How are digital tools changing vlogging?
How are digital tools changing vlogging?
The community we chose to look into was r/Anticonsumption. This subreddit was full of tons of different types of people. Some people were looking for advice on how to repair something, as to save money or prevent throwing it away. Others were there to vent about how corporations and the government is doing a terrible job in handling consumerism. I personally was interested to see what really constitutes "anticonsumption". The first thought that came to mind was food waste or something similar.
A good amount of posts on this subreddit focus on exposing everyday examples of excessive or unnecessary consumption. With most covering wasteful product use or how to refurbish something so it will last you longer. The community encourages users to rethink these bad habits of consumption. But will also roast those who don't agree with what anticonsumption stands for.
The biggest thing that users will criticize are corporations, advertisements, or new tech. For example, most discussions around environmental impact often go farther beyond products to include the AI, or food industry. The community focuses on systemic issues rather than individual choices.
The general consensus that I have seen from this subreddit is a mix of criticism and sarcasm. Some users will actually be helpful and educate newer users of the subreddit. But often times users will criticize others instead of aiming to encourage change.
vibecoded using ChatGPT.
To answer my earlier question of what constitutes "anticonsumption". I think it involves a wide mix of people with different ideas of what anticonsumption really is. While there were a lot of posts I could see myself relating to, where it was genuinely something that helped the environment, or someone repaired a shoe so it lasted longer. It's the small things that we can do as people to keep the earth healthy and better ourselves by keeping good habits, that's what stood out to me the most from looking at this subreddit. On the other side, there are a lot of judgmental people who try to push their views and opinions onto other people. While I wasn't completely surprised by this (I mean it is reddit..) It was still frustrating to see that a community that means well is infested with some crappy people.
In Will’s piece on Disney culture, I ended up having a negotiated reading. I think he makes a lot of strong points about how massive Disney has become and how it’s basically created its own culture over time. Disney has definitely been super influential for my generation.
One example of this is the sheer amount of Disney merch that is out there. A good example is Frozen. When that movie came out, it felt like it was everyone had the latest new thing. Kids had Frozen backpacks, Frozen lunchboxes, Frozen toys, they had FROZEN CONDENSED SOUP. It just goes to show how Disney isn’t only making movies, they’re creating an entire culture around their stories.
But where I start to disagree with Will’s argument is when he pushes it further and suggests that Disney almost makes life decisions for people, or compares Disney culture to something like religion. That felt a little extreme to me. While Disney is definitely powerful and very influential, I don’t think it controls people’s personal beliefs or life choices to that level.
DoorDash has tons of places to order from. So I could not find a great disabling affordance that stuck with me.
One thing I did find out while browsing through the app was how there is not a great way to see how much you have spent in total. There is receipts for individual purchases but there isn't a page or menu for your statistics.
DoorDash has had a significant impact on the food service industry. Considering you can order from almost any restaurant in your area. Users can even order flowers and power tools. There is such a wide variety of products that you can have delivered straight to your door. When I was looking through the app, I recorded a video of all the different places you can order from and the amount of stores that were not food related surprised me.
The app design of DoorDash is very colorful and intuitive. They make it really easy to see what options are available around you. The immediate visual cues of all the different types of cuisine is a nice touch that incentivizes people's cravings. All of the buttons are nice and simple, but easy to understand. The menu's on the top and bottom are also simple but functional. The bottom menu bar has all of the main pages you would want to be in. With the homepage having a nice wide search bar at the top of the screen, which is a universal placement. There is also a dark mode for people that like a darker background when it comes to their apps.
Image courtesy of The Guardian
The example of oppositional decoding I decided to pick is abrupt or unnatural jumpscares in horror movies and games. If you have ever been watching a horror film and feel the tension building because of the rising action, just for it to get completely upended by a cliche or predictable jumpscare, it can completely ruin the immersion of the experience. For example in the movie Prom Night (2008) They have one of the most overused scares with the "bad guy" being in the bathroom mirror whenever she closes it.
An example of negotiated decoding I found was the character Oikawa Tooru in the anime Haikyuu! When he's first introduced, he is portrayed as the first major "villain" that our main character's team needs to overcome. Eventually, as he gets more and more character development, he is shown as this character who trains extremely hard, is talented on top of that, and wants to win more than anyone else. It reached a point in the community where some people would root for his team to win over main cast's team. I watched an incredible video essay completely breaking down his character. I highly recommend it to anyone who is into anime!
The example I chose for dominant decoding is a teaser from right before the FNAF 3 game dropped. The image that Scott Cawthon released really just invokes a sense of dread. The way that he utilized negative space and let the small glint of Springtrap's eyes loom while he stares at you is nothing but terrifying. Since everyone thought that FNAF 2 was the end of the franchise, whenever Scott dropped this teaser along with the caption "I am still here" The community went ecstatic with crazy theories and how freaky this image was. It's easy to tell the emotions that Scott wanted to invoke whenever he made this and the mass majority definitely understood what he was trying to portray.
Image courtesy of FNaFLore
