My Schizophrenic Relationship With New Media

So, yeah, you know how Kylie said something about someone getting angry at the Bauerlein reading while running on the treadmill. Well, I was actually on an elliptical, but that was me. But I wasn't entirely angry just because of his impossibly flawed arguments. I was angry because some (very few, but some) of them made sense. And I was angry, because a ton of the things he was lamenting about young people nowadays were really true about me, although I never would have the audacity or stupidity to blame them on new media.

So, while I found Ito et al. to espouse everything I want to believe about new media, and all of the great, informal learning that goes on there, I found Bauerlein to point out all of things I want to ignore.

Which brings me to studio time last week. You know how a few blogs ago I whined about how noisy studio time was, how I couldn't get any "real" work done, how I hate constructionism and blah blah blah. Well, guess what. I've been born again. Because this past week, I had a plan to work that INVOLVED OTHER PEOPLE. I interviewed you guys. I got David to help me with Movie Maker, and Steve helped me when I couldn't find my video files because I'm, well, me. I was so durn productive, I got all but like 30 minutes of work done on my final studio project.

Which brings me to my last studio project. Finally, I found something that was easy, that was fun, that felt meaningful. Scratch was cool, but so demanding on my nonexistent skills. And computational textiles, well, that involved SEWING . . enough said. So to be able to use a tool that took little brain power, like a flip camera, and another tool that took just slightly more brain power, windows movie maker . . . it felt like vacation . . . it felt like oreos and milk . . . it felt like-- how everyone else has been feeling studio time all semester.

So, I hate to end on such an embarrassingly positive note, but I've got to. Because sometimes I love new media, and sometimes I hate it. And most of the time I recognize the tremedous help new media can be in accomplishing some pretty cool things. And I ALWAYS admire people that do these pretty cool things.

As for my little movie, I don't think I'd quite rank it as a pretty cool thing, but it's definitely closer to a pretty cool thing than my daughter's Halloween shirt with half a battery sewn in is. . .

And, no, I'm not going to post it. Premier showing this coming Tuesday, the 8th.

Don't miss it.