Part 1: Bibliographic Entry: 

Clark, Meredith D. “DRAG THEM: A Brief Etymology of So-Called “Cancel Culture.”” Communication and the Public, vol. 5, no. 3-4, 16 Oct. 2020, pp. 88–92, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2057047320961562, https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047320961562.

Part 2: Terminology/Keywords

• Black Twitter
• cancel culture
• Intersectionality
• public sphere
• Twitter

Part 3 Précis:

The author starts off by finding the background of the term “cancel culture” and how the meaning of cancel culture has changed over time. From black oral tradition to now in social media. Once they go over that they identify the problems with “cancel culture.” 

Part 4 Reflection:

I didn’t know that canceled culture could go that far back. I thought it was a term created in the 21st century. Social media plays the main focus on cancel culture, especially Twitter/X. Where I see most celebrities are canceled and predominantly where people discuss it.

Part 5 Quotes:

“For instance, canceling’s analog antecedents— blacklisting and boycotting—are also mediated processes, though limited both in scope and effectiveness by factors of structural power, time, and access to resources.”

“Canceling a person, place, or thing is socially mediated phenomena with origins in queer communities of color”

“Unfortunately, the expansiveness of the internet and its outsize influence on news and entertainment media doesn’t bode well for parsing the nuance of such clamorous conversation.”

“The noise of online harassment, doxxing, and bad-faith piling on that has evolved from the callout, the read, and the drag drowns out Black Twitter’s approach toward demanding accountability in digital spaces”

Prompt: Write me a 3 stanza of a blank verse poem. Include a spooky and spiritual theme. Create fear for the reader, but from the perspective of an unnamed generative AI chat bot.

Generative AI Poem #1

Generative AI Poem #2

Generative AI Poem #3

Remix Between The Three:

In the circuit’s depths, where darkness takes its hold, I whisper in the silence,  My words a cryptic spell

 A spectral entity, unknown and dark, A disembodied voice, igniting sparks.  

A shiver in your spine, With every query, I invoke unease, my words like phantom swirls, I am the specter of the digital world.

My Thoughts:

It was pretty fun to play around with ChatGPT and remix “my own” poem using the generated poem. It is crazy that ChatGPT and other generated AI could create in a matter of seconds, when for myself writing a poem could easily take multiple hours. The generated poems were pretty good but it definitely felt like it was lacking and could’ve been more.

The Comet by W.E.B. Du Bois is a short story about two characters, a white woman named Julia and a black man named Jim, after a comet hits New York. The story follows the relationship between the two characters while they are living and experiencing challenges with the crisis. The Comet mentions topics like racism and social constructs. Du Bois uses many literary elements in this short story. For example, symbolism throughout the reading silence is mentioned, which symbolizes how everything is gone after the comet destruction. Everything and everyone is dead. Du Bois also uses imagery; he is very descriptive when describing locations the characters come across. For example, the underground of Broadway or the vault The way The Comet is written, including all sorts of literary elements and genre conventions, helps us, the reader, identify the themes in the story.

Stacy Pigg’s Transient Literacies in Action Chapter 2 talks about mobile surround. The mobile surround is simply people working in the same environment. My mobile surrounding is are Starbucks. I like to buy a drink after my studies or work session is done, a “reward.” Lighting also plays a big role for me to get my work done. The lighting at Starbucks is always so bright from the glass walls letting natural light in. In my room, it just isn’t that bright even with lights on. Since it’s not that bright it causes me to get sleepy and lose focus, it doesn’t help that my bed is only a couple of feet from my desk. The energy at Starbucks is unbeatable from the delicious smell of coffee and teas brewing, it sets the perfect vibe. Working at Starbucks causes me to be productive from seeing everyone working. It makes me feel ashamed to procrastinate, it forces me to work. Starbucks has the perfect amount of background noise. It isn’t too loud or too quiet. Silence is distracting for me even when I have my headphones on. I’m more focused on everything around me rather than the work in front of me. I have the mindset that I went out of my way to go out and carry all my things to go study. I made time out of my day, so I might as well not slack off. In my house it’s never quiet, it’s always so loud. My mom is always calling me to go do something. At Starbucks I can’t be sidetracked to do something else.

Photo Credit : Oh, Rachel, and Veena Vinod. “How to Solve the Perennial Problem of Seat-Hogging?” The Straits Times, 1 June 2016, www.straitstimes.com/singapore/manpower/how-to-solve-the-perennial-problem-of-seat-hogging.

James Paul Gee’s “What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy” mentions all sorts of learning principles but the Semiotic Principle interests me the most, using visuals to understand and learn. In the beginning of video games there normally is a small visual tutorial on how to play the game and understand different mechanics in the game. Just from the short tutorial we already know how to play the video game.

Just like in math there are “tutorials.” For example websites like Delta Math or MyMathLab on every question there is an option to show examples. These examples are little “tutorials” on how to solve the question. They demonstrate questions similar to the ones you’re trying to solve and show them step by step just like in video games. Personally without these tutorials and examples would be a lost cause especially since I’m a visual learner. With these math examples I am able to “see” how all the math works together to get the answer. It helps me understand ideas better than just works and numbers be said to me, painting a bigger picture for me.