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Background - I’m Annie (Ann Atwood Massie) and I’m currently a senior at St. Lawrence earning a psychology major and educational studies minor with a focus on child development. Before thanksgiving, I accepted a two year position at the Brunswick School in CT to assistant teach in grades 1-4 and earn my masters degree in general childhood education.

Digital Art & Media - Since I have completed all requirements for my major, I decided to enroll in courses that sounded especially interesting to me for my last semester. After hearing about this course from other students and from the course description, I was excited to take it in order to learn more about digital media and how I can carry it into any future careers (whether that be in education or in marketing, another interest of mine). This course also perked my interest because, being a loyal MAC user, I think I will enjoy learning more about the capabilities of the applications on these computers.

My Technology – I currently own a Mac Powerbook G4 and am in the market for a new camera – hopefully getting one later this week (just have to find the right one).

My History with Art - In terms of art, my mom has always been a strong supporter of the arts and encouraged me to take many courses. During high school, I took a variety of different classes including drawing, painting, book making, jewelry design, photography, and studio art. At St. Lawrence, I’ve taken Studio Art and Survey of Art II. Although I’ve taken many art classes, the only course where I have used a computer to create work was during my photography class when we used digital cameras . . . so I’m hoping this course opens a new door in the art world for me through the use of computers.

Television - I used to barely watch TV at school . . . only two shows that I’m addicted to (Grey’s Anatomy & Gossip Girl). BUT with the new systems at the gym with TV’s attached, I’ve been watching more this year. I would say at least 5 hours but no more than 10 hours a week if I had to guess.

Youtube - I haven’t gotten hooked on this site yet so I’m rarely on it. Only when someone sends me a funny link do I go to it. Sooo probably average of under 2 minutes per week.

Facebook - this is my guilty pleasure and has been the biggest procrastination skill while I’ve been at college. It’s attached to my phone as well, so I check it constantly . . . it’s kind of embarrassing actually!! BUT I do think it is a great way to stay in contact with people from all over the world. So, I don’t feel too badly. To be able to communicate and keep in contact with my siblings in Colorado and my friends in Hawaii to my host family in Denmark, it’s a pretty awesome site. I probably spend an average of 30 minutes per day on this site.

ART- I like making art about life in general. I did a really cool theme of abstract paintings in high school that I really enjoyed doing. Nature is also a great theme for me. I love being outdoors. AND being a psych major, I like making art about people.

Reading - I like reading for pleasure. Whether that mean the New York Times bestseller list, beach reads, the daily paper, or gossip magazines.

Thoughts – I like thinking about my friends, family, my future, any personal goals I have, what I’m doing next, where I’d like to travel to, why people do what they do… etc.

Digital Culture - To me, I’ve grown up with digital culture. In lower school, we were immediately taught how to use computers and learned quickly. From there on out, the increase in technology has only allowed us to expand our ways of ditial communication. As I said before, one of my main ways of keeping in contact with people around the world is through the world wide web. Email, facebook, skype, etc. has allowed me to stay in contact with just about anyone I want to. It has also influenced me in my shopping habits (why would you go to the store if you can order it online?), how I research, and simply how I get the everyday news (The New York Times). Digital media has actually probably made us increasingly more lazy over the years in the sense that we can do everything with the click of a mouse.

On another note, I do think it has taken away part of overall human communication. Everything is very informal now, with emails, text messages, facebook messaging, etc. It’s hard for me to not call someone and hear their voice allowing me to hear their expression and tone as well as the words they are saying. This is something that you can’t judge from an email (for example) which has caused me some times of confusion and error on my behalf of what someone is trying to communicate with me about or what I’m trying to say to them.

Lastly, I want to touch on observations on children: it’s interesting to me how children react to the digital culture. The newest phone or application will come out and they are faster at figuring it out than their parents. Maybe because this is because children’s activities now days are very much so influenced by television, video games, and computers.