Blog/Unit Reflection (I wanted to come up with a better title, but unfortunately that was not meant to be...)

How has this unit been for me? I have really, really enjoyed it. There have been so many issues brought to my attention that I would have never thought about on my own. And I feel like the tute group we had was really really insightful. Sometimes I end up in tutes where no one really wants to say anything, so I say things, and then I feel like I’m the only one speaking, and then it gets awkward..... Not so with this tute! In my eyes anyway...

Are we cyborgs? I guess I would have to say that in my particular work environment, yes I am. I work at KFC, and I generally spend most of my time being the voice that comes through the speaker-box, pleasantly asking you to place your order when you are ready. As you rarely see me, you probably don’t see (but do logically realise) that I wear a headset, without which I could not do my job. I spend the majority of my shift with this headset attached to me, binging away in my ear whenever a car reaches said speaker-box. And in my daily life, I am connected to some form of technology most of the time. If it’s not me listening to my mp3 player while sitting in the library, it’s me obsessively checking my phone in case someone messages me. Ditto for emails. And Facebook. But does this make me a hybrid in my everyday life? I don’t believe it does. When I get to the point that I cannot live my life without technology (like I can’t do my job without it), it will be a sad day. But I think that is when I would classify myself a cyborg.

Has blogging been successful for me? I would have to say no. I have enjoyed the experience, and I think it can be a valuable tool for learning at uni (especially seeing as class sizes are increasing), as it allows a space for people who don’t usually engage in the discussion to get involved. That being said, I personally feel a bit uncomfortable with it. I have found that I struggle to come up with coherent sentences; there are so many times when I have deleted whole paragraphs and left out ideas just because I felt like I couldn’t express the ideas without sounding stupid or pretentious. For some reason, it’s always one or the other with me. Also, in a tute, if you say something that doesn’t go quite right, there is no written record of it, it generally just stays behind in the room. But with the blog, there is not only our tute as an audience, but also any random stranger who may find themselves looking at the blog. That’s a bit disconcerting. But on the plus side, I can now make active hyperlinks!! Sometimes you just need to celebrate the small achievements in this life. So will I start a blog? At this point, I highly doubt it. I think I will just leave that to the experts, and go and play a quick round of Tetris on Facebook.