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Digital Literacy Narrative
long Distance Technology:
As a child, I grew up alongside my immediate family, living about 5 minutes down the road from my grandparents, my great grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, therefore we spent a lot of time together. To this day, my family is the one constant in my life that I can always count on.
But this would not last forever! |
My cousins and I are all relatively close in age and whenever we are together it is an insanely fun time. From the trips to New York to see the tree, to making up games in the back room of our grandparents house, to the quirky plays and musical numbers we put on.
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In a way they have not, but in other ways they have. As we grew older, we got busy leading our own lives. My older cousins and my sister went away to college and my younger cousins, myself included, played various sports and other activities. We would see each other on holidays and other family gatherings but the days of spending nearly every day together were pretty much gone.
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The question was, as we grew apart, how would we be able to stay together?
TECHNOLOGY! That's IT! Technology definitely gave us the upper hand to help bridge the distance. Supported in an article entitled Becoming Literate in the Information Age: Cultural Ecologies and the Literacies of Technology, the authors state, |
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Our family had to find a way to connect Vermont, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania during the down times when no family occasion was planned. |
It took a while for us to get to past the magical unicorn option but when we did OH BOY did it get frustrating! We discovered Facebook, text messaging, snapchat, Instagram, and various other forms of social media, provided us with the perfect outlet for both in depth conversation and downright silliness. |
Barton and Hamilton define literacy as, “one of a range of communicative resources available to members of a community.” (Barton and Hamilton, 2000, pg. 9) |
This being said, My cousins, my sister and I created a closed group on Facebook specifically for our family to keep up to date on the goings on in one another’s lives or to post a funny picture or video. So the Fam-ski group was born and we began to use our first “literacy”.
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The group grew as more of our relatives created their own Facebook accounts and pretty soon we were getting in touch with 2nd and 3rd cousins adding North Carolina, Maryland and Idaho to our reach.
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But this mode of communication was not perfect. Sometimes it would take forever to get back to one another and this group was used less and less.
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We were all conveniently in the same place, even when we were not physically. It was a great platform to use to attempt to make plans. It was also good for sending out a quick message about something good or bad and even sharing a good laugh when we found a video or picture that reminded us of one another. It was working better than Facebook as anything posted in the text messages would spark conversation.
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After a while, however, all of our lives became busy again and the messages were just not coming in as they once were. I was beginning to get frustrated again because as we got older, holidays and family gatherings were no longer a guarantee that I would get to visit with my cousins and sister. Trying to avoid conflict, I watched as they would not respond or would not reach out for months. |
From there a new craze took over our little group, Snapchat. For a period of time, we spent a good chunk of time snapchatting as a way of staying connected with one another. We would have about 10 seconds of updates from one another. A really quick glimpse into what one of us was doing, something funny, or a shout out to tell on another that we missed them. Snapchat did not last long.
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At this point I was truly struggling to respond and getting angry with my cousins when they would not answer my snapchats. I attempted to be slightly passive aggressive with snapchat, and then attempted to guilt my cousins a bit on instagram
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These attempts were not very successful. Passive Aggressive never works.
Rhinegold explains that, “ Collective activities and interpersonal capabilities the nobody dreamed possible have become part of everyday life for millions of people.” (Rhinegold, 2012, pg. 10). |
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Why then, when there were so many ways to stay in touch, did it feel like the hardest task? Why couldn’t we find one way that worked and use it effectively? Is there one social media or technology based forum for communication that would prove sustainable in helping us feel as close as we were when we lived down the block from one another?
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We even tried Skype!
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It was through this experience with my cousin and my attempts to use changing technology to maintain a close relationship, that I learned that technology is not as efficient in keeping relationships as one would think. Relationship kept through technology also allows for misunderstanding, misinterpretation and miscommunication.
Despite one’s best efforts, the communication requires two way action. In the interview with my sister, she stated something similar, supporting this idea saying,
“You can’t control how often someone check their phone and we can’t just get in the car and force them to open up about something that is happening to them, it is too far.” (Jessica Velez, 2017) |
Technology has given us the power to be selective in our communication and even provides us with a scapegoat for our antisocial acts. It is interesting to question why we are able to so easily stay in touch with some people, than with others. For instance, I am constantly texting, snapchatting, facebooking, and instagramming my friends every day but as I understand my interactions and relationships through technology I have come to realize how important it is to be able to see someone in person. As my sister stated in our interview,
“Technology makes communication more possible in a lot of cases, but it is also complicated.” (Jessica Velez, 2017) |
Though my family are the people I will forever be the closest too, no matter the distance and infrequent communication, I feel we are doomed to struggle to use technology to keep in touch. But that has shown me that, in relationships growing up is not easy, especially when technology is involved. I may never fully understand why, but I suppose I am thankful for this lesson technology has taught me.
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Works cited
Barton, David, and Mary Hamilton. "Literacy Practices." Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context.Routledge, 2000. 7-15. Print.
Hawisher, Gail E., et al. “Becoming Literate in the Information Age: Cultural Ecologies and the Literacies of Technology.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 55, no. 4, 2004, pp. 642–692., www.jstor.org/stable/4140666.
Rhinegold, Howard. "Introduction: Why You Need Digital Know-how- Why we all Need it." Net Smart: How to Thrive Online.MT Press, 2012. 1-32. Print.
Velez, Jessica. Personal Interview. 12 February 2017.
Hawisher, Gail E., et al. “Becoming Literate in the Information Age: Cultural Ecologies and the Literacies of Technology.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 55, no. 4, 2004, pp. 642–692., www.jstor.org/stable/4140666.
Rhinegold, Howard. "Introduction: Why You Need Digital Know-how- Why we all Need it." Net Smart: How to Thrive Online.MT Press, 2012. 1-32. Print.
Velez, Jessica. Personal Interview. 12 February 2017.