Ravi's Reflections!

One thing I LOVE to do is listen to podcasts. Often when I am traveling, or just to get my day started, I listen to the latest true crime podcast about a scammer or bank robber (I stray away from murdery ones because those scary me). Anyways, one that I started this week is called Scamanda and it speaks of the story of Amanda C. Reilly who is a blogger and was found to be faking cancer (sorry for the spoiler). This podcast is so interesting because it covers not only the ways in which Amanda uses her church to fundraise for her cancer treatment, but also, her utilization of her blog to update her supporters along her journey (Webster, 2023). “How despicable” one might think as they reflect on the lie of cancer as being the pathway into deceiving people out of money. Not only was this despicable, it is also , unfortunately, duplicable.  As we participate in writing our own blogs, we have the opportunity to teach and learn and participate in an incredibly educational process for thi...

  “Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast”, says Prensky when discussing the phenomenon of the digital native (2001, p.2). This quote stuck out to me as I reflect on being a digital native and this past week. To fill you in, this past week two distinct things happened, I lost my wallet and my laptop’s motherboard crashed. While I found my wallet, after two hours of intense searching, I did not anticipate my laptop shutting off in the middle of an episode of “Rupaul’s Drag Race”. With a deep breath, I made the dreaded phone call to Apple and prepared myself for the “Command, 4” or “Control, Shift, Alt, +” instructions I was bound to receive as they helped me reboot my computer. Unfortunately, this led to no avail, and even further led to me having to take my computer in for repair.  That Wednesday felt challenging, not only because of the pricetag of my laptop’s motherboard, but because I was not able to access what I needed as quickly as I needed to. In ...

  In Chapter 7 of “Networked”, Rainie and Wellman speak about the relationship between the digital age and work settings. It is an incredibly interesting chapter as it talks about the traditional work space wherein “fishbowls” and tightly situated office structures are replaced with “switchboards” structures that provide more accessibility and connection to the world economy (2013).  This chapter particularly stuck out as it provided a glimpse into the very real economic world we are in where technology is required.  This chapter made me think about the Pandemic and the reliance businesses had on technology during that time. The chapter mentioned the increase to 9.2 hours a day in 2010 regarding internet usage at work and that time feels almost trivial as we look at it now (Rainie and Wellman, 2013). Not only during the pandemic, but ever since the days when everything happened at home, technology has had such a distinct and noticeable influence on everything we do. From ...

  Hi! My name is Ravi and I am so excited to share a few thoughts throughout the summer with y’all via my first-ever blog! I have really enjoyed writing so far about a few topics surrounding class and my life so far and am excited to continue. Dr. Axel Bruns highlights the fluidity that comes with us as produsers, specifically knowing when to take a step forward and a step back based on our expertise and experience (2008). Everywhere we look we see social media, it has become such a part of the framework of our lives, and I am so excited to use this framework to build conducive learning environments for students, myself included. I am also nervous as this feels very deductive of my own experience with technology, which has had ebbs and flows in itself. For example, the pain I felt from losing Vine was very real and yet feels so far away now but we move forward no matter how hard. Let’s get this started, 2.0! Bruns, A. (2008).  The future is user-led: The path towards widespre...

This past week, I have been out of town and found myself reflecting on travel and social media. While I have really enjoyed decompressing and disconnecting, I had this unnerving feeling that travel leads to an expectation of social media usage. This, I am sure, is at least partially self-imposed, but in a social world, boasting about travel almost feels necessary.  One space that especially urges posts is conference travel. I really enjoy attending conferences and experiencing the learning opportunities that come with it. In addition, it is such a gift to see friends and colleagues at these conferences. This travel comes with pictures on my social media often as I use it to capture these memories and am so grateful for the platform to do so. After the conference, I then shift to thinking about how I can concisely express my experience at this conference to my peers through a LinkedIn post. I see my friends and peers posting their posts and gear up to post my own and it almost feels...

     In his Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen YouTube video, Andy Cohen asks, “Many of your castmates have had differing views on, kind of, the ‘mob mentality’ against Tom and Raquel. Some think they deserve it, some think they’ve gone too far. Where do you stand on the matter?” (2023) to Ariana Madix. Before getting to her answer and to the topic of this post, “mob mentality and social media”, let me provide some context.       Ariana Madix is a cast member of the Bravo show, Vanderpump Rules, where controversy has stricken not only the entire Vanderpump Rules world but the entire Bravoverse! While there are many layers to this story, the quickest summary is that Ariana Madix’s partner of 9 years cheated on her with her best friend, both of whom were on the show. This all leads up to a three-part reunion starting next week that has the Bravo fans on the edge of their seats. Bravo fans, similar to any fanbase, are not silent on the matter, though...