Welcome to my blog! My name is Morgan and I am a senior at Santa Clara University. I am currently enrolled in English 138, which is a class on Internet Culture and the Information Society. Throughout the course, I kept a blog that includes my analysis and reflection on ten of the readings we did for class. My reading blog is chronological, with the most recent readings we did at the top of the webpage. I enjoyed all of the readings, and found the readings about internet activism and internet leaks to be the most interesting. I recommend all of these readings to get a better idea of Internet Culture in the Information Society.

In my first project, my Cultural Hypertext, I discuss the culture of the virtual world Onverse. I learned about the culture of a virtual world, who plays it, and why people participate in that culture. I created an avatar for myself, and participated in life in Onverse. I met many other avatars and was able to interview a few of them to get a better idea of what they do in Onverse and why they participate in this virtual world over others. This project is really interesting because it provides good insight into a different aspect of the Internet that most people do not know much about.

For my second project, my Tactical Hypertext, I discuss the consequences of texting and driving. I did a lot of research, and explain why texting and driving is such a dangerous problem. There is a lot of research on this topic, so I found many credible sources to use for my project. I focused my research on statistics and the current laws for texting and
driving. After much research, I determined that the best plan of action to decrease the incidence of texting and driving is to require all drivers education and traffic schools to include an entire unit discussing distracted driving and its consequences. I created a provocative video in an effort to inspire others to take action for this cause.

For my third and final project, I did an Analytical Hypertext on Cory Doctorow’s novel, Little Brother. My group and I used Little Brother as a framework to discuss government surveillance and civilian tracking in the USA. In the novel, Doctorow depicts a world in which everyone loses their privacy in the government’s response to a terrorist attack on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge. In our website, my group and I describe what we mean by surveillance and civilian tracking. In particular, we discuss the legalities, ethics, and advantages of tracking.  I also wrote a script and we created a video remix of the sequel, Homeland. Please feel free to explore my webpages and learn about Internet Culture in the Information Society!

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