Yamamoto: Intermission 2 - Story 2

Maddie Baum
Yamamoto: Intermission 2 - Story 2

A) My personal experience with the ability to develop complex interpersonal relationships across virtual spaces is a very prominent aspect of my life. I question, why? And strongly believe it is because of how individuals in my age group revolve many social aspects through social media and the idea of staying constantly connected with one another. The relationships that I have made through virtual spaces have helped me stay connected with individuals no matter the distance, which I have become very appreciative of. I love being able to stay connected not only by chatting online with my friends, but also being able to see what individuals are doing through photos and videos. I have met and built relationships online that have continued to build today. I met one of my past significant others through a virtual space, which I never thought to happen to me, but it did. I was very appreciative of that relationship because it became fully real. I've also met more people that attend DU through virtual spaces that I would never find myself to actually run into them naturally through campus.

B) Three Historical Events:

1. The invention of the Kindle - I found this historical event in the digital world to be important to bring up because of how it eliminated the sense that we need paperback in order to read novels. Yamamoto in this chapter how even in this electronic age, plenty of people preferred to have their books on the printed page. I think that the invention of this proves that even in our tech savvy world that we live in today, there are still implications that individuals make to keep astray. I really enjoy the importance of this point that Yamamoto made by saying this due to us having such a reliance on technology.


2. The invention of Social Media - I found this to be an incredibly important historical event to highlight in a vast majority of Yamamoto's points that she makes. In this chapter specifically, she discuses how NONMaRS allows you to present yourself online with the "idealized" you, giving you almost a false identity of yourself. I thought that this was incredibly interesting to reflect on because of how much we as millennials value how we are perceived online. "In whatever area I played, I consistently chose a persona with immense physical prowess. Because I wasn't able to run free to my heart's content in the real world, I alleviated my unhappiness and feelings of inferiority by playing a character that was my polar opposite" (75). I really enjoyed this quote because it helped me reflect on how our identities online may be a false perception of that, and the invention of social medias is the source behind this.

3. The invention of the iPhone -  Toward the end of the chapter, Yamamoto discussed how while we are alone with no distractions, it is easy to become anxious. I correlated this to myself due to me feeling this commonly when I do not have my phone in public and am alone. We constantly feel the urge to be doing something, in fear of what others will think of us. "I grew anxious and began to fidget. I put a hand on my bracelet phone and activated the watch function. It vibrated to tell me that it was two minutes before two" (83). I think that the invention of the iPhone is a perfect example of our reliance on technology and the addiction that we have towards our cellphones. I do not think that staying connected constantly with others is a bad thing, but the anxiety around it may be.


C) In my reflection on what it means to be learning about digital cultures through a book that is not only fiction, but is also a translation and an anthology is incredibly personable to me. I really value the importance of different learning styles and techniques for students. I have found this to be a challenging, interesting and different learning style for me which I have come to appreciate, especially through reading Yamamoto's book. I think this opens the door to creativity of digital culture for students and allows them to expand their mind toward what they can perceive digital culture to be. It is not something that has a specific definition; digital culture means something different to everyone and how they choose to identify themselves within the community. Something that I have come to learn through learning about digital culture through fiction is how it plays different roles in everyone's life. Everyone is impacted by digital culture in some sort of way, whether they know it or not. Even before I took this course and had a basis of understanding of what digital cultures was, I never knew that my perception of a specific topic could broaden as much as it has over the span of a single quarter.