09:33:15 From Daniel Anderson : Is it fair to say that production over consumptions is better for digital literacy?
09:33:58 From Daniel Anderson : I have always used that rubric—thinking that moving people to production is better, but now I’m not sure if that is gendered
09:34:05 From Shawna Sheperd : I would say production is for consumption in digital literacy so that the production must be generative first before anyone can consume …
09:34:42 From Daniel Anderson : So, are you saying that you will be a more critical consumer if you also know how to produce digital materials?
09:34:48 From Danny Eich : Also, in today’s internet culture the lines between production and consumption are for more blurred in my opinion than what the article writes about (thinking about meme culture as an example).
09:34:54 From Carly Schnitzler : I don’t think the production/consumption distinction is necessarily gendered, but perhaps the media of production/consumption is?
09:34:55 From Sabrina Zirkle : Right now, the amount of content being produced is overwhelming. Finding quality content to consume is almost more of a challenge.
09:35:01 From Isabelle Smith : I guess I’m confused about what production means, because I think there is a lot of production going on with women in social media.
09:35:38 From Daniel Anderson : Good point, Sabrina. New content may not be as needed. Kind of like Danny’s point about a less clear distinction
09:36:02 From Isabelle Smith : @Sabrina— I agree. I think it’s more about quality than quantity.
09:36:03 From Daniel Anderson : I’m still stuck on the idea that thinking of production could show a male bias
09:36:37 From Danny Eich : I think a narrow definition of production could show a male bias
09:36:40 From Carly Schnitzler : is there a ‘middle’ category? Curation, maybe?
09:36:50 From Daniel Anderson : I’m really troubled by the idea that casting consuming or curating as feminine is something that might be happening
09:37:15 From Isabelle Smith : @ Daniel Anderson Like the artists are men and the people who work in the gallery are women.
09:37:25 From Isabelle Smith : Kind of a classic trope in museums I think.
09:37:37 From Daniel Anderson : Yes, and the prouduction angle is complicated by ideas of what gets produced as well, I would say
09:38:22 From Daniel Anderson : Isabelle, that makes sense. At one point I was worried in the Takobee article that it was relying too heavily on cultural scripts and gender tropes to make its points
09:38:38 From Carly Schnitzler : and who produces it— https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/laurenstrapagiel/tiktok-algorithim-racial-bias
09:38:57 From Daniel Anderson : Pinterest seemed to be cast as feminine because people were say it was or because women’s productivity has traditionally been devalued
09:39:03 From Shawna Sheperd : i think that inherently there are gender differences that women over a historic amount of time has had to overcome — in the article Takobee suggests that women were seen as passively participating instead of generating active communication
09:39:06 From Jane McGrail : I think Tekobbe’s point about legacy knowledge is really relevant too because it addresses how certain kinds of production might be less valued in the tech world
09:39:29 From Isabelle Smith : I thought the statistic about Git Hub was interesting in terms of production, less than 30% of contributors are women. This was interesting to me because I have a lot of male friends who know what Git Hub is just from social interactions.
09:39:53 From Daniel Anderson : Jane, I agree. I guess I’m wondering how Pinterest then can be reclaimed or celebrated as a new approach
09:40:39 From Daniel Anderson : There is also an interesting overlap with insider knowledge in terms of some of these spaces. If you’ve ever had someone try to explain to you how GitHub works. You may have experienced this
09:41:10 From Daniel Anderson : If it is insider knowledge, coming from a male-dominated sphere already, I can see the way these scripts just get reinscribed?
09:41:49 From Daniel Anderson : Is all if this makes me wonder about a point I had never really thought enough about: Does digital literacy need to be conceived of in gendered terms?
09:42:40 From Daniel Anderson : Maybe we can think about this in tersm of the other key element from Almjed’s piece: curation
09:42:46 From Shawna Sheperd : I do think it needs to be conceived in gendered terms — to address the biases that have existed — Pinterest can be celebrated as a way that shapes user habits and create one’s own identity from the Almjeld article which suggests that Pinterest can be a cultural phenomenon
09:43:07 From Jane McGrail : I liked another point Tekobbe made which was that digital literacy should be assessed based on how well a person uses technology to achieve their own goals. So it’s based on individual learning outcomes which means it doesn’t necessarily have to be gendered, but at the very least individualized in some ways
09:43:46 From Carly Schnitzler : ^^I think this is why Almjed’s conception of curation is really helpful too
09:44:00 From Daniel Anderson : I like those points, Jane and Shawna. So would it be fair to say this can happen on a macro level as well. Pinterest Users should be judged on curation rather than production?
09:44:37 From Daniel Anderson : Of, course, Danny mentioned that curation might be a normal way of working on the internet. Maybe we are becoming less male-scripted if we move toward curation
09:44:56 From Danny Eich : I think it would be fair to say that as URL saving/sharing space, Pinterest should be judged on curation and not production, at least in terms of what it was created for
09:44:59 From Daniel Anderson : Does everyone agree that curation is a kind of composing?
09:45:23 From Isabelle Smith : I also think that Almjeld downplays that amount of translation that happens from Pinterest into IRL spaces. A lot of production happens non-digitally, but linked to Pinterest.
09:45:37 From Danny Eich : ^^ That’s a really good point
09:46:01 From Daniel Anderson : Isabelle, that is interesting to think about the IRL aspects of Pinterest in terms of false binaries about productivity
09:46:05 From Sabrina Zirkle : With the "I tried this" feature on Pinterest, they make you upload a photo to be able to check it off as done. Which is interesting.
09:46:25 From Sabrina Zirkle : Like visual proof is the mark of production
09:46:38 From Daniel Anderson : I haven’t yet seen that feature, Sabrina, but I like where this is leading us. This is not just about pinning pictures
09:46:45 From Carly Schnitzler : This brings up questions of what literacy means, for me
09:47:07 From Carly Schnitzler : Is digital literacy confined to the digital?
09:47:12 From Daniel Anderson : I think this may overlap with the points about identity. If you are constructing an identity, then you are making something
09:47:43 From Shawna Sheperd : I think to be digital literate means you can use it as a spring board and bring it into reality — like using a tool
09:48:02 From Daniel Anderson : Good question, Carly. I also feel similarly about any kind of literacy. If digital literacy is gendered, then it might follow that any literacy would be gendered, or classed etc. And that the literacy and larger IRL aspects would overalp
09:48:28 From Carly Schnitzler : Yes, like other kinds of literacy, i think digital literacy’s boundaries are porous, inviting questions of IRL spillover
09:48:37 From Daniel Anderson : I like these points. Literacy not as a thing, but as a stage in a process or step that gets you somewhere you want to go
09:48:42 From Isabelle Smith : Also what does it mean to be open to “inspiration” or “inspo”? Willing to change your identity, have a mutable identity (maybe more feminist than having a fixed identity that can not be influence)
09:50:08 From Daniel Anderson : I agree. I’ve already been thinking about how you might be able to put into play some of the role-playing, identity fluidity that has been taken about related to the internet for decades by curating. I think Almjed is on point with this
09:50:20 From Daniel Anderson : So, let’s talk about Pinterest.
09:50:40 From Daniel Anderson : First, do we agree that images are gendered more female than texts?
09:50:43 From Sabrina Zirkle : What if the inspiration reinforces traditional gendered scripts? @Isabelle
09:51:44 From Daniel Anderson : Sabrina and Isabelle, that relates to one of the questions that came up in your reading responses: How can consumer or other traditional scripts linked with Pinterest be squared with the subbversive claims related to gender?
09:52:55 From Daniel Anderson : I think it’s worth starting from the idea that curation and images are at least less traditional than say blog postings with heavy text. Whether that casts as feminine vs masculine is also possible
09:53:54 From Danny Eich : Less traditional yes, but I think now curating images is far more popular than textual content online. For example, Buzzfeed News is almost entirely imaged based.
09:54:22 From Isabelle Smith : and instagram and tiktok are also image based!
09:54:32 From Daniel Anderson : I agree, Danny. I think we are moving away from print focuses in general.
09:54:47 From Jane McGrail : That’s a really interesting point. Like maybe less about gender and more about the current cultural context
09:55:08 From Daniel Anderson : So, does this take away from the value of Pinterest as a space for alternative/female identities
09:55:22 From Daniel Anderson : If it even can be thought of as such a space?
09:55:26 From Danny Eich : Or perhaps now that women are more involved in technology the traditional legacy models are being rethought and we are beginning to see those transformations?
09:56:04 From Shawna Sheperd : I think the gender is still important of how it is conceived in the cultural context — Pinterest is predominantly female used but its not solely for females — males have access if they want to use it as well …
09:56:28 From Daniel Anderson : One takeaway from all of this is that things are never usually either/or I can imagine a broader cultural move toward visuals and curation even while Pinterest offers a different space than Reddit, etc
09:56:59 From Shawna Sheperd : which makes me question if male usage of it less because it would be considered less masculine ? in a cultural context while Reddit would be more gender neutral ?
09:57:34 From Carly Schnitzler : i’m still stuck on the point that @Isabelle and @Sabrina made—that Pinterest necessarily traverses analog and digital bc of the nature of its content
09:57:41 From Daniel Anderson : So, I think is a good place to start thinking about how we might test some of these possibilities using Pinterest. We are about to make new profiles. What might be interesting to try out as an identity on Pinterest?
09:58:22 From Daniel Anderson : I agree, Carly. Let’s think about people in the world as we start to experiment with constructed Pinterest identities
09:58:43 From Isabelle Smith : It’s interesting when I searched sports… it came up with a bunch of inspirational images for girls in sports.
09:58:53 From Daniel Anderson : Bricklayer, mechanic, long walker, bird watcher
09:59:22 From Daniel Anderson : Also, age, location, languge
10:00:34 From Daniel Anderson : And a final questions maybe? How much of these IRL aspects are shaped by the virtual feedback? If the sports images come back and reinforce real life, what kinds of agency flow between the virtual platform and the individual?
10:01:01 From Daniel Anderson : If you have a final thought go ahead and write it up and then we will switch to our activities for today.