Intentional Illiteracy

My history with the internet is deep.  I've had accounts with hotmail, gmail, juno, aol, myspace, comcast, apple, battlenet, paypal, ebay, youtube, facebook, netflicks, hulu, BYU, BYU - Computer Science, and many more websites that I can no longer remember.  I have dumped countless hours into many of these accounts, some with great pay off to me personally (time spent using my Computer Science account on campus at BYU), while others have been nothing
but a waste of time (the Mafia Wars app on facebook, thankfully I have been able to avoid FarmVille).

Periodically I go through my activity online and attempt to prune out behavior that is wasteful.  I have removed apps from facebook, uninstalled programs on my computer, and taken steps that help me to get away from my computer.  I prefer chatting with friends in person, and have gone to great lengths to actually visit people when I want to communicate.  This behavior is often appreciated, although when useful tasks are accomplished, I am often asked to send followup emails.

In contrast with my repeated efforts to disconnect and pull out of the digital world, I have had several classes that have emphasised involvement in the online community.

This emphasis has been underlined by repeated requirements to create a blog, write on it often, and read and comment on the blogs of others.  This blog fills one such requirement.

The difference between this blog and either of my other two: In The Know(ledge) & Objective Objections to Obtuse Objectives, is that I am treating this assignment as a personal experiment.  During these next few months I intend to immerse myself in the blog community with the omnipresent behaviour of FarmVille citizens.  I will attempt to identify positive side-effects in my life, and highlight interesting posts that I see online.  Of course, I will have required posts in response to class expectations.  In addition, I will post conclusionary notes when I have finished the class, reporting on my opinion of the blogging community, and whether I intend to continue posting for the world to see.