START RIGHT HERE.
Our world revolves around technology. Plain and simple, I believe. Although we may not realize it at every waking moment, our lives, from the alarm clock we wake up to in the morning to the last light we see before closing our eyes, are so terribly intertwined with our mobile devices. Being 20 years old, I have yet to remember a day of my life that did not see technology present in one form or another. I believe I speak for most of my generation when I say this. We have dug our roots so deep into the cyber world that we no longer know a life without it. But once upon a time, long, long, ago, the world we know lived beautifully without the presence of technology. Rarely do we stop to think about this time. Granted, learning about and looking back on this time inevitably uses technology just to do so. So, I wonder, what did the world look like back then? How did society function without technology? How would one function without the most advanced products at their fingertips? I aimed to find out.
I have always wrestled with these questions for as long as I can remember. Well, maybe for as long as I was able to understand the depth of what they were truly asking. A turning point in my ever-evolving life as an adolescent had me questioning all the good I believed technology provided to our society. Why wouldn’t we want to hold these technological advances on the highest pedestal possible? I could rattle off reason after reason if you asked me when I was 14. Today, I have a hard time even coming up with a single answer. I could probably come up with a few if I truly tried, but nowadays I find myself finding more and more negative repercussions that come along with the dazzling little blue light.
About a year ago, I was asked to write a piece of immersive journalism, basing my research on the works of Nellie Bly, who admitted herself into an insane asylum for the purposes of writing a first-hand expose on the inner workings of the facility. Adapted to various topics, everything from Miss Bly to “I Ate Like Khloe Kardashian For a Week And This Is What I Learned,” my project manifested into what I have begun calling “The Flip Phone Challenge.” To put it straightforwardly, I used a flip phone for a week and wrote about my experience. I had the absolute best time, despite the many strange faces and looks I received from countless people as I walked down the street talking on my little Nokia.
Fast forward to this past fall when I hoped on Zoom for my first Gateway class for the Minor in Writing, I had no idea I would end up here today. The experimentation process - taking a past piece of writing and turning it into something completely new - was eye-opening for not only myself as a writer, but also for me as an individual interested in our society and technology at large. From developing a podcast to writing a creative piece to finally ending upon this zine here today, I have found the range of genres, inclusive of various rhetorical modes and tones, has allowed me to see the content of my piece from a variety of perspectives. I was able to explore the questions I posed regarding the relationship between society and technology through research of statistics, magazine and newspaper articles, interviews with friends, family, and strangers, and personal introspection. I will be forever grateful for this experience, not only getting to know myself better as a writer and getting to know my subject matter on a deeper level but also getting to engage with our class and share my newfound wealth of knowledge with them, and now, all of you. I hope you enjoy it :)