Digital Literacy History

Sorry again for the lateness of this post, Leandra. Thanks for understanding!



As is considered typical of my generation, I grew up using and interacting with technology, especially computers, in a variety of ways. As a child, these experiences were limited mostly to educational computer games, like Disney’s Magic Artist, Gizmos and Gadgets, and Carmen San Diego: Word Sleuth. Even though my parents’ rules limited the amount of time I spent playing these games, what access I did have to them established very early in my mind an understanding of computers as a tool for creative output. While I couldn’t print out the digital paintings I created on Magic Artist or the reading-based puzzles I would solve to move through Word Sleuth, they still definitely left me with a strong sense of computers as being primarily just new ways for me to play, to explore the possible applications for the materials I was given, and to eventually produce observable results as the result of that exploration.

On a basic level, I think, I still understand computers as a place for creative expression. Obviously, though, school projects, jobs I have held, and my increasing use of technology as a social tool have required that I expand this conceptualization of computers’ primary function. My introduction to technology as a research tool came in late elementary school, when I first started using digital encyclopedias for research for longer projects. In middle school, my parents began allowing me greater access to the internet, which quickly became my major resource for completing research and schoolwork. My use of the internet as a research tool has only grown up to this point, where an honest assessment would require that I label it a reliance. Having access to the larger UCF library and its resources has allowed me to begin shifting back to using more printed materials as references in my work, but for the most part, the internet is still the first and most frequent tool I employ when conducting research now.

In using technology as a social tool, my experience is relatively short compared to my longer history of digital literacy. I got my first email account and AIM screenname at the end of eighth grade, so I have only been socializing via the internet for about six years or so. As with the internet as a research tool, however, my use of it for social networking increased rapidly, probably because I also had a computer of my own by the time I entered high school. Having private, constant access to a computer and my parents’ trust in my discretion meant that my internet exploration was a free, self-guided experience. As I continued using programs like AIM and Gmail to keep in contact with my friends from school, I also started hooking into internet-based social communities, particularly the fan-oriented/fandom spaces on internet forums, Livejournal, and other networking sites. Through my growing involvement in these discussion spaces, my understanding of the internet as an alternative social sphere grew, as did my prior understanding of the digital space as a creative one. In using Livejournal, I learned some basic HTML code and applied it to designing customized layouts for my profile and journal. Additionally, it is almost impossible to be a part of online fandoms without having at least peripheral knowledge of fan-created works—fanfiction, fanart, fanmixes (themed playlists of music compiled for lyrical/emotional relevance to the subject at hand), and various other projects made by fans and shared with other fans as a means of generating further connection over and discussion about the source material. While I was never heavily involved in actually producing these aspects of fandom communities, my experiences with them as a consumer still reinforced that early conceptualization I had formed as a child of the creative possibilities of technology.

It is actually my experience with the discussions I encountered in fandom communities that have most influenced who I am now, both as a person, generally, and as an internet user, specifically. In my senior year in high school, I found a link to a meta post (in fandom, a post focused on presenting in-depth critical analysis of fanworks and/or their source material) in a discussion forum. The post—if I remember correctly, a critique of then-recent increases in slut-shaming language in Supernatural and its fandom—was my first experience with feminist analysis. The points it raised were completely new to me, and, being a bit of a research junkie, I happily read through all of the outside sources referenced/linked to in the original post before starting on research of my own. Since then, I have been a regular participant in the feminist blogosphere (as a reader, at least) and a strong feminist offline. I have also gained a new understanding of the internet as a space for activism. While there are certainly problematic aspects to the connections the internet provides, as a space that provides for those connections to like-minded people and larger movements in the first place, it is a vital tool. I am still working on expanding my knowledge of web design and the intricacies of online communication and politics so that I can better experience these connections, but what I have learned in my relatively brief experience as a member of the online feminist community has been immense, and a huge factor in my development as an individual, online or off.