Hello visitors!
Emma here. Since August of 2017, I've been pursuing a doctoral degree at a state-funded research institution in the Midwest. I'm a Northeastern transplant, which essentially means I come off as… “brash” in these parts. Don't let my tough exterior fool you -- I'm really just a kind-hearted person trying desperately to do my part in saving the world.
The thing is, I don't take saving the world lightly.
I've always been intrigued by people - why they do the things they do, how they get to the places they are, where they will go in the future, and WHY it seems so difficult for people from different backgrounds to understand each other. Truly, this comes from a belief that at the end of the day, we are all the same. We all have the same or quite similar biological components: we are all born, we all have brains and blood and breath… we have all been and we all are and we all will be.
Perhaps most importantly, we all have hearts – literal ones, surely, that keep us alive – but also loving ones that, on our best days, support everything and everyone that we care about in the world.
Each time I'm asked to describe my research, I have a hard time summarizing what it is I'm trying to do here. Today I'd say that in the vaguest and truest terms, I study how love interacts with technology: how our care and concern for the people around us is both enabled and constrained by the tools we’ve created to make our day-to-day lives a little bit easier, or more comfortable, or more.
When I say 'around us,' I don’t just mean those in close geographic or virtual proximity that we choose to or are required to interact with daily. I mean everyone. Every person that lives or has lived or will live.
Since I can remember, I have been deeply moved by others’ emotions. It is this connection I feel with my fellows that propels my current research. With a background in performing arts, cultural studies, and philosophy – and a special focus in epistemology and ethics – I have always been committed to human things. As a girl, I wanted to be a lawyer; I wanted to rid the world of all the injustices I knew of at the time. Through age, I realized there were far more than I anticipated, and that there would always be more I hadn't learned about. Countless crimes against humanity. For a while I turned angry and cold on the inside. I felt hopeless and afraid
With gratitude, I can say now that it was the love of other people that rescued me from fear.
I was fortunate enough to be raised in creative, inspiring, and passionate environments where people loved me and believed in me and told me I was special. I realized I couldn’t rid the world of all its injustice, but that I could do my part with the guidance of other people fighting for others around them. We are all only a part.
While I don’t think everyone needs to be believed in or told they’re special to live a happy life, I do believe everyone needs love. The thing is…well, the thing is things, and the greed that things bring.
Emma here. Since August of 2017, I've been pursuing a doctoral degree at a state-funded research institution in the Midwest. I'm a Northeastern transplant, which essentially means I come off as… “brash” in these parts. Don't let my tough exterior fool you -- I'm really just a kind-hearted person trying desperately to do my part in saving the world.
The thing is, I don't take saving the world lightly.
I've always been intrigued by people - why they do the things they do, how they get to the places they are, where they will go in the future, and WHY it seems so difficult for people from different backgrounds to understand each other. Truly, this comes from a belief that at the end of the day, we are all the same. We all have the same or quite similar biological components: we are all born, we all have brains and blood and breath… we have all been and we all are and we all will be.
Perhaps most importantly, we all have hearts – literal ones, surely, that keep us alive – but also loving ones that, on our best days, support everything and everyone that we care about in the world.
Each time I'm asked to describe my research, I have a hard time summarizing what it is I'm trying to do here. Today I'd say that in the vaguest and truest terms, I study how love interacts with technology: how our care and concern for the people around us is both enabled and constrained by the tools we’ve created to make our day-to-day lives a little bit easier, or more comfortable, or more.
When I say 'around us,' I don’t just mean those in close geographic or virtual proximity that we choose to or are required to interact with daily. I mean everyone. Every person that lives or has lived or will live.
Since I can remember, I have been deeply moved by others’ emotions. It is this connection I feel with my fellows that propels my current research. With a background in performing arts, cultural studies, and philosophy – and a special focus in epistemology and ethics – I have always been committed to human things. As a girl, I wanted to be a lawyer; I wanted to rid the world of all the injustices I knew of at the time. Through age, I realized there were far more than I anticipated, and that there would always be more I hadn't learned about. Countless crimes against humanity. For a while I turned angry and cold on the inside. I felt hopeless and afraid
With gratitude, I can say now that it was the love of other people that rescued me from fear.
I was fortunate enough to be raised in creative, inspiring, and passionate environments where people loved me and believed in me and told me I was special. I realized I couldn’t rid the world of all its injustice, but that I could do my part with the guidance of other people fighting for others around them. We are all only a part.
While I don’t think everyone needs to be believed in or told they’re special to live a happy life, I do believe everyone needs love. The thing is…well, the thing is things, and the greed that things bring.
Things – from natural resources
to symbolic texts to artifacts to digital technologies – both bring people together
and separate people from each other. I am concerned that gaps between people continue
to widen because of the things we’ve created. I am worried that if we don’t
make a concerted effort – not only to care about people, but to fight
for those less fortunate who are survivors of injustice and whose ancestors
were victims of the same – those who cannot fight for themselves – that we – as
a species – will lose our humanity. I think its time to flip the script on things.
I’m hoping this course will allow me to see the positive aspects of digital
technologies, and bring me closer to understanding how to use these
technologies to build – in Gramsci’s words - universalizing alliances.
Some questions I have going forward:
Is it possible to map an affective
landscape of a Social Network Site?
If so, what might the best tool or tools
be?
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