Inclusive Gaming

 Inclusive Gaming Scorecard

1. Can the game be played in many languages?

2. Can the game be played on multiple platforms?

3. Can the controls be changed to accommodate disabilities?

4. If there is a character are they customizable?

5. Is there diversity among the NPC’s?

6. Are there difficulty settings?

My favorite game at the moment is House Flipper so I will rate it on my scorecard.

1. Can be played in 21 different languages

2. Available on PC, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

3. Keyboard (customizable), controller, and tablet controls

4. Only one hand can be seen it only has four choices for customization.

5. There is an attempt to create a diverse group of NPC’s but mostly they all look the same.

6. You can change the difficulty settings.

Digital Inclusion Midterm Poster

 

Learning more about inclusion in the digital world has shown me that there are many factors that can affect how connected or unconnected a person may be. These reasons range from cultural to geographical or economic. I think three of the biggest factors are physical access, location, and cultural demographics. First of all, access is reliant on whether you have physical access to a device capable of accessing current technology. While studying digital production and consumption we learned that depending on personal situations one might not be able to afford a device. There also may be many other factors as to why a person doesn’t have physical access to technological devices. The next is access based on location in the geopolitics of the physical internet we learned that even though physically the internet may be running through a town it doesn’t mean that that town has access to that service, this means location is a large part of having access. Lastly studying the gender mobile gap we learned that not only does where you live and how wealthy you may be affect the amount of access a person has but so does things like gender.

Tokyoship. (n.d.). Simple_globe [SVG].

The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed

Area 1

In the article “The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed”, Adrian Chen explains the job of social media mediators and the parts of social media that we don't think about. There are many people whose job is to spend their day looking through photos and videos that are posted to social media to deem them appropriate or not. Meaning they are sifting through lots of content that is most likely stuff most humans don't want to see. They do this to make sure that our social media experience is not full of pornography and graphic violence. The article also discusses some of the impacts this has on the people who work these jobs and how it deteriorates their mental health. Some of these jobs provide access to therapy although often employees don't know how to get it. The repercussions of this work can be a lifelong struggle.

Area 2

While I am grateful that I can use Facebook or Instagram for the most part, without coming across something that is offensive or disturbing I do feel sad for those who work this type of job. There have been times where I have come across something on social media that was disturbing to me. It made me sick to my stomach to see that kind of violence. I can't even fathom what it would be like to look at that kind of content hour after hour and day after day. They would eventually be desensitized to it and feel more numb to it but that can't be healthy. I'm just having a hard time grasping the idea that my good experience comes at the cost of another human being's mental health. 

Where the Cloud Rises from the Sea

 Where the Cloud Rises from the Sea

Area 1:

In the article where the cloud rises from the sea, it tells the story of the small town called Point Arena. Point Arena is a location where undersea internet cable comes out of the ocean and connects to land. Being a small town Point Arena has limited access to the internet despite being the location of a cable landing. Big companies have come in and torn up roads to lay cable through their town to supply other locations but have not supplied this town with the infrastructure to be able to have access saying it would be too expensive to do so. Although some smaller businesses are trying to help remedy the lack of connectivity here there is still a struggle because the large comp[anies are restricting their access.

Area 3:

 

While I think being able to have good access to the internet could help this town in many ways there's also the side of the big companies. AT&T is first and foremost a business. So to completely fault them for considering the costs of supplying this town with the infrastructure is not completely fair. Is this small town going to pay to have it installed? It's completely natural for any business to consider costs for certain projects and decide to move forward with it or not depending on those costs and whether that investment will have a good return. So while it would be a nice thing for AT&T to do, it's not their responsibility to do so. Just because a Large company is successful and has the means to do something doesn’t necessarily mean they should, making these kinds of choices is what allowed them to get to where they are in the first place. If they make an exception here and provide without return they will also be expected to do it again. 

Remediating Social Media

Area 1

In the article Remediating Social Media by Annemarie Bridy, she discusses the history of internet regulation and regulation of free speech on social media. She talks about the threat that large internet-based companies impose on the internet community and the amount of control they have over the internet. She touches on net neutrality and the effects of paid prioritization. She also discusses the issue of censorship on social media. Social internet platforms have mediation for content posted to their site but the quality of this mediation varies from site to site. The differences in interpreting rules regarding censorship are an issue that needs to be resolved. While there have been improvements in the quality of mediation on social media it's still an issue.


Area 2

I do think there could be better rules and regulations for censorship on social media. While there have been improvements in the rules and regulations there's still more to be done. I think equal regulation across all platforms could be helpful because there would be clear and concise rules that would help protect users and providers alike. I think we do need to do more research on the issues of the current forms of mediation on social media to find the main issues in what is censored and what isn't. We always need more understanding of the issues to make a better-informed decision of how to resolve the issues at hand, especially since the online world is changing at such a fast rate.

Metaphors We Live By

Area 1:

In Metaphors We Live By Lakoff and Johnson discuss the way we communicate using metaphor. They say that the way we comprehend concepts is metaphorical. This means we use one idea to understand another. They push the idea further by saying that we relate a system of concepts with another using orientational metaphor, these references a physical orientation with other concepts. For example, we reference many things with up and down, How we feel, our social status, and our health. They also say that depending on our culture or our lifestyle some metaphors will have a different meaning or some may even base their metaphors on a different concept. Essentially what they are saying is that as humans we use relationships between things or ideas to learn and to understand one another.

Area 2:

I do agree that most of our understanding of concepts is found using metaphors. Also, I found it interesting how unaware I was of how much we use metaphors in our everyday conversation. While reading through the excerpts I was remembering all the times I had used any of the phrases they used as examples just that day. I had just been telling my husband that I was feeling down because my general manager had undermined my authority as assistant manager by validating one of our shift leads' thoughts about how shifts were run before communicating with me about the situation, giving this person a false sense of superiority. There are a few metaphors right there and that's just in one small amount of communication I had that day. I'm always using phrases like I’m fading fast when I'm getting tired. Trying to help someone understand a situation without metaphor would be very difficult. I also think that without metaphor our communication would sound really flat and monotonous. 

Hello My Name is Erikka!

    Hello, my name is Erikka. I live in Richland. I have lived here most of my life. I am married with two beautiful little girls. I am an assistant manager at the Dairy Queen. I have worked there for the past ten years. I am going to school so that I can provide a better life for my family. I enjoy playing video games, right now I'm playing Paper Mario and Animal Crossing. I enjoy reading, I like mystery and suspense and sometimes fantasy. I enjoy creating things like art and crafts, especially drawing and painting. I'm trying to improve my skills in digital art. I just graduated from CBC with an AA with an emphasis in visual arts and transferred to WSU Tri-Cities. I am super excited to get into classes that are more focused on my future career. I want to do something in graphic and web design but I’m not sure the direction I want to take yet.