Final Blog Post: Individual Response to Essay Exhibit Pieces

For the last week of class, we were able to introduce our final essays to our peers during essay exhibits.  It is interesting to see topics that stood out and to which topics other's chose to learn more about.  Four classmates and projects that I found interesting were Hayley W's "Is Social Media Destructive?", Ryan B's "Games as Art," Rob H's "Video Games as Digital Narratives" and Connor C's "Virtual Reality: Modern Training."  

Coca-Cola ad from the 1890's

"Is social media destructive?"

Hayley's topic is clear from the beginning.  She seems to have a focused understanding of the concepts she is covering.  She points out that there are both positive and negative aspects which social media has on humanity.  She will discuss how advertising is used on social media platforms and compare it to historically relevant forms of advertising.  She will also discuss how self identity is related or used in advertising on both social media and historic platforms.  She believes that social media can be destructive, but it is mainly dependent on each user as an individual.  She also discusses that social media can be a good educational tool if used properly.  The last main idea is that social media is a tool for merging cultures and ideas.  This is an important subject to address because society is experiencing the effects of social media right now.   



"Games as Art"

A scene from the game, Monument Valley.

Ryan has a well articulated topic for his final essay.  He takes the stance that video games should be considered works of art.  He supports this by explaining that games provide a "rich and meaningful experience."  Included in this idea, players should feel immersed in the virtual world, experience an emotional response and gain a new understanding of themselves and the world around them.  He then explains that the aesthetic portion of the video game just adds to the artistic concept.  This is an interesting discussion which challenges what should be considered art.  It also peaks an interest into the possibilities of artistic work future game developers might create.  








"Video Games as Digital Narratives"

A scene from the game, Fallout 4.

Rob will be discussing video games as digital narratives for his final paper.  He emphasizes that video games play large role in our society.  Games offer many different perspectives to play in and they also offer the player to control the course of action in a game.  Some of these games even have an open story line which the player can completely control.  In his paper he will compare the different narrative options in popular games such as Fallout 4, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Grand Theft Auto 5.   Having the option for multiple different outcomes is completely different from a traditional narrative.  I will be interesting to read Rob's analysis of narratives in games.  

Members of the U.S. Military are using augmented reality in training.

"Virtual Reality: Modern Training"

Connor will be discussing virtual reality and how it is used in modern training for his final paper.  He explains that augmented reality is used in police, military and correctional officer training programs.   Using virtual reality in training programs can provide multiple scenario challenges for situations such as traffic stops, domestic violence incidents and active shooter incidents.  This virtual training provides opportunities in a way that they can experience many different things in one room.  This is cost and space efficient.  This is an interesting topic and one we are sure to hear more about as virtual reality is becoming more well know and used resource.   



Having the opportunity to discuss digital humanities topics with classmates provided insight to important subjects.  The digital humanities are an important and broad field of studies.  


By: Mary-Lynn