A LAST last word...

Okay, so obviously the last post was not the last. I know, you're all jumping with joy!

The webinar we had tonight was amazing! I was excited to share what we'd learned, but I honestly wasn't sure whether people would find it helpful or interesting. In preparing for it, I was reminded--just slightly--of practicing my dinky little piano solo for the recital when I was a kid...

Thankfully, the webinar did not end up simply torturing (piano recital-esque) the attendees! I was really excited about the questions they were asking and the discussion that was going on. I really loved sharing my own insights that I've gained through this class, as well as hearing the insights of my class members. It was really amazing to realize that the things we've learned in this class are exactly what lots of people out there are trying to learn, or wish they could learn. I wish we would have had more time to talk about everything!

It was just a great opportunity to look back and realize how much digital literacy I really have learned, and how much I now have to share with others. Digital literacy really is a skill that is not necessarily easily learned, but once we put time and investment into it, it has totally changed our lives. At least, it's changed my life. And that's not a sappy exaggeration.

It was, in truth, difficult sometimes to follow the webinar, as I was trying to both listen to what my classmates were saying and to follow the chat stream, as well as offer whatever insights I wanted (typing as furiously as possible before the subject was changed) via chat. It was difficult, but it was okay! I just had to keep reminding myself to relax, breathe, and remember that I didn't need to pay attention to everything. I was still able to keep up with the general flow of conversation. (But I'm excited to watch the recording so I can get even more out of it!)

The webinar was a reminder of how much we really can help other people. I have a voice, I have something to say. Sometimes I feel very ignorant and helpless as a college student, still trying to get my degree. But I need to just dive in and join the conversation, because what I have to say matters.

Class Learning Outcomes

Now that the term is nearly over, I have the opportunity to look back on the class and see how well I achieved the learning outcomes:

1. Learn and Follow the BYU-Idaho Learning Model (prepare, teach one another, ponder and prove)

Preparing was definitely important in this class. I'll be honest--in the past I've been more of a finish-it-right-before-class kind of girl, and that definitely showed in the beginning of this course. As the term progressed, however, I learned the importance of preparing in advance so that I could then be taught by my peers. It helped SO MUCH when I did that. Then I was also able to help my peers more with theirs and, in my own small way, teach them. I think as far as teaching one another, I had a great experience with my cohort, Holly and Whitney. The three of us got very involved in each other's research and were able to help each other a lot. I also got very into self-directed learning. I wasn't just learning the exact amount that I needed to; I went beyond and found out a lot of things that maybe weren't even necessarily the exact right quote or whatever, but were just interesting things that were indirectly related, even if they didn't necessarily make it into the paper. I think that helped me focus the paper a lot more and round it out. 

2. Write Substantially and Publicly About Literature

Writing the blog definitely helped me to meet this learning outcome. I invited my friends on Facebook to read the blog quite often and sometimes they did--many of them mentioned the blog to me. Blogging, I think, actually helped me to write a lot more substantially than I would have if I had just written the paper. 

3. Develop Research Skills

I definitely developed a LOT of research skills in this class! Visiting the library helped a lot as far as scholarly research--I learned to use a lot of different databases whereas before I didn't necessarily use a lot of different resources. I also learned to do more informal, less traditional research that helped a lot in clarifying my topic and my points in the research paper. 

Final Draft!

Emily Coleman
Professor Gideon Burton
English 295 Section 01
8 June 2012

“Tomorrow is Another Day”: Using the “New Day” of the Internet to Strengthen Gender Roles

In Margaret Mitchell’s classic tale Gone With the Wind, white Southern plantation owners are struggling to get through huge societal change. The Civil War and its aftermath leaves some characters helpless while others use the change to their advantage. The title itself suggests that the issues of the time period are gone with the wind; however, we may be more similar to the novel’s characters than we ever supposed. We, too, are facing the struggle of learning to deal with the onslaught of the digital age and the Internet. Many of our traditions are changing, including gender roles. However, many don’t realize that while some aspects of gender roles are being left behind, others are being strengthened. Like Scarlett and Melanie of Gone With the Wind, modern women are benefited the most when they use the great societal change of the Internet to strengthen their social role as women.

Like the white Southerners in Gone With the Wind, people are dealing with the coming of the Internet in many different ways. In the book, the elite white Southerners rush off happily to war, excited to “lick the Yankees,” but as they begin to lose the war, they start dealing not only with tragedy and heartbreak, but many difficult societal changes. They are forced to abandon their entire way of life. Many don’t have the skills or the guts to find their way in the new society. The South is taken over by Carpetbaggers and “white trash,” while the former elite are left trying to figure out where their old ways have gone. The societal changes faced by the Southerners are remarkably similar to the changes our society is going through today. With the coming of the digital age, some are still shell-shocked, unable or unwilling to come to terms with the technology that is taking over our lives. The Southerners in Gone With the Wind faced many of the same challenges. Ashley Wilkes, an able, educated plantation owner prior to fighting in the Civil War, never recovered emotionally after his return, living off the charity of others and unable to take care of his own. Like Ashley, some of us who thrived before the digital age are now finding themselves helpless without the necessary skills to succeed in a world run by technology. Many, however, are using the powerful tool of the Internet as a new way to manage their social life, particularly women.

“Tomorrow is Another Day”: Using the “New Day” of the Internet to Strengthen Gender Roles--First Draft

Here is the first draft of my paper. The citations are (obviously) messed up and I still need to provide documentation, it's not quite long enough, and it needs a lot of work. I would love to get your feedback.

Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell, is a story of Southern plantation owners trying to live through the Civil War and its aftermath. In the book, the elite white Southerners rush off happily to war, excited to “lick the Yankees,” but as they begin to lose the war, they begin dealing not only with tragedy and heartbreak, but even more difficult societal changes. They are forced to abandon their entire way of life. Many don’t have the skills or the guts to find their way in the new society. The South is taken over by Carpetbaggers and “white trash,” while the former elite are left trying to figure out where their old ways have gone.

The South of the 1800s may be gone with the wind, but the societal changes faced by the Southerners are remarkably similar to the changes our society is going through today. With the coming of the digital age, some are still shell-shocked, unable or unwilling to come to terms with the technology that is taking over our lives. Many, however, are using the powerful tool of the Internet as a new way to manage their social life. In particular, women are using social networking tools to expand their social reach. As a result, women are expanding their traditional gender role while, at the same time, preserving it. 

The characters of Scarlett and Melanie from Gone With the Wind are two distinct and opposite examples of ways that women were and are able to deal with great societal change. Melanie is depicted as the picture of femininity. One of her most traditionally feminine characteristics is her social grace. For many years, women have been considered more social than men. Before the war, Melanie is a graceful hostess, knows everyone and never says a bad word about anyone. She is a sweet, reserved Southern belle, never stepping beyond the path prepared for her. However, she doesn’t cower from the tragedy of the war. Instead, Melanie uses the Civil War and the Reconstruction as an opportunity to expand the definition of femininity. 

Similarly, many women of the digital age are expanding their gender role. Women continue to be the more social gender. Research shows that the numbers of female users of social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter far exceed the numbers of male users. In the words of Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder of BlogHer: “In general women adopt social networking tools more highly than men, and they are more engaged and active on those tools. . . . Women are actually the majority user base for most social tools online.” Women are seeking social relationships, but like Melanie, they want to expand their social network and meet people that, without the Internet, they would never have been able to connect with.

Video Trailer!

After many, many technical difficulties (and then a final editing process which took about half an hour), here is the trailer video for the paper! The first draft will be finished on Monday. Whew! 

Music by Kevin MacLeod: "Morning Snowflake", 2005 (public domain)

Special thanks to my lovely bilinguals: 

Rea (Tagalog), Louisa (German), Cynthia (Spanish), Sarah (Portuguese), Rachel (Chinese), Kathleen (Swedish), Alissa (Japanese), Melody (Russian), Catherine (Thai), and Rebecca (American Sign Language).

Thank you for watching!

The video can be found on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ULP0DR3TA&feature=youtu.be

Being Melanie: A Real-Life Example

In my last post I discussed different ways that women can use the Internet as a force for good. Well, that wasn't just a fantasy I imagined--women out there are really doing these things online, and I'd like to introduce you to an amazing person who did just that.

Susan Taylor is the founder of Living Equilibrium. Through her business, she helps people overcome challenges using scientific techniques. The many people she has helped witness to her incredible ability to help them change their lives. She is building, strengthening, and inspiring.

I asked Mrs. Taylor about her experience with the Internet and how it has both helped and hindered herself and those she knows. She offered some very valuable insights and graciously gave me permission to share her responses here.

I asked her whether the Internet has given her an opportunity to connect with others on a deeper level. A true mother, she immediately thought of her family. "Our family is so busy, the Internet has allowed me many luxuries, like...allowing me to keep my daytime hours for family and clients, it allows me to 'peek' into the lives of my children's friends." However, she acknowledges, "There is nothing that will take the place of getting to know them in person[.]" 

Mrs. Taylor has also used the Internet as a tool to better understand her family and friends and how she could connect with them. "When I see the faces of my friends and family and read their posts, there are times when my gut tells me I need to connect with them. I have many times found that either I had a message for them or they had a message for me--the answer to what I had been searching for." This is truly a powerful way for women to use the Internet. What many call "female intuition" allows Mrs. Taylor to see, just through reading a short Facebook status update, when she needs to connect further with a friend or family member. Even though she may not usually talk to that person on a daily basis, she's able to peek at their lives through a keyhole, which can sometimes lead her to a greater connection.

Social Discovery!

As I'm getting more into my topic, I'm realizing that I really can't understand it without social proof. I can't understand women's personal experiences online without hearing what they have to say.

Here are the people I've contacted so far.

A while back I commented on a review of Gone With the Wind by Jillian, a book blogger, on A Room of One's Own. She responded pretty quickly with some great insights on Scarlett's character (I quoted her in a previous blog post). I want to talk to Jillian more now that I have some more concrete claims. I think (well, I hope) that Jillian might be interested in linking GWTW and women's experience online, since she loves GWTW (she's currently doing a reading project on Margaret Mitchell) and she's a blogger herself.

I emailed some professors who had courses that included GWTW. Professor Luesebrink, a teacher of a Popular Literature class, emailed me back!...But she didn't have much to say in response to my questions. I had asked her about the popularity of GWTW and she said that she didn't really know much about it. I asked her how she thought the 1939 film influenced the way people viewed the story (the question I was most interested in hearing the answer to) and she said she thought it influenced people, but she couldn't really say how. Ironically, she suggested that I do a web search...which is how I found her syllabus! It was cool to get a response from her, though.

This week, I decided to contact some women that I already know who have used the Internet as a force for good. I sent a Facebook message to Susan Taylor, who is changing lives through her business, Living Equilibrium. She got back to me right away with some AWESOME responses on both the good and the bad of the Internet. She also gave me permission to share her responses here, so I'll have a blog post about that soon!

Being Melanie in the Digital Age: A Practical How-To Guide

As I wrote in my last post, Melanie from Gone With the Wind is a great example of using external change--even difficult external change--to broaden her horizons and to reach her potential as a woman. Women, much more than men, are using the Internet as a social place, to help, support, and encourage one another.

Check out this diagram:

(Click here for the original diagram.)

Take a look at the different websites that men and women are involved in. Women dominate not only in some of the most extremely popular social networking sites--Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace--but also in websites that are devoted to helping each other create, like Pinterest and Instagram. And when it comes right down to it, there are 99 million more female visitors monthly to social networking sites than there are male visitors.

Women are naturally good at using the Internet for social purposes. Due to the current efforts of many remarkable women, technology is shifting away from being a traditionally masculine, male-dominated area of interest and work. Melanie used the circumstances involved in the Civil War as an opportunity to reach out and do different things and talk to different people than would have been possible in the society that existed before the war. We, as women in the new millennium, can treat the transition into the digital age with the same kind of optimism and innovation. Here's how...

Women and the Web: Are You a Scarlett or a Melanie?

After my research and talking with my professor, I've narrowed down and figured out the comparisons and the points that I want to make between gender, Gone With the Wind, and the new media.

In a previous post I mentioned that the Internet is a gender-neutral place. That's what I thought at first--but it's not. Actually, I'm prepared to make the opposite argument: that current use of the Internet is actually amplifying traditional gender roles.

Think about it. You could look at a blog and probably be able to guess the blogger's gender before you read a single word. What are women using the Internet for? Women's main use of the Internet is not to neutralize gender and enter more into masculine roles; women use the Internet to help them cook, sew, shop, make handicrafts, cut hair, do makeup--all traditionally feminine pursuits.

But women aren't using the Internet simply as a means to a traditional end. They're using it to be part of a social community. Women, much more than men, are using the web to connect with others who share their interests, hobbies, and goals. They use it as a way to reach out, to find support and to help others.

Melanie, from Gone With the Wind, is a perfect example of social connection. Throughout the Civil War, Melanie seeks the company of other women, looking to connect with them and support them. Melanie isn't afraid to reach outside of her social circle from before the war; she's even willing to befriend Belle Watling. Similarly, women are taking the dawn of the new media as an opportunity to step outside of their geographically bound social circles and connect with people from all over the world. Women are building new communities with each other and creating social ties--something women have always done, but now they're able to do it in a new way.

Confederate Belles and Cyberfeminism: Scholarly Sources

Tweethis Statement: Like Scarlett O'Hara and the Confederate women learning to adapt to a new way of life after the Civil War, women today are trying to adapt to a new digital age and gender roles are changing.

Boswell, Angela and Judith N. McArthur, eds. Women Shaping the South: Creating and Confronting Change. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006. Print.
I found this while looking for Censer’s book (on this list) in the HBLL. This is a collection of conference papers from a conference on Southern women’s history. It shows how women were willing to step out and embrace change in the South. I want to compare the real women who promoted change and what they did, Scarlett and her actions, and how women are reacting to change today.

Censer, Jane Turner. The Reconstruction of White Southern Womanhood 1865-1895. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2003. Print.
I found this book through the HBLL catalog. It details the confederate women’s attempts to rebuild during the period immediately following the Civil War. Interestingly, the author disagrees that gender roles were changed in favor of women; she believes that women actually tried to keep the oppressive gender roles the same way they used to be. This could provide an interesting parallel between now and then, and could provide the backdrop to highlight how different Scarlett really was from the women around her. 


Daniels, Jessie. “Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 37.1&2 (2009): n. pag. Project Muse. Web. 20 May 2012. http://muse.jhu.edu.erl.lib.byu.edu/journals/wsq/v037/37.1-2.daniels.html
I found this on Project Muse. It discusses cyberfeminism and how women have used the Internet to promote feminism and goes on to compare that to the typical female experience with the web. I think I could get some very interesting insights from this on how women are using the Internet to rethink gender roles. 

Scarlett O'Hara's Prerogative

I've discovered that the homemade Youtube music video is alive and well in 1800s Georgia.

I didn't expect much from GWTW music videos, but I actually really enjoyed them! Not to mention, I thought they were very interesting interpretations of the story and the characters (mainly Scarlett).

This video is set to the song "Apologize" by OneRepublic. At first, I found it ridiculous and nearly laughed my head off in the computer lab. I mean, come on--do you really think OneRepublic could beat the amazing original score? It seemed to trivialize the story to put it to a modern song.

Traveling Across the Web

I figured it out. 


Well, I still have a ways to go before I feel fully confident in my web surfing skills. But so far, so good! After my frustration (described in the last post), I started looking at things differently. With direction from my teacher, I realized that I needed to start focusing on connecting more than consuming. I needed to see my Internet use as a more social thing.

I can't even say that I necessarily did much differently. I just looked less for specific content than just for interesting people that I might want to connect with.

Paris, one of my favorite cities

I want to be a travel writer, so I had a lot of fun looking for travel websites, blogs, etc. I had fun exploring the National Geographic website for a little bit (click here for one of my favorite pages there). I also found some really cool travel blogs and commented on them. I spent at least an hour exploring via Twitter and IceRocket, and I didn't want to stop! The best part is, I know exactly where I'm going next with this thread of consciousness. Sometimes I think I could just do this all day.

It's really amazing how much is out there, and I finally was able to tap into it a little bit today. I'm excited for next week when I'll be researching Gone With the Wind. Now I feel confident that I'll know better where to go and what to do!

Surfing the web? More like swimming in it...

So. Social discovery takes work.

For those of you not in my English class, social discovery is one way of using the Internet to your advantage. Instead of doing isolated research, drowning in massive amounts of (peer-reviewed ONLY, of course) dry articles on the subject written by experts, social discovery involves finding others who are interested in the subject and connecting with them. Click here for a more detailed explanation of social discovery.

Honestly, social discovery is so exciting to me. For a long time, I've felt like it's at the edge of my fingertips. I know the Internet is good for something, but what? So far, most of what I've done is just a new way to waste my time. But it doesn't have to be that way! Social discovery is the answer! 

However, as I've been getting started, I'm realizing that social discovery is a skill that must be learned, mainly through practice. We're learning about a lot of great tools in class, and I've been dabbling in most of them: Twitter, Diigo, Goodreads, and Ice Rocket, not to mention Blogger and Google+. Each seems really cool in its own way. 

But before these tools can be useful, I have to learn to use them. I have to figure out which tool (or tools) fits my situation the best. I have to figure out exactly what to type into that little search box in order to find what I want. And when I get a gigantic page of results, how do I most efficiently sift through them? Do I narrow my search? How do I narrow it? And what do I look for in the results in order to know which ones are of the most interest to me? The answers are different in every situation. 

As far as I can tell, these are skills that will only come with practice and persistence. Admittedly, I've never been the best at this sort of thing. When it comes to surfing the web, I still haven't caught a wave. But I have faith that I can get there. I can only move forward from here!