Wk 15- Classmate Conversation- Nicole Chovit

This week I was absolutely stoked to meet Nicole. By random chance I asked her if she’d like to do the classmate conversation with me, and we were each ecstatic when we discovered that the other was a graduating senior as well.  Nicole explained that she had been wondering who the other one was all semester, so it was great to finally meet each other. Wish it could have happened sooner!

Nicole is a human development major. She has a boyfriend that, like mine, also speaks Spanish. She would love to improve her Spanish fluency to perhaps eventually be able to use it in her career. Nicole was born here in long beach and has one younger sister and two older step sisters. Nicole is definitely a cat person but is starting to think she might want a dog soon. Nicole is going straight into grad school after this semester so that she can eventually be a LCSW (licensed clinical social worker).

Wk 14- Art Experience- Sketching in the Garden

This was my all time favorite art experience! I love drawing and I love nature and this was the perfect combination of the two! I’m so happy I had this experience to get me back in the beautiful Japanese Garden before I graduate! I actually have a deep connection to this garden because my Freshman year I was cast in a dance department piece that was site specific. We performed an improvised dance in the garden with live music. It felt like full circle returning to the Japanese Gardens 🙂 My sketching was challenging at first because I can be pretty hard on myself because I love art so much. But once I surrendered to my pen and paper I was totally therapeutic and completely enjoyable. Both the abstract photos and drawing were the most challenging for me because I am a pretty literal and logical individual. My last drawing was of a coy fish and I got so enwrapped in it that I took it home as a work in progress and have been adding to it all weekend. Hoping to have it done by Sunday night 🙂

 

Wk 14- The Secret Lives Response- E.C.

WOW. I’m really glad I took the time to read that article. It was lengthy as hell, and I’m not gonna lie, I almost gave up to just skim a few times but I’m glad I didn’t. The title was a great hook to get me interested and right off the bat, I agreed with many of the authors points about how there is always someone with more out there. And that goes for just about everything. These days it feels like teenagers are obsessed with the idea of “basic”. This idea that there is such a promonent “norm” that will ensure coolness. This idea of basic I feel ties into Reeve’s point that teens love this idea of being epically relatable in every way possible. I can honestly say I have never had a tumbler or really been even remotely interested it it. However I did find all of the drama around Pizza and Jess Miller, to be quite fascinating. There was one point in the blog where Reeve’s dishes out a couple stereotypes about each social media network, and I actually agreed pretty much one hundred percent with her conceived stereotypes. This article also made me realize how there is really a webpage for almost anything these days. You think of it…..its already been thought of…is what its beginning to feel like. I loved the part of the article where Reeve explains that a difference in Tumbler is that it actually gives credit where credit is due. It seems that rather than appropriating ideas like many other social networking sites, Tumbler actually gives exposure to the creator.

The part of the article where Reeve explains teens are said to be “better marketers than anyone is the game”. This was mesmerizing to be because I have never really connected social networking say-ness to brilliance. However I guess when examining closely teenagers really are advancing like crazy in that field.

I found it to be very striking the idea that “haters ate more loyal than fans” however it does make sense when I think about it more. On Instagram I occasion click the pull down bar on comments of famous people I follow and it boggles me how many haters incessantly post comments there.

The racial comment Miller made, I agree was inappropriate but I was thoroughly impressed with how maturely she was able to look back and reflect on it with regret and disappointment. It was also astonishing to me that at 16 Miller was making more than her own mother was. This is definitely a testament to something, although I’m not sure that it’s “brilliance”, per-say. Also the diet pill scandal was pretty outrageous to me. I think it’s pretty low of adult to falsely advertise diet pills to young teens in a place they are most impressionable i.e. Tumbler.

The conclusion of the entire article was very moving to me. I honestly kind of even for the chills reading that last paragraph. Funny thing, I actually contemplated sharing it on Facebook because of how interesting I found it to be, but it also seems a bit too ironic.

I am posting the conclusion here just because I found it so captivating: “At first you loathe the teens, because you know nothing about them and think they’re idiots, beneath you. Then you love the teens because you figure out they are smarter than you, and you make peace with the death of your cultural relevance, because you know you’ll be in good hands. Finally, you recognize the shape of the adults they’ll become, corrupted by money and vanity and hubris just like everyone else. And you’ll see yourself in them because they’re relatable: That moment you realize the teens are just like you.” Elspeth Reeve