So, what have I learned in English 302?

Mostly, what I’ve learned is to be critical and not accept what’s given to me at face value. Whether it’s the programming of video games or the politics of the companies that run the websites we all use, I now have a more complicated view of how I engage with new media. It is, and always will be, important to interrogate and not just accept. That goes for all things in life–not just new media.

We function within a society in which everything is politically charged. There’s absolutely no way to cut out every company that is moderately evil and still have what’s considered a full life these days. A cell phone isn’t just a cell phone, and while you can choose the one that’d work best for you, it’s ultimately a product which is owned by a company which has done some pretty shady things. Everything online and in new media is the same way. As a responsible consumer–if such a thing can even exist–we need to be thinking about who owns what and what they’re doing with it. Unfortunately, the lesser evil is typically still pretty remarkably evil.

So, as someone who uses Google Drive for her word processor, I think about the implications of that. As someone who has an Amazon Prime account, I think about Amazon’s questionable business practices. As a Facebook user, as a Twitter user, as a Tumblr user, etc., etc., etc. As much as we may like to, these things are a part of our everyday lives. Unfortunately, if we want to continue to live in the ways that we do, we have no choice but to use them, with these major companies buying out and absorbing all the competition.
What do we do? Unplug and go live in caves? I’m kind of resistant to that idea. Everything we interact with, every corporation we buy from, has these skeletons in its closet. I may be part of the problem, but I haven’t quite reached the point where I’ve decided that the solution is the cave option–because if I stopped engaging with every shady corporation in America, I’d have little other options but the cave.