analysis of the cultural politics of a piece of technology or software. Take this opportunity to think things through as you write, to explore ideas and they ways they can tangle together. (Though I still expect you to proofread and to include citations for the readings you choose to quote!)
I am also not asking you to write about your own race and gender identities in particular, though you are more than welcome to refer to them. Instead, try to notice when race and gender inflect what you do (this is probably most noticeable when it fails to work: for example, an ad for Viagra appears in the search results of a cisgender woman), or when you are moved to remember histories discussed in class that could never be discerned from the surfaces of our familiar screens.
You are welcome, though not required, to focus on one particular practice or site (Facebook, for example, offers myriad possibilities).
Requirements:
• Write between 800 and 1200 words
• Include at least three images or screenshots
• Quote from at least two assigned readings.
• Post your response to the class blog, at any privacy setting you prefer.
This project must be posted on the blog by midnight on September 28.