Spence Blog Post #1

The first number of times that technology was considered a source of fun of for me would be when I was playing video games on my Super Nintendo and my Nintendo 64 as a little kid. As a kid, I was rather shy and had anxiety over meeting new people and forming lasting relationships which is why I would spend time alone or with family during my early years. If I was rather tired during a particular day, I would spend time playing wide variety of video games.

My early collection included platformers such as Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Mario 64 which would test my timing of jumps and navigation amongst dangerous landscapes infested with hordes of enemies. Some of my games such as Goldeneye 007 and Star Fox 64 were shooters that tested my accuracy and quick reaction times. Tetris was a game that tested my puzzle solving skills, and Mario Kart would test my motor skills and patience. I remember being frustrated with my sister over playing Mario Party which provided an experience to strengthen the bond of family.

 However the community bond did not only just extend to family but friends as well would be interested in video games in general. I have made a multitude of friends by talking about what games that I was interested in and playing games with friends which made making friends easier for me. Video games provided the training that my brain needed to function properly later on in life and the social opportunities that I would have missed had I not played them.

The similarities between the readings from class and my own experiences with video games are that all readings describe a positive correlation between the usage of technology and the enjoyment that comes with it. Facebook and texting provides opportunities for students to include out of class writing for enjoyment and video gaming provides the opportunities for people, especially younger kids, to use logical thinking, problem solving, quick reaction times, and hand-eye coordination skills in an enjoyable way.

My experiences and the digital literacy narratives suggest that digital literacy is not only be able to access digital technology and understanding the contents of what the digital technology has processed and displayed, but digital literacy is also the amount of skill and ease for a person to change and manipulate digital technology. To be digital literate is to be able to be comfortable with your own understanding of the digital technology and to be confident with your own skill set and ability to use software programming. Without confidence and relentlessness, digital technology would be hard to comprehend and apply to certain situations.

To support my own understanding of what it means to digitally literate, most digital immigrants are not digitally literate and don’t understand digital technology as a whole. The reason for this is mainly because these digital immigrants didn’t grow up with digital technology as a source of information to rely on. Thus most of these digital immigrants are not comfortable with digital technology and that’s usually the reason why most digital immigrants don’t depend on most digital technology for anything. My mom, for example, is a digital immigrant as she did not grow up with digital technology and the concept of digital technology is foreign to her. Thus she was uncomfortable with digital technology which is why she usually doesn’t bother to understand most of it, unless the digital technology is necessary like e-mail, or browsing the internet.