101 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2020
    1. We can consciously decide how to allocate the time … the optimum division of time among duties varies, depending on many factors, including but not limited to the acceptance of research and service as contributions to our effectiveness as librarians (Brown, 2001, p. 69).

      Looking at research as a service itself to librarianship.

    1. the current reputational and assessment systems (

      Who sets the criteria? Is it individual/institutional or are there national criteria to meet?

    1. The Maintainers, an organization seeking to promote the ongoing and typically invisible work of supporting systems;

      The unseen labor of maintenance.

  2. Feb 2020
    1. refusal of the archival profession to acknowledge the power relations embedded in the archival enterprise carries a concomitant abdication of responsibility for the consequences of the exercise of that power, and, in turn, serious consequences for under­standing and carrying out the role of archives in an ever-changing present, or for using archives with subtlety and reflection in a more distant future" (Schwartz 2002: 5-6.)

      Not acknowledging the archive as also a representation of ideological and power structures provides only a partial understanding of how archives operate and ignores their role in upholding certain monoliths.

  3. Apr 2019
    1. Pinterest appears to nurture, or at least attract, the type of community where people like to share

      So, this is an example of a space where social curation is mostly positive and may contribute to positive behaviours outside of its online sphere. Interesting

    2. Pinterest seems to foster a generally positive community, who seek to avoid confrontation and antagonism

      Example of a positive echo chamber? Was most of the content innocuous in nature though? And, are the users being observed mostly homogeneous?

    3. it appeared that people were better at titling and telling stories than they were at coming up with tags

      Objective vs. subjective labeling

    4. that there is frequently no curatorial supervision provided by content owners.

      There's no censorship here but, also, no oversight. No one is checking to see what information is being curated nor affirming its validity in anyway. Perhaps this lack of supervision is mainly harmless. That said, it seems open to exploitation.

    5. Comments, descriptions and board names serve both personal organization purposes and social signals to other users.

      So this is a new form of communication in online spaces. It communicates something not just about culture, but about self too.

    1. getting likes is like getting approval

      Validation

    2. The study very reasonably points out that adolescents are in a developmental period where self-presentation is very important,

      We are constantly looking for ways to discover and present ourselves and online spaces provide new avenues of expression.

    3. "My hypothesis is that likes don't just feel good in the moment; rather, they may be guiding teens to learn how to behave in the future in order to fit in with peers,"

      Ah, so evaluative online actions can have lasting IRL effects, ones that meaningful affect interactions with and perceptions of the world.

    4. "That isn't something our neuroimaging tools can tell us — only that some of the same brain regions are involved," she explained. "I think it's fair to say that the neural circuitry involved in receiving 'likes' is also involved in the experience of many sorts of pleasure."

      So, it's not the same "high" as having sex but there's still a comparable degree of pleasure and validation derived from "likes". Does this mean people will chase this kind of "high" the same as they do similarly pleasurable things?

    5. the same areas that light up with thoughts of sex, money, and food.

      This seems to indicate to me that social media can be just as addicting as any of these things. Obsession with any one of these things can lead to a massive addiction.

  4. Mar 2019
    1. Kelli will know what I’m talking about because she pointed it out and… thanks, I hate it :’))))))

      You're very welcome ^.^

    1. What remains the same is that to be human still means to constantly shift through generative metamorphosis, corruptions, and de-generations that escape any clear categorization.

      It's interesting that it is our ability to change and our predilection to avoid stagnation that so often defines us. Identity is often discussed in concrete terms--where can you locate it? What groups do you align yourself with? But, identity is not a singular, cohesive entity. We are not. Rather we are this confluence of so many factors beyond pinpointing. (I'm reminded of Dr. Lector's "Nothing happened to me. I happened. You can't reduce me to a set of influences.") We happened. Whether online or in our skin, we are going to constantly grow and evolve.

    2. The last boundary between us and the world, our skin, has become a transient membrane that changes along with the trans- and meta- human forms under it.

      In some ways, I don't fully understand the meaning here. But, I do believe that the onset of the digital age, particularly of the Internet, has made it possible to be so many more things beneath our skin than our skin would have other believe. We truly contain multitudes, perhaps now more than ever. (Will we burst?)

    3. they could project themselves into your body and transform into you.

      Interesting thought to consider in light of such nefarious online practices such as catfishing and identity theft. (Who are the modern-day skinwalkers?)

    4. which considered the skin a mask

      Is it not? Isn't the whole world a stage and us, merely players?

    5. The result is a series of photographs where bidimensionality and tridimensionality collide in an intimate and unpredictable way.

      It's a very visual way to portray/convey the many layers we all assume in the construction of identity. I think this work comes across as a little eerie (in concept) because it is making the typically unseen seen. V is not only bared open but dismantled and remade. It's unsettling (but so fascinating).

    1. Net art works often draw on data from other Internet materials and websites, which helps give them their distinctive dynamics and transience.

      Sounds like a re-emergence of happenings, just re-envisioned in a digital space

  5. Feb 2019
    1. You c a n ' t e v e r ler them g et th e u p p e r hand on you o r y o u 'r e through.So I start out tough.

      What a patriarchal approach

    2. Defining social role as the enactment of rights and duties attached to a given status, 'We can say that a social role will involve one or more parts and that each of these different parts may be presented by the performer on a series of occasions to the same kinds of audience or to an audience of the same persons

      So there is not one performance of self; there are many performances of self, playing out in tandem with others.

    3. I shall be concerned only with the participant’s dramaturgical problems of presenting the activity before others.

      Only concerned with the presentation of self and not with self itself as we may define it internally. Goffman's definition of self relies upon the reception of another interactant.

    4. e may also note that an intense interest in these disruptions comes to play a signifi cant role in the social life of the group

      Are we then more defined by what bends or breaks our barriers than the barriers themselves?

    5. 'ta c t’.

      Also known as "saving someone else's face" (cause you're not an assh*le).

    6. ociety is organized on the principle that any individual who possesses certain social characteristics has a moral right to expect that others will value and treat him in a correspondingly appropriate way

      That's the longest-winded way to say, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" I've ever read~

    7. The individual’s initial projection commits him to what he is proposing to be and requires him to drop all p re te n c e s of being other things

      You must follow-through, it seems or else the whole charade falls through.

    8. In Ichheiser’s term s1, the indi vidual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintention ally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him

      Self, then, lies not only in one individual; an interaction seems to be required an and impression made in order for a conception of self to exist. At least, according to Goffman.

    1. Years of metrics-driven growth, lucrative manipulative systems, and unregulated platform marketplaces, have created an environment where it makes more sense to be fake online — to be disingenuous and cynical, to lie and cheat, to misrepresent and distort — than it does to be real.

      I'm not sure I wholly agree with his statement but I do believe it is important to consider. To me, I believe different environments enhance aspects of ourselves already present. I don't believe these sites are fully responsible for our own actions. That said, I agree, in some ways, that we are being incredibly manipulated into being the worst versions of ourselves in online spaces. It's more profitable to bring out the worst in us than the best--at least, that's what Big Business seems to believe. I find it hard to believe, though, that we can be all that much more fake online than in-person--if you really think about it. We are always modulating ourselves and our reactions to accommodate those around us. We are constantly being told not to be ourselves through social, academic, professional, etc. conditioning. Does anybody really know who they are? Do you? I just don't think it's apt or fair to say that we are being anymore fake online when there's no proof we were ever being real before.

  6. Jan 2019
    1. What does it look like in 2019?

      I almost want to liken the concepts of "alternative facts" and "post-truth" to a kind of modern day alchemical process--in this case, the transmutation of words and semantics but also of reality and fact itself.

    2. High-level alchemy could probably be summarized as superseding the art of man and achieving the divine: immortality, infinite wealth, infinite knowledge, etc

      Ah. I'm sure the Church loved this ^.^

      Anyway, this definitely seems to indicate that we have always desired to transcend beyond ourselves.This kind of "escapism" is not new. Now, we may use digital means to attempt transcendence but is that really any different than alchemical intervention? Both are intended to be these conduits through which we become something more.

    3. Mahabharata

      This is a fave text the show "Ancient Aliens" likes to reference as evidence that ancient alien travelers visited earth long ago.... Regardless of the validity of those statements >.> it sounds like an epic tale. Would love to know more about its content and significance.

  7. Dec 2018
    1. As elaborated below, these decisions regarding both the medium and production encourage engage-ment, as they facilitate the creation of sequel imitations

      The unprofessional/amateur medium actually encourages further interaction as it is indicative of a "lower bar" to clear in order for further engagement to occur.

  8. Nov 2018
    1. n other words, each amount of sharing activity by likely bots tends to trigger a disproportionate amount of human engagement.

      Bot intervention increases human interaction with online content

    1. Giddens argues that social action is linked directly to the creation of rules and practices which recursively constitute the structure wherein social action takes place.

      Social interaction is recursive--meaning that it loops in on itself, the act of social interaction a symptom and a cause of social interaction

    2. Whereas a cultural artifact offers information about the culture that creates and uses it (Watts, 1981), a social artifact informs us about the social behavior of those individuals or groups which produce it (

      Provide information about behaviour and communication rather than about a tradition or a specific practice.

    3. a genre with its own set of rules and conventions and a genre whose production is a product of postmodern conceptions of representation and replication (Baudrillard, 1994) and the obfuscation of the consumer/producer binary which is manifest in the practices of participatory culture (Jenkins, 2007)

      New conception of how media is spread and a new conception of ownership of content and how much it matters.

    1. Internet memes are a digital version of Dawkins’ (1976) idea of memes, defined as individual bits of cultural information that propagate from person to person while undergoing variation, selection, and retention. Memes are transmitted throughout a population via social learning, and at any given time, members of a population either are adopting cultural traits (which become memes) or rejecting those traits through a complex interplay of social, emotional, and cognitive processes (Baker & Gammon, 2008).

      So, this definition mentions Dawkins but it does seem mor focused on the communication aspect of memes.

    2. This Emotional Selection Hypothesis

      Meaning that we select our communication based upon the emotional impact it will have?

    3. When one is embedded within an existing network of likeminded individuals

      Affinity space?

  9. Oct 2018
    1. In my dreams, I’m home but it’s not really home. And I don’t recognize the town but I know where everything is. So why do I keep running into things…”–

      She lost her sense of belonging

    1. Textual tags were manually assigned. The tags were used to identify the main action or point of the meme

      How was this "main point" determined?

    2. Memes were provided a categorical tag based on visual content. This tag provided a textual representation of the image even if the image had no embedded textual phrases

      Holland's tags~

    3. Humor is an interesting emotional category that contains a vast array of sub-categories.

      Wow, much insight my dude

  10. Sep 2018
    1. Although there are plenty of theories which could all be modelled, because the extant theory is so heavily based on assumptions which would have to be built into the models to make them work, they could all show interesting results which are, however, devoid of any resemblance to how culture actually happens

      Too many theories but enough agreed upon assumptions to create a model that could actually be applied nor a model that would accurately represent some aspect of reality.

    2. The resulting materialistic theory of consciousness2, where a „pandemonium‟ of various thoughts and nerve impulses struggle for expression, posits that what we comprehend as a serial stream of consciousness is actually a retrospectively experienced stream of narrative which was subject to continual editing as the various areas of the brain made their contributions.

      There is no photogrpahic memory for most people; every memory is being continuously edited in the mind,

    3. Rather, it is the usual practice to selectively pick examples from culture to help illustrate how memes may work and therefore convenient memes tend to be invoked to help description rather than candidates for real memes discovered in their cultural settings

      Only pragmatic examples

    1. performance

      Performing literature rather than reading it? Incorporating the performance of interacting with literature in a way that allows it to be more "seen", making the hidden mechanics observable?

    2. semiotic

      of or relating to meaning-making

    3. such works depend upon the reader to resolve when to finish reading the work. In other words, the navigational aspect of hypertext changes our interaction with both the story at hand and also with the concept of narrative itself

      Readers decide when to end a story rather than a story providing a definite ending--closure or making peace with a lack thereof of closer is determined by/resides in the reader. So, is a conclusion really a part of a literary work or not?

    4. allow[ing] you to make your own texts.

      Works like this really bring questions of authorship to the forefront--who is writing this work? Sure, you can design all of a work's possible permutations but if a reader does not engage with the work and generate these permutations, does the story exist?

    5. they do not do justice to the effect of interacting with the work

      Removing a work from its digital context removes its meaning or, at least, a large chunk of its meaning.

    6. “cut-up method”

      Dada photomontage?

      Hannah Hoch's "Cut with a Kitchen Knife"

    7. the structure and signification of literature itself.

      What decides meaning--the work or your experience of the work? Is there any meaning inherent in a work or is it all determined by the reader?

    8. the authors of hypertexts program all possible paths through which readers can navigate and thus invite only “trivial” rather than productive (or “ergodic”) action from the reader

      Or, do readers simply explore works, like detectives?

    9. to identify hypertext as offering readers more agency, and even partial authorship, over the text they read than print texts.

      Rather than being passive observes to a story as it unravels, readers of elit participate in the creation of the story.

    10. In other words, navigation enables the digital work’s performance and its signification

      Navigation rather than interpretation itself assists in guiding the discerning of meaning

  11. Feb 2018
    1. What stuck with me far beyond the facts of this alternate reality was exactly how Lacie finds herself screaming in pure fury by the end of the episode, broken and tired and, despite everything, relieved.

      Agreed. The last scene was what really stuck and, to me, it's because of how dissonant our world is with the one presented by "Nosedive." In our world, we still get these private moments where we can yell "Fuck this" all we want. We still value those moments. Our entire lives are not as pervasively performative as in this world. More than all that though, I think we can all relate to how utterly fucking exhausting and stressful social media can be. We need moments where we can vent like Lacie did at the end of the episode.

    2. being as pleasant to everyone as possible in exchange for precious points

      This artifice was particularly powerful, in my opinion. It wasn't just about how we appeared via social media bu how we were perceived IRL that mattered and could be translated to power. One the aims of social media was to connect people and allow for a wider array of interactions with individuals and with communities. But, here, social media becomes a tool to suppress and oppress genuine interactions amongst people.

    1. about how social approval might translate into power, and what that might entail for a society

      I think you can already see traces of this--with the rise of "influencers", which are typically people who promote products on social media and that's it. In the beauty & cosmetics world, influencers have become major players in marketing and in the popularity of certain brands, for instance.

    2. access to services

      That one's social media presence/score could dictate one's access to goods and services "IRL" is what I found to be most scary about this entire premise. Right now, this aspect of social media can affect the lives of celebrities but it hasn't spilled over into the lives of everyday citizens. Yet. **Edit: You see traces of it though. To access some features for things, you need the app and most of these apps have ranking systems now.

    3. the characters in "Nosedive" nervously tailor their lives to be ingratiating online, within certain very narrow guidelines.

      Social media and clout on it essentially becomes the new currency of this society.

    1. if we want a more diverse, open, decentralised internet, developers are going to have to wave goodbye to the idea of huge platforms that will supposedly make them rich.

      The crux of the issue, I think~

    2. The financial lubricant, Irvine says, will be a cryptocurrency called Safecoin: users will pay to store data on the network, and also be rewarded for storing other people’s (encrypted) information on their devices. Software developers, meanwhile, will be rewarded with Safecoin according to the popularity of their apps.

      I like the concept of parsing data across multiple devices. Where crypto-currency gets involved, though, is where I get concerned. I don't know a lot about crypto-currency but I know the markets for it can fluctuate drastically and that is not comforting or encouraging?? One of those. I don't want my internet to crash into a thousand pieces because overnight, Safecoin's value plummeted, you know? (Is that how that works??? Am I totally off???)

    1. ephemeral nature

      It almost seems counter-intuitive to think of digital art as temporary. Once something's on the internet, it lives forever, right? I was tripped up by this idea but then I remembered what I heart a tattoo artist say (on one of the many tattoo art shows out there--can't remember which) in response to someone who rejected tattoos on the basis that they're permanent: "Tattoos are the least permanent kind of art. We're all going to die." I got so caught up in thinking of the art itself that I forgot about its canvas--human skin. A material that will not stand the test of time. I think this is applicable to the idea that digital art is temporary. At least, as temporary as a tattoo. It will leave its mark in a moment but that moment will not last. It almost makes me appreciate the medium more, if that makes sense?

  12. Jan 2018
    1. consent

      I've never thought of this word in terms of a digital context until recently. But, it really all comes down to consent. Some might argue just using the internet's service is consent to tracking cookies. Others may say visiting a site is you consenting to their tracking software. And others still may say there is no consent until a request has been made and an informed answer provided.

    2. They would then be neglecting their fiduciary duty to their shareholders if they didn’t sell your data on to as many other companies as possible as well.

      God forbid~

    3. alter website content based on what they think you want to hear

      Horrifying. Absolutely horrifying. This is a problem. Forget that social media addiction nonsense. That this is allowed to happen is creating major social crises. People get trapped in echo chambers--of third-party servers' designs and there are no repercussions for this. No ethical ramifications. Where is the responsibility here? Consumer privacy is not only being neglected, it is being exploited for financial and, I would argue as of late, political gain. Where is the regulation? The oversight?

    4. But there is no technical guarantee of this - they are perfectly able to collect and inspect a logged-in user’s browsing history in a completely deanonymized form if they decide they want to

      See, this is a little scary. It's one thing to be another # in a mass of numbers but an whole different matter entirely for a corporation to have access to and be able to store such personal information without any sworn responsibility to use it ethically or to protect it--how many data links can you name? Now, compare that to how many prosecutions you can name? Maybe a corporation has to pay a fine if it has a leak but little more. We're all just $$$$, commodities to trade and sell.

    5. With cookies, you only have to register for the security card once, and then whenever you swipe it, the door, elevator or courtesy robot knows who you are and where you’re allowed to go

      Ah, the ol' Trojan horse play--in this case, monitoring disguised as courtesy.

    1. best selves

      Is the self I am in my digital life/in my digital spaces not me? Not a part of me?

      My work self and my student self and my home self do not behave or operate necessarily in the same ways but I would never consider any one separate from myself, any one "better". That's evaluative and, ultimately, a subjective opinion.

    2. how the devices might be made less toxic

      We could re-imagine the financial component that is driving all of social media? Incentivize social media platforms maybe to tweak their algorithms so that more truthful or factual info is being spread? (I think that's a contributing factor to this whole "lowering IQ" debate tbh) If you want some real change, most often you've got to hit someone in their wallet.

    3. The years coincide with the crash of the American economy, but also with the infancy of the iPhone .

      Causation does not equal correlation last time I checked~

    4. to lose about the same quantity of IQ as people who had smoked cannabis or lost a night's sleep.

      Hello agenda~

      (Studies also show that smoking cannabis increases creativity and innovation. Also, it has many beneficial health applications; it can be used for the treatment of seizures and for anxiety disorders as well as for pain. We going to look at anything complexly in this article??? Asking for a friend >.>)

    5. In the smartphone era, that figure can only have grown. Our brains just aren't built for the geysers of information our devices train at them. Inevitably, we end up paying attention to all kinds of things that aren't valuable or interesting, just because they flash up on our iPhone screens.

      I guess something else that bothers me about this whole debate is that the responsibility is placed solely on the consumers and hardly at all on the creators or designers of these devices and algorithms. But, if they never existed in the first place, what would the problem be? I think it's irresponsible to peddle messages like the one expressed in this article without looking at the source and saying, "Hey, this isn't working out well. You need to come up with something better." That's human innovation, right? Of course, because of Big Business's interests, the likelihood of any meaningful change to the current social media construct is slim to none.

    6. The symptoms of people with ADD and people with smartphones are "absolutely the same," he said.

      Absolutely? I'd have liked if more research were provided here to support this lone professor's claim--that there is a correlation in regards to symptoms between people with ADD and people who use smartphones. Dealing in absolutes here really closes off discussion so I'm hesitant to accept this viewpoint as the reality of this situation. It's very one-sided thus far.

    7. The finding was widely reported at the time and elicited some shock – for about eight seconds.

      So clever~

    8. people are desperately insecure and crave positive feedback with a kneejerk desperation

      This sounds like a generalization to me. Again, many people use these platforms not just for self-affirmation but for, you know, social purposes--to connect with people they otherwise wouldn't be able to. This sounds purposefully provocative, as if it wants to play on the insecurities it just pointed out, forcing me to engage in an introspection of its own design. Sounds eerily similar to clickbait~

    9. "People get tired of saying no; everyone has a moment of weakness when it's easier to comply than to resist," he wrote.

      I'll admit, this sounds very "super-villainy." I expected the corporate sphere to be more savvy when discussing exploitation of the masses for profit tbh~

    10. Socrates was wrong about writing and Erasmus was wrong about books. But after all, the boy who cried wolf was eaten in the end. And in smartphones, our brains may have finally met their match.

      Dramatic

    11. And they know us. The stories that pop up in your iPhone newsfeed and your social media apps are selected by algorithms to grab your eye.

      This, I have a major problem with. I highly recommend watching this video on the topic created by one of my fave educational Youtubers. I've recommended it often but I think it's great at underlining the ethical issues with these algorithms. More, it highlights how these algorithms affect the population, how they divide us instead of provide truth as we had hoped a platform like the internet would (you know, making info and so facts easily accessible).

    12. "Disconnect to reconnect," the poster read. "Put your phone down and be present."

      Again, I don't disagree with ideas like these--giving yourself time to be in a moment with yourself for yourself is very important, especially to mental health. When social media is being used as a a distraction from having to be with the self, then I have a problem with it because it is having a noticeably negative impact. I don't like messages like these being used aggressively and obnoxiously, though, as if to guilt people. Maybe I'm no my phone not talking to you because you're, quite frankly, annoying and unpleasant. Ever thought of that insert nosy relative/etc? I'm just saying maybe the problem isn't always the device so much as it is the company or the environment.

    13. how people behave

      This is perhaps what I am most interested in: how are we identifying what behaviors are being influenced by increased social media usage? Personally, I think the uptick in videos showing inappropriate behavior being uploaded to these platforms is indicative of impact of social media--it's made us more performative and has sold us this idea that privacy is over-rated, perhaps non-valuable. But, that seems to be a different viewpoint than that expressed in this article. This article seems more concerned with the increase in antisocial behavior it associates with increased social media usage than with the collective conscious and its relationship to digital spaces. If that sounds critical, it is. I'll keep reading but typically these kinds of articles focus too heavily on the "media" aspect and not enough on the "social" benefits these applications allow for which, to me, is an egregious oversight but whatever~

    1. different from watching on a movie or TV screen.

      What was most startling to me upon watching the first episode is that the site knew exactly what town I was in and what time of day it was. I was not expecting that. And, then, it was interactive in that we could input info if we wanted to. That is vastly different from the current movie experience. It individualized the experience of the work but, in this context, I'm not sure if I wanted it to be individualized!

    2. discussing

      During tonight's studio visit with Brett, I found the idea of privacy and the digital landscape to be vastly intriguing. What I wonder about specifically is if this constant "watching" or surveilling/tracking has made us as a whole more performative--because we believe that we're always being watched. As evidence of this I would present the uptick I'm sure we've all noticed in "inappropriate content" being posted to these public, digital platforms (i.e. the Logan Paul & Suicide Forest video on Youtube (since removed), or the Facebook live vid of these 2 girls in Australia brutally beating up a mentally disabled girl, or the instagram live vid of a girl posted after a car accident which killed her sister). I wonder if the acknowledgment that we're being consistently watched or monitored has negatively informed our behavior in some big ways--that we feel posting this kind of content is okay and acceptable now. I guess I'm more interested in the social ramifications here of the tracking.

  13. May 2017
  14. Apr 2017
    1. Oh, and that Dycpgc-Egpj-uyllyzc was going on about some other such nonsense here. Methinks she believes she’s clever. Ha. Perhaps, insightful, even . Haha. Again, you be the judge ^.^ 

      Nmr, wms pcyjjw lccb rm kccr rfyr icrrjc~

    1. Just as perilous is to assume the academy exists in a safe vacuum, where political tensions that light the nation on fire will not penetrate the halls of ivy-grown intellectualism and rationality. Universities hope to be environments for stable inquiry, where research and dialogue trump matters more visceral.

      Exactly.

    2. And adversity is something carried on the back into class.

      Something universities and colleges want their Profs to assuage rather than address, to claim the campus as "neutral" ground when it is far from it. You cannot remove students anymore from their current political/social context than you can divorce academia (and the university institution) from its deep class (i.e privileged) and socio-economic roots. There are no impenetrable, "sacred" bubbles. We live and learn in the rawness of it all.

    3. They came to believe that it’s morally dignified and politically constructive to scream rather than to reason, to hurl slurs in place of arguments.”

      How does one write this and not see the irony in their own words? Hear the pitch of their own whining? Perhaps it is too deafening.

  15. Feb 2017
    1. Generative

      Twitter bots, recombinatory poetry, generative fiction is infinitely fascinating because it can be so random and unexpected. It's like experimenting with how we ascribe meaning, try to find purpose in the otherwise incomprehensible.

    2. Potential of memes

      I found this part of the discussion to be rather interesting. I never thought of something like memes as being entry points into Elit--perhaps because they seem too "simplistic." But, if interacting with Elit has taught me anything, it's that it's made to be accessible. So, maybe it's whatever works, huh?