Digital Culture: my weaknesses and strengths

This post was inspired by Ash's recent post. I loved reading about how she has seen herself interacting with digital culture. Her post also got me thinking about how I have interacted with digital culture myself.

Creating has always been my greatest weakness when it comes to digital culture. I have always been reluctant to share my thoughts and ideas with faceless entities. I can still remember when I was first experiencing the internet and how careful I was told to be about not sharing my identity. My mom wouldn't pay with a credit card online for years and years. I think as a result of this, I always have a niggling doubt at the back of my mind telling me that it's wisest simply to observe. That way there is no possibility of negative consequences.

Connecting is another aspect of digital culture that I struggle with. Even though I have a Facebook page, I am really pretty terrible at updating my status or responding to others' comments. Even though I have a cell phone, I am similarly unreliable at answering texts. I vastly prefer to pick up my phone and call my friends. I prefer to read comments left by others at the end of news stories, but I never feel tempted to type back and connect to people whose views I agree or disagree with.

Consuming is my strongest point when it comes to digital culture. However, it took Professor Burton's lecture in class on Wednesday for me to realize how much I actually consume. I have always assumed that since I don't really do the whole social media thing, I was keeping myself pretty well isolated from the world of digital culture. Even my phone is one of the old flip phones from before iPhones got so popular. However, now I see how very mistaken I was. I am connected to digital culture all the time. I get on my computer every single day. If I ever need to look up instructions of how to do something, I consult the internet. If I am curious about the plot of a movie but don't want to actually take the time to watch it myself, I consult Wikipedia. I consume digital culture every day of  my life. It is a bit mind-boggling to realize how much I have been connected to it without ever realizing.

I am interested to continue to learn about digital culture. More importantly, I am interested in actively learning about it rather than passively being influenced by it without even realizing.