For years after their creation, electronic video games were thought of as distractions from real life productivity. They were 8-Bit screens filled with ‘bleeps and bloops’ of sound effects and were simplistic in every way, shape, and form compared to the video games of today. However, much like modern day video games, both games from their respective time periods offered continuous stimulation for the gamer. In an excerpt from “Reality is Broken” by Jane McGonigal, the idea of video games becoming a benefit to society is expressed by the author. McGonigal addresses the video game community as a thriving generation in and of itself that is continuing to grow year after year. She also describes the typical gamer as ubiquitous throughout society because everyone and anyone can be a gamer; from middle school teenagers with significant free time in their schedules, to the 9-to-5-ers that play video games for various reasons. The idea that McGonigal is trying to relay to her audience is that gamers are gamers because they see something in video games that is not offered to them in real life: “Gamers want to know: Where, in the real world, is that gamer sense of being fully alive, focused, and engaged in every moment(?)” (McGonigal). So instead of embracing just one culture, a gaming-influenced one or not, McGonigal offers the alternative of integrating gaming aspects into real world life.

While I do not consider myself a gamer, I’ve had nearly every next-generation video game console that has been released in my household, however each console wasn’t purchased for my use, but my fathers instead. My father, a man that works 10-hour days on average, still finds hours throughout the day, and even more time on the weekend, to play his video games. I’ve never seen him purchase a video game and not complete it in a matter of days, if not a week or two. He is extremely tenacious in progressing through his games, but from what he’s told me, his vice with video games is that they are a stress reliever from work. You see, in line with what McGonigal suggests about being stimulated constantly, I believe that my father uses video games to constantly stimulate himself outside of reality for a few hours a day aside from his work-life.

There are individuals like my father who use video games as a distraction from their work lives, but then there are individuals who have turned video games into a major part of their lives by investing significant amounts of their actual savings into virtual goods. These people are the folks that I see McGonigal referencing when she says that certain people have become distracted by the appeal that virtual worlds have to offer in comparison to the real world. Her solution to this conflict of real and virtual cultures is to “provid[e] gamers with better and more immersive alternatives to reality, I want all of us to be responsible for providing the world at large with a better and more immersive reality” (McGonigal). How she plans on integrating gamer-like accomplishments in the real world, I am still unsure of, but personally I wouldn’t mind a society that had certain aspects of video games to them…perhaps a “checkpoint” before every test so I can load at that location if I’m unhappy with my grade!

Source: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/big-book/excerpt-reality-broken

Second Life, for me, is an experience that I thought would be completely unfamiliar. My expectations for Second Life were drawn from stories from the media portraying individuals in real life who created drastically different internet avatars to live their desired lives online. However, in the study “Unintended Outcomes in Second Life: Intercultural Literacy and Cultural Identity in a Virtual World” by William C. Diehl and Esther Prins, a few new and familiar aspects of Second Life were brought to my attention.

“SL is a virtual 3-D online MUVE in which participants create avatars, buy and sell virtual land, start virtual businesses, attend or teach virtual classes, create objects using the in-world tools, and participate in myriad activities limited only by their imagination and building skills” (Diehl and Prins)

This struck a familiar note with me because I used to partake in buying and selling online goods for money in a game called Diablo. I myself did not play this game, but I helped friends purchase online items and flip them for a profit in middle school because I was the only kid with a credit card! While some people will never understand the concept of spending real, physical money, for items that can only be used in an online community, the people that do are truly passionate about the game, or in this case Second Life.

However, what surprised me most was the studies’ interpretation of the benefits SL has for individuals looking to expand their own culture, or discover a new. Diehl and Prins state that SL offers a “… blending of text and audio and varied oral and written communication genres in SL language classes blur the lines between orality and literacy” (Diehl and Prins). This blurring of the lines can help individuals discover a new language, or learn about a new culture, which in my eyes is a truly beneficial aspect of being a member of Second Life.

For years, social media and online communities have existed that give their users a chance  to create an avatar to interact with other individuals in the game. Platforms based on role playing games, or RPG’s, have been popular on the internet for over a decade with games with cult followings such as Diablo, World of Warcraft, and others. However, a recent surge of massively multiplayer games has risen such as Second Life, where users can create an avatar that is representative of themselves, or even an avatar that is drastically different than their real life personas, which creates some sort of appeal in certain individuals.

Creating an avatar on Second Life was relatively straight forward, and the navigation of my character is similar to other online games that I’ve played. However, the world that Second Life takes place in seems unpolished and lacking in interaction, leaving me wanting more out of my experience in the program. Maybe I entered Second Life thinking that it would be much like The Sims, another game where users assume the role of a created avatar, where I would have more control of the environment and the character, but this was not the case with Second Life. Hopefully as I spend a few hours in the Second Life world I will find something with the level of interaction and feedback that I was hoping for, because at the moment I’m having a hard time finding a desire to go back into Second Life and explore on my own free will.

In an article written by Elizabeth Drescher, a religion teacher at Santa Clara University, entitled “Connecting With Teens One Digital Mustard Seed At A Time,” she talks about the distance that has appeared to have grown between teenagers and their religion in which they were raised. Drescher states that nearly “15 percent of people raised as Christians wll become Nones (people who answer “none” when asked with what religion they identify) as adults” in the beginning paragraph of her blog (Drescher). This led me to believe that the entire blog post would be explaining as to how and why individuals have progressed from being religious, to reporting and identifying as non-religious later in their lives. However, much like the title states, Drescher focuses on how individuals in a mentoring role, such as parents and other primary adults that have influences on young adults’ lives, can connect more with teens to keep their faith strong. She references Facebook and filling in which religion the adult follows, proudly displaying this as affirmation for young adults that their faith is something to be proud of.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was expecting this article to be descriptive of how individuals have strayed from their faith and why they recognize themselves as “nones”. I am interested in this topic partially because I am an individual who is not partial to any religion, however I was raised Christian and attended a private, Christian school for 6 years. My straying from religion was mostly due to what Drescher also recognizes as a large factor and that is “A lack of spiritual role modeling among parents and other primary adults” (Drescher). Because many individuals in my family did not practice religion in their lives, and my only experiences with religion were with school (which I absolutely loathed), when I was given the chance to go to public school, I jumped at the opportunity. Since then, I can see in myself that that was the moment when my “faith” took a turn for the worse and I began to lose recognition of any religion to follow.

Source Link: http://blog.newmediaprojectatunion.org/2011/11/connecting-with-teens-one-digital.html

The California Legacy Project, initiated at Santa Clara University, has the direction of informing the masses of the history and legacy of California. It is synonymous that the east coast and New England has more history that is chronicled, shared, and taught throughout the nation than the west coast in general, however it is the California Legacy Project’s goal to inform other Californians of facts and tidbits of information that will foster a better understanding of the history of the state that we live in. The CLP hosts a variety of Podcasts through iTunes which feature one minute and thirty second long clips with interesting facts of California history within them. In their first published Podcast on October 30, 2006, a poem entitled “Facing West”, by Walt Whitman, is read by Terry Biers that dictates a gorgeous California landscape, but not much beyond that. In another Podcast entitled “Derby: “Benicia Nonsense”, the perspective of an individual is narrated during the gold rush and offers a vivid view of California in his time and through his words, but also offers a bit of history that was new to me. I preferred the second Podcast because it offered history of California’s legacy, instead of the narration of a poem and I believe that it is also a better representation of the mission of the California Legacy Project.

I’m not quite sure, but I personally never got into PodCasts for whatever reason(s). I simply saw no use for them because there was never anything that I felt the desire to subscribe to, to listen to. Personally, I’d much rather subscribe to a YouTube channel where I can watch a channel of videos that interest me during my free time instead of listen to a PodCast. However, I just discovered a PodCast that has become a staple in my monthly music fix.

Dada Life’s Podcast is a monthly Podcast that features the electronic music duo, Dada Life, and their live DJ sets. Their sets normally last 45 minutes to an hour, and each month the song contents vary amongst previous sets. It is great to listen to them spin whatever they choose in their podcast, instead of their pre-established sets that they’ve performed at concerts. As an individual who used to DJ, it’s fun to listen to other DJ’s upload their live performances/mixtapes to see how well they incorporate effects and transitions into their sets.

If you are an individual who appreciates electronic music, or are already a Dada Life fan, then I highly suggest their Podcast to anyone looking to discover more music!