User talk:14buchananL

This is my wikibook user discussion page for my university project. Please feel free to contribute to any discussions which take place on this page to help with my class. 14buchananL (discuss • contribs) 14:29, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise #1: Educational Assignment
Do you ever wish you could just flick a switch and have your mind emptied of all the overcrowded thoughts, worries, anxieties and one million ideas which have been mounting up for so long that they have become one big blur? We've all been there, that's for sure, and whist I'm aware of the current stress amongst my Digital Media and Culture class who have been assigned this project and one other to complete by next week, I thought that for this project, id share with you all a website that I use regularly to help me deal with stress and just in general when I have ideas that are in need of fleshing out. I came across this website called The Quiet Place Project when I was watching one of my favourite Youtubers, Carrie Hope Fletcher, who dedicates her channel to giving advice to teenagers during their tough adolescent years. On this site there is a chat-room type feature called 'The Thoughts Room' which is an anonymous platform where you can pour out all of your thoughts, feelings, ideas or whatever is crowding your brain, and you can watch the words just fall away from the page as though it's emptying from your brain piece by piece. Aside from being completely anonymous, and free, its also completely private as nobody can see what you write, nor is it recorded. The whole idea of this page is that you can just keep typing relentlessly and just 'empty' your mind of all your overwhelming thoughts. Whilst you type, the site plays some relaxing music and sound effects to help keep you calm, so its best to use this site whilst wearing sound block earphones.

Although I've aimed this recommendation more towards those who are stressed, I've also found it extremely useful for times when I have had a creative spark, and I need a way to flesh out an idea. Or even if I'm struggling to think of an opening sentence for an essay or a story, I just take every thought in my mind, pour them out into the Thoughts Room and eventually, as my mental vision becomes clearer, I can start to put something together with greater ease than before.

Overall, I hope this comes in helpful to some of my classmates.

14buchananL (discuss • contribs) 20:52, 16 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Hi Laura, interesting read. I too understand what it is to be incredibly stressed. I've been working on a film called Midknight (you may have heard of it), and it has been a very stressful experience. I personally turn to food first when I become a bit stressed out, but I can see how this would be of a great help to many students who get overencumbered with the pressure. I will definitely check out The Quiet Place, but for now, you should really check out this Colombian Coffee Cake I like to munch on when I get a sad. Thedellboy (discuss •

contribs) 16:28, 21 February 2016 (UTC) I found this post very helpful and if I need to I may use this in future so thank you for sharing it. I would like to think that the anonymous aspect of the website allows its users to feel a certain degree of comfort as no one has to know who they are. This idea playing with the week 3 lecture on performance of the self and how when people are online they can put on a 'mask' but what is unique about this website is that users may put on a 'mask' in the sense that they are anonymous but in fact they are actually being their true self as they can let everything out and express everything but no one has to know it's them, so no one can judge them/ they can get back to their lives. I find that concept quite comforting in itself. Also linking to week 2 with online identity, the security and privacy you discussed about it not being recorded again I would think would be beneficial as users can put down their most intimate thoughts, some they may never say out loud or to anyone, and then it's gone. Just like that. I think the website creates a great sense of a caring online community that when there is so much out there to bombard the user in terms of the internet, apps and digital media it is a breath of fresh air to help those in need of somewhere to go.

User The one behind the pillar (discuss • contribs) 01:41, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

I always appreciate hearing new ways to combat stress. Back in highschool I used to think I couldn't get stressed, but I've slowly come to realise that I'm just good at bottling it up until it becomes too much to handle. I'm also interested to hear about this Carrie Hope Fletcher. The internet is a valuable source of escape to a lot of troubled and anxious teenagers and it's good to hear that there are Youtubers who specifically try to provide advice and reassurance to their audience. Obviously one way communication through a screen isn't the warmest form of interaction, but it can still be exactly what someone needs to help them cope. -ReluctantCyborg (discuss • contribs) 02:32, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

I did a quick google on this and sat on the page for quite a while. It's extremely interesting and I'd never heard of it before. As someone with anxiety that stresses out constantly about deadlines and workload it was really nice and relaxing to sit on this page for a bit and just calm myself down. If you have a mac, have you heard of self control? It's this really great app that you can download for free that helps you focus on your work. In the app you create a blacklist of websites you want to block for an allotted amount of time and then you simply hit start and all of those pages are blocked, it's great for focusing and preventing distractions. The best part is, once you start the timer/blackout you can't stop it until the timer expires, and if you find yourself on another distracting site then you can add it to the block list while the clock still counts down. I usually set it for an hour and work or study and then after the time I'll watch an episode of a short sit com and then after it finishes reset the timer for an hour and go back to work. I think they might be making a windows version of it soon, but ti's worth checking out for sure. GlasgowTexan (discuss • contribs) 11:59, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise 1: Formative Feedback
This post offers a good description of a resource that will surely be useful for many taking the module but would benefit from a greater level of engagement with why it is so useful. For example, you might have looked further at the role of anonymity on the chat room. There is also a lack of links and wiki markup (although this is rectified through your comments), which is required to demonstrate that you are engaging with the affordances of the platform. Your responses engage with the original post but would also benefit from a greater degree of critical engagement in your response.

A post of this standard roughly corresponds to the following grade descriptor: Satisfactory. Among other things, satisfactory entries may try to relate an idea from the module to an original example, but might not be very convincing. They may waste space on synopsis or description, rather than making a point. They may have spelling or grammatical errors and typos. They might not demonstrate more than a single quick pass at the assignment, informed only by lecture and/or cursory reading. They may suggest reading but not thinking (or indeed the reverse). The wiki markup formatting will need some work. Sprowberry (discuss • contribs) 10:46, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise #2: Visibility and Online Footprint
I have a certain amount of visibility online, most of which is via Social Media.

My Facebook profile is my main platform for my on-line visibility. Here, information such as my full name, date of birth, where I’m from, where I live now, where I work, my education, what I look like and have done for the past 7 years or so is all available. I also have my small business visible though Facebook as a ‘local business’ page. Here, information such as my address, phone number, email address and links to other social media accounts are available. My personal Facebook page is set to private, so I only share information with friends, family and general acquaintances which I have on there, whereas my business page is open to the general on-line public. I keep my Facebook private like this because I just don’t feel that it is necessary for strangers to be viewing my personal information. I put that information on there because, for those I am friends with, I feel it will be useful and will help acquaintances to identify with me easier. My business page is set to public because this is how I attract my customers and it allows me to spread the word outside of my local area. Although I have personal details available on this account, I display them for professional use only, and I feel it is necessary as it locates where I work and highlights how I can be contacted for business. Luckily, Facebook gives me full control over what is shared on my page so I feel very secure when posting information on-line because I know who will see it and who will not.

My Instagram is slightly different, as there is less personal information, just my name and age, and the bulk of the information available is just pictures of things I like, or things I’ve done with the odd picture of myself in there. The reason I use Instagram is because I love taking pictures and sharing them, and I enjoy finding new artist and photographers to follow for inspiration. My Instagram accounts definitely express my creative side more, as I love anything visually artistic. My Facebook, however, is more of a general personal profile which I use to keep up with friends and family rather than to express my every day life and interests. I have my main Instagram account set to public because I don’t mind my pictures being shared publicly and I like to share my photography work. My business Instagram is also public, again for the purpose of spreading the word beyond my local area and to more artists on-line as many of them congregate on Instagram. I have full control on what information is made public on these accounts, and I can also control who can view my page, if I wanted to.

Snapchat is used mainly for a laugh with friends, so just silly pictures, nothing private or personal. I use Snapchat because I find it easier than sending picture messages though texts. I feel fairly safe sending images via Snapchat, because I can control who I am sending them to, however with the recent hacking scandals that have been rumoured, I feel slightly less at ease with using the app. I'm sure many others have felt wary about this!

14buchananL (discuss • contribs) 13:07, 21 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I too love Snapchat, but you do have to wonder if Snapchat's key feature - that your images are deleted - is as true as Snapchat would have us believe? There have been many reports over the years that Snapchat as a company actually witholds our pictures and videos and that nothing is ever deleted! Personally this does not worry me, as I have nothing to hide and reasonably Snapchat would never have reason to release or share my information. However, hacking scandals does force me to think more critically about my online identity. Here is one such article that offers some interesting insight into Snapchat's privacy policy.

Secondly, I enjoyed the point you made regarding how you differ your use of privacy on Facebook depending on the type of your profile. The idea that we use different social medias, or even profiles as you have outlined, is an interesting look at the human psyche. Facebook gets a lot of criticism regarding its privacy policy, but recently I believe it gives you a great deal of choice with how you wish to you manage your profile(s).

Thedellboy (discuss • contribs) 21:04, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

I like what you said about Instagram, especially in contrast to Facebook. Thedellboy, you made a good point about Facebook which can be used personally and then with separate pages for your business. I personally feel that Instagram can really be used for both together. I feel like there is a certain understanding about Instagram being a space for expression, whether that be creative or an expression of style or interests. Instagram also has a great feature that, unlike Facebook, you can't save other people's pictures so it seems safer for use of photographers. Instagram is also great for communities and networking, but Facebook is great for small businesses because of word of mouth and people being able to easily access you. PurpleHan (discuss • contribs) 13:57, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

There seems to be a tendency that SNS users seem to have almost a different identity for every site. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other sites, are designed for sharing and connecting. However due to the layout, different sides of our identities get brought up to the surface. From your article, I have noticed that you use your social media in very different ways. I found your use of Instagram especially interesting. It is almost an extention of your hobbies, where your personallity can be read in a different way to someone, for example, who has only known you through Facebook. I guess it would be the same to someone who knows you through your local business page rather than your regular page. In a way, through different SNS's, we create different Identities and connectwith different audience. As you have mentioned your snapchat is mainly, for friends and people who you are comfortable to be silly around. I imagine that being a smaller audience to the audience you have on facebook. Which is quiet interesting, since this fun, silly side of you is only seen by this group of users. Toriettaaw (discuss • contribs) 10:46, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

I use social media so frequently it scares me, yet I never stop. Like you say, it is different personas we put on, on different social media platforms. Why do you think the world has come to us using so many different platforms and put on these different selves? QueenElsaIngrid (discuss • contribs) 10:55, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

I find it interesting that when you mentioned in the paragraph about Instagram that you do not find your name, ager and pictures of yourself as personal. It adds a layer of discrepancy to the what individuals consider to be their online footprint and how large they deem it. I myself find my age and images of myself to be personal, hence why I have recently made my facebook pictures private to friends only. I also found it interesting that you are using your online footprint wisely, through the form of having a business Instagram account separate from your own personal one. It is interesting to see how small and local businesses are now using the internet and social media to expand across the world. GlasgowTexan (discuss • contribs) 14:44, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise #3: Information Overload!
It is without a doubt, that in today's dominantly digital age, the masses of information available at our fingertips has well and truly surpassed the point of useful and landed straight into the area of information overload, so much so that the internet has become a particularly over-crowded space. How do I deal with the masses of information available out there? I basically chose what I will allow myself to become distracted by and what I will resort to for logical use. As simple as that seems, it has definitely been a work in progress.

A good example to use here is my Facebook timeline. Pop ups and links to other websites are becoming more frequent on our facebook timelines, and these are particularly distracting because they are usually titled with something particularly eye catching such as "Taylor Swift has just announced that...". I am sure many readers will befamiliar with this, and the most frustrating part is that 9 times out of 10 this title is left unfinished, so that we feel the urge to click and find out this pointless piece of information that we didn't even care about until we saw it on our timeline, but at the same time we wont allow ourselves to keep on scrolling without finding out what Taylor swift announced. Buzzfeed is notoriously known for dishing these temptations out onto our timelines. Over time we lean that this kind of information or content was created in order to attract our attention, and deliberately distract us in order to 'up' their consumer rates, so over time this becomes easier to identify and therefore ignore, Because lets be honest, more often than not, we are left disappointed with the result of these absolute 'nail-biters'.

This got me thinking that it always seems as though the information we are drawn to the most is the information that we did not set out initially to find. And although this information is said to clutter the internet or waste space, isn't that what the internet was built for? Surely the intention of internet use was to share and receive information, and to allow people to 'voice' their opinions and creativity, and so why do we complain that there is too much information when, after all, we created a platform that encouraged just that.

I'd like to hear others' thoughts on this. Do you agree that we are perhaps contradicting our initial intentions by stating that there is now 'too much information'?

14buchananL (discuss • contribs) 01:56, 2 March 2016 (UTC)


 * I actually really like your positive angle on the idea of information overload. It is a refreshing idea, and it is definitley important to remember the original intentions of the Internet, and what a great resource we have at our disposal. As you have rightly pointed out, there are definitely ways to cut down on information we deem unimportant both through modifying what we receive but also through a sort of brain-training where we can 'sort' which information we wish to see and don't. I strongly concur with the fact that the availability of this much information should be celebrated as much as it is critiqued.


 * Referring back to the ideas surrounding Collective Intelligence on this module, Information Overload is a necessary byproduct. This is especially true for Open Source projects, like Wiki*edia itself. Progress cannot be achieved without that extra information, and at the end of the day we as humans choose what information rises to the top. This can be seen primarily through how many likes an article gets on Facebook, through to Viral YouTube Trends and popular websites. Unimportant information does often sink the bottom. Having said that, I am sure much relevant and contemporary knowledge is also missed, perhaps as a result of being sunk under Information Overload! Thus, it is clear that these ideas work both ways.

Thedellboy (discuss • contribs) 02:35, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Your point that we are often drawn to info we did not set out to look for is very interesting. I personally feel that my internet usage is gradually becoming less about actually searching for necessary information and is more about making myself feel like I am up to date with the latest developments both locally and around the world. As you said, I often find myself looking at something completely different to what I originally meant to look for (did you know the largest hamburger in the world weighed 913.54 kg?! I didn't.) Still, I don't believe there is too much information available. Info is knowledge, and as some old geezer said a while ago, knowledge is power. I think, instead of thinking there being too much information out there, it is up to us personally to learn how to successfully cope with the information that is out there, even if that means learning how to siphon away all the garbage that is out there. D man choo (discuss • contribs) 20:29, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes i totally agree with your point about feeling the need to keep up to date with the latest developments. When I am browsing and I come across interesting information that I didn't intend on finding, I often end up reading it anyway because it is 'trending' and everyone is bound to be talking about it. As much as this information is totally useless to us, it somewhat makes us feel like a pat of the current discussions and debates circling the social networks and prevents us from feeling totally out of the loop.

14buchananL (discuss • contribs) 17:22, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

I agree. You Tube is another one for getting distracted with watching videos... I find you can go online to watch something that actually means something or is informative and then other suggested videos come up. Before you know it you're watching funny cat videos for no reason and can't remember what you were intending to research in the first place. Some stuff is pointless and yet we find ourselves watching or engaging with it anyway. There is a lot of weird stuff out there. The other day I saw a video of a girl eating a live mouse on Facebook and I really did not want to see that which was clearly an act for publicity. Not sure if when the internet was created for and things like that. I am quite happy not knowing about yet i have seen it. Eilidh no.1 (discuss • contribs) 22:48, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

I think you raise some intriguing points that certainly resinate with me. I had not really thought of information overload in the terms of being so overloaded to a point where it feels crushing and over crowding. When I was thinking about it it was more in the terms of having all this information at your disposal to aid you in whatever you needed. But I can definitely see how it can be taken both ways. I also like your point on Facebook, and it got me thinking about how we are surrounded and bombarded with so much information, like Facebook click bait, to a point where we can just block it out or weed it out as we deem it unnecessary or useless. But to how we have an awareness of its pointless nature and have developed an internet etiquette to help us navigate and conquer the internet for our needs without getting swallowed by it and distracted by every single piece of information out there. I do like your closing remarks though in thinking about the purpose of the internet and to why shouldn't there be a surplus of information for us to access. What I will say on it is that yes it may be great to have all this knowledge accessible at your finger tips, however there is a difference between knowledge/creativity and for lack of a better word spam/click bait which just wastes your time. User: The one behind the pillar (discuss • contribs) 01:31, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Exercise #4: Wikibook Project Reflective Account
Most examples of a collective intelligence are created by users’ at their leisure, and by those with a great deal of interest and knowledge of the subject. With the addition of a deadline, a topic chosen for us and ultimately, a grade to work towards in the end, the environment of our Wikibook project was perhaps a bit different from most.

The Wikibook that we have created as a class is an effort of collective intelligence, as it is a large collaborative piece of work which explores ideas and knowledge from a large scale of contributors. Individually, we have segments of knowledge, but not an overall knowledge, so together in the final outcome of this Wikibook, we have a collective knowledge. As a class, we were given the ability to ‘edit’ or ‘revise’ other’s contributions, allowing for individual sections themselves to become a collective intelligence. So, the content itself was overall an example of collective intelligence, and this was also reflected in the discussions section, as ideas of structure, topic headings and layout were all a result of collective ideas. The environment of this collaboration was, at times, both slow-moving and overwhelmingly crowded. Collaborating online certainly consisted of an on-going, persistent discussion, however, with such a mass amount of contributors in the project, it became very easy for users to lose their place. It was very easy to get lost in the discussion when speaking directly to contributors online, as the page was growing consistently every day and other’s ability to edit your comments and contributions often disrupted the flow. The busyness of the discussion page, I feel, is what caused a lot of slow replies and slow progression of work-flow, as many replied on the input of othes to progress on their own part, with it being a ‘collective’ effort. I did feel, however, that by using an online platform which connected so many people, we were able to contact people and have discussions with certain users which may not have been in our small group, or would have perhaps been difficult to track down face-to-face. For this reason, the online platform saved us a lot more time and allowed for easier access to people and information than a non-online project would have. Most of our contributions were discussed online in the ‘discussions’ tab on our Wikibook page, therefore most of our face to face meetings were used as more of a clarity session, as the online Wikibook environment became particularly overcrowding at times.

Cognitive surplus is also relevant here as all contributors were given easy access to contributing to the project i.e. the project took place online which can be accessed at home, at university or anywhere that there is access to the internet and a computer, therefore encouraging contributors to get involved and collaborate. This set up allowed for a surplus of contributions, all of which displayed a similar ethic and approach amongst active users. The overall approach, however, seemed particularly varied, as many users contributed with a different aim in mind: some spent more time in the discussions page than contributing to the main page, and vice versa, and many showed more (or less) interest on the subject due to personal preference and varying levels of knowledge, resulting in some inconsistent contributions on the main Wikibook page. Perhaps without the pressure of a deadline, which is not common in general collaborative pieces of information online, or the overall fact that this project was essential in obtaining a grade for a university module, these results would show a more natural progression of work, rather than one which reflects the issues of miscommunication and misunderstanding which took place in the discussions. Luckily, although there was a clear inconstancy of effort amongst users, it was still very easy to pick out those who contributed well and put a lot of effort into organising and producing the final Wikibook.

14buchananL (discuss • contribs) 19:18, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

14buchananL I really like the idea you touch on at the end of your post about cognitive surplus along with some of the issues you raised. I agree that the overall approach taken by different students was varied and I believe that this may have prevented some people from truly immersing themselves in the project because some students could not get into the assignment due to there being no set standard way to go about it. As students we work off of rubrics to try and attain the highest mark, and due to this when we are just given free reign it can get a little confusing. This is not helped by an ever encroaching deadline that looms over. I agree that the deadline itself and the grading aspect hurt this project being a more natural example of what it could be like to work in a group as a collective intelligence. Maybe if we had started sooner and worked until say the last day of teaching it might be a more natural example of how Wikibooks can work but this is only guessing and speculation as to what could have been. GlasgowTexan (discuss • contribs) 10:57, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

14buchananL Your opening statement is really interesting and I also touched on the same ideas in my post as well. The fact that we were forced to complete the Wikibook in order to complete our module shouldn't be overlooked and is important when considering cognitive surplus. Although we did all work together and complete the Wikibook, it was out of necessity and therefore we had a further incentive rather than just voluntarily working together. You managed to tie in ideas from the course such as collective intelligence and relate it to the Wikibook project well, commenting on how each of our individual knowledge added together created an overall knowledge. The structure section on our chapter was actually really interesting especially how our group came in so late and there were dynamics established on the page and a certain approach to the chapter already decided before we started. James Surowiecki's ideas on collective intelligence such as the 'wisdom of crowds' and troubles of diversity of opinion could probably be picked out from our chapter's discussion page as there was a push for our chapter to look a certain way. However, the platform was useful as you mentioned how it was easy to talk to people online as opposed to offline and we were able to share ideas efficiently. Braydencoulman (discuss • contribs) 12:48, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

14buchananL I fully agree with you when you say that this class project was an effort of collective intelligence. This type of projects it completely different to regular module assessments where group projects do not exceed 5-7 people. So it is understandable why participating in a project with more than a hundred people could feel overwhelming and overly crowded. I have also felt that because of the layout of Wikibooks, it was very easy to get lost. I found that there were no strict boundaries or set tasks that people had to follow and just having a set group and a set chapter assigned was not enough. People who have spent more time than others editing the chapter almost took the role of moderators which meant that they jumped into others people sections and made things for people who only had set times a day because of university classes and other activities a lot more confusing. The layout of the Wikibook made it harder for the workflow to go faster because it was not a life chat you could not possibly know if people have contributed or if changes have been made, even notifications would be a great tool for staying on track. Although I do think that this type of project was a good idea because It really does create collective and collaborative intelligence that does not get lost somewhere in university archives after being marked but also has a real contribution to the society. Toriettaaw (discuss • contribs) 14:54, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

14buchananLToriettaawI agree with some people were moderators as I felt like there were definite people who took over and did most of the work making others feel a bit lost and as if it was harder to contribute. I think this might also be an issue with this type of work outwith our coursework as there is always going to be someone who knows more or is more dominant. This therefore makes the information a little one sided and is less collaborative. I think allowing everyone's opinion and having an equal share would increase collective intelligence. Eilidh no.1 (discuss • contribs) 13:55, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Marker’s Feedback on Wikibook Project Work
Your contributions show sustained engagement over a week and evidence of collaboration rather than territory claiming. You demonstrate a fair level of critical engagement in the exercises but are overly reliant on journalistic sources without engaging in the meaty conceptual topics of the module. Chapter contributions demonstrate a satisfactory understanding of topics but it's important to supplement this level of description with further analysis.

Content (weighted 20%)

 * Your contribution to the book page gives a good brief overview of the subject under discussion in your chosen themed chapter. There is a good range of concepts associated with your subject, and the effort to deliver critical definitions, drawing from relevant literature and scholarship, and your own critical voice in the building of a robust argument is very much in evidence. The primary and secondary sources you found about the chapter’s themes cover a good range and depth of subject matter.

Understanding (weighted 30%)

 * Reading and research:
 * evidence of limited critical engagement with set material, although most ideas and procedures insecurely grasped
 * evidence of independent reading of appropriate academic and peer-reviewed material limited, displaying a qualified familiarity with a minimally sufficient range of relevant materials
 * Argument and analysis:
 * poorly articulated and supported argument;
 * lack of evidence of critical thinking (through taking a position in relation to key ideas from the module, and supporting this position in discussion);
 * lack of evidence of relational thinking (through making connections between key ideas from the module and wider literature, and supporting these connections in discussion);
 * evidence of independent critical ability limited, due to the fact that your grasp of the analytical issues and concepts, although generally reasonable, is somewhat insecure.

Engagement (weighted 50%)

 * Evidence from contributions to both editing and discussion of content to a variable standard (i.e. volume and breadth of activity as evidenced through contribs)
 * Satisfactory engagement with and learning from other Wikipedians about the task of writing/editing content for a Wikibook
 * Reflexive, creative and fairly well-managed use of discussion pages using deployment of somewhat limited judgement relating to key issues, concepts or procedures

Overall Mark % available on Succeed

FMSU9A4marker (discuss • contribs) 14:54, 3 May 2016 (UTC)