Tuesday, February 1, 2011

What was I so afraid of?

Ok, I will admit it, sometimes I am stubborn and resistant to new things. And, with the overwhelming about of tasks and new information coming at me this semester, this first project in 516 was terrifying to me. I have been stalling and stalling and trying to find anything else to do but to log into Delicious or post another blog or figure out what Google Reader is all about. I have started blogs before, but never had any sort of consistency with writing in them. And, I am a regular user of Facebook and I also have a Twitter account ... I don't tweet much, but I do follow a lot of people. So, when we were supposed to make a proposal for our first project, I kind of felt like, "isn't this enough? I mean, how much more information can I REALLY take in??"

Well, the answer to this, I am finding, is a lot, actually - as long as it is organized. I am falling totally and completely head-over-heals in love with Google Reader. I can get glimpses of information and decide what I really need to read and what I can just pass right over. And, I am really starting to enjoy the organization Delicious provides me as well. Now I don't have to print out articles, I can bookmark them and there they are whenever I need them. So, now I can filter the amount of information that is coming to me ... and, when I am ready for more, I can make that happen, too.

I guess the moral of the story for me is that even though I feel resistant, it doesn't hurt to take some time with something to figure out if it is worth it or not. If it isn't, I can move on. I just have to keep this in mind as I go back and re-read Heidegger. I think I like what he's saying, but I'm not quite sure because I don't think I completely understand it yet.

2 comments:

  1. re: "I just have to keep this in mind as I go back and re-read Heidegger. I think I like what he's saying, but I'm not quite sure because I don't think I completely understand it yet."

    I don't recommend dwelling on this too much, Becky. This is an article that is stylistically swimming, so it's understandable that we would experience a bit of drift when we read it. A couple of key issues here are that he wants to distinguish technology and essence of technology. And he also wants to link technology to a couple of verbs: reveal, unconceal, and enframe.

    This entry in general reassures me that you are finding some inroads with these practices. I wholly agree that filtering is crucial here, and we must be willing to filter (as we, "Mark All as Read," if we have any chance of building sustainable habits online.

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  2. I'm glad I'm not the only one who was feeling a little hesitant and resistant with all this stuff. It has taken me longer to get into Google Reader than you (notice I'm only now replying to this post...), but I do feel like I am learning a TON through this process.

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