In my paper I want to talk about the virtual reality, and its possible positive and negative effects on our real life.  

Nowadays it takes very little to get into a virtual imaginary world – you just need to wear special glasses or a helmet. The VR technologies are most widely used in the gaming industry, but they certainly have a potential for being used in other spheres. For example, VR has already been trying to enter the art sphere: it can change the traditional cinematography, with film-makers producing 360 movies, or the visual art industry with artists painting something which the audience can literally enter and experience in 360 format. This can transform not only the artworks themselves, but also the venues that display them, such as galleries and museums.

The effect of virtual reality can be used in many spheres where it makes sense to immerse one in an imaginary reality. For example, it can also be used in education, helping learners visualize the images, or for professional training purposes – thus presumably making these processes more effective. In fact, VR might also be used for live broadcasting of anything that’s happening anywhere on the plant – be it a football match, a concert, or even a public protest.

As businesses start incorporating VR more actively, they would want to make VR present in every life aspect, making living without it seem impossible (as it is the case with smartphones). Thus, they will try to plunge as many people as possible into it, which will make life easier in some aspects, but create new problems as well. For instance, the habit of getting into another reality might disrupt our relationship with actual world and other people, making us want to escape it for the alternative reality. Another example could be the situation where we would lose the feeling of danger and the need for self-protection in the real world, forgetting about things that cannot harm us in VR but exist in reality. Thus, VR can in fact decrease our awareness of the surroundings and make us more vulnerable.

There are many more potential threats and benefits that I want to explore in the paper.

1.  

As part of the rewire experiment I decided to change the way I text. Usually I use whatsapp, FB and Instagram messenger, as well as e-mail when communication is more formal. I do not like texting, because what I usually observe is that the process tires me a lot, both physically and mentally. Besides, I feel like sending an informal text in one of the regular messengers takes too much time of my life – just like reading a message does, especially if a conversation goes on for a while (usually I never initiate such conversations, only support them out of politeness).

Also, I often feel like I cannot interpret the mood of the sender or emotion behind the message, which often leads me to a lot of contemplation on what the sender actually meant, what he/she felt while sending it, etc. Emojis are a bit helpful in interpreting emotions but might also be confusing due to their universality (in fact, in some cases certain emojis (or their absence!) led me to anxiety).

So what I decided to do is to communicate only with instant and self-deleting photos and short video-messages on Snapchat. That of course limited the range of people I could talk to, as not everyone uses Snapchat, and in some cases it’s not appropriate to communicate in such manner (I can’t really send a snap to my professor). So, I decided to communicate with friends that have Snapchat but with whom I usually communicate through other platforms.

Firstly, I sent a snap of the nicely decorated common area in my apartment with a text “Come check out our new apartment decorations!” to a few of my friends outside NYU. My intension was to invite them over. A couple of them replied saying something like “nice!”, and the rest just opened it and did not send a response. So, perhaps the message in a form of a snap lacks seriousness and directness, which makes the receiver perceive it as something that was sent without a serious intention, and thus does not require a response. In fact, when I started thinking about my own reaction to snaps – quite often I leave them without a response, as many of them just show what one is doing at a particular moment, what coffee the person is drinking, or just a stupid filtered face.

Anyways, later during the day I went out with my friend to the city. I sent a snap video with us playing music in the car, with a text “you didn’t come, so we went out ourselves”.  One of the receivers replied with a text: “where are you guys?”, another sent a funny face of himself using a filter, and another one sent a video from a family event. Two more opened the snap without replying. I sent a few other snaps of us walking around in the city without any text, and got only one emoji-response back.

So, having tried using Snapchat photos and videos for communication I realized that it cannot be formal, and that it is quite ineffective if you want to use this communication to arrange something in real life. In any case, having identified that, I also noticed that snaps make me feel like the ongoing communication is more real, in comparison with the dull text. Snapchat, unlike FB and whatsapp, gives an opportunity to experiment with humor and emotions, which makes it possible to express yourself better. Not worrying about the message being saved in the system, you can show yourself and your emotions the way they are at this very moment. Also, what I liked about sending the snaps of myself and receiving snaps back – is that there is no need to guess what the emotional response is. You can see it, laugh at it, and then quickly forget it.

If we consider that the ultimate goal of digital communication is to imitate real-life communication as accurately as possible, then probably Snapchat is closer to that than whatsapp and the messenger. However, it is also quite ineffective, which is why I would place it into the category of “entertainment” only – and would not want to waste my precious time on it.

Until the class assignment I have never heard about Stack Exchange. As I registered, I decided to use the “Physical Fitness” site, as other options didn’t seemed to focus on particular subjects that I had no knowledge and interest in. So, I posted my first question: “How to get my boyfriend to workout?”. I wasn’t sure if it fitted the category right, but I posted it anyways. Not surprisingly, my question migrated from “Physical fitness” to “Interpersonal skills”.

What surprised me most is how quickly people started commenting on my question asking for more details. For example, other users would ask :”would you be able to give examples of some things that currently take up his time?”, “Does he give any specific reasons why he doesn’t want to engage in physical activities? Are there any specific physical activities he’s ever expressed any interest in?”, “It would help to be more clear about your motives here, is this about you wanting him to be more active or expressing concern about his health? Is your boyfriend concerned about his health in general? Does he have health issues arising from not exercising?”

 Then, very soon I got my first (and super large) answer.

This kind of deep analysis and the willingness of others to figure out a solution to my problem was certainly unexpected.  Why would anyone care to write such a long answer, if they don’t even know me personally? In any case, my question got viewed 549 times and got one vote. The long answer got 5 votes, and I marked it as the best answer.

Next, I decided to answer a few questions in “Physical Fitness”. I searched questions with a tag “yoga”, as I wanted to share the knowledge I actually have. So, I answered to the following questions:

1. Does yoga help in weight-loss?
2. Is doing yoga in regular socks okay? Are the yoga toe socks better, the same, or worse than doing yoga barefoot?
3. Is an “active lifestyle” enough for maintaining health?
4. How can I get rid from feet pain?

When I was writing the answers I felt like I seriously wanted to help. I even googled some stuff in order to make sure my answer contains correct information. Two of my answers got one vote each, and one was accepted as the best answer – that made me feel so proud of myself.

Then, I asked another two questions on the topics that I genuinely wanted to know more.  One in “Physical fitness” :“What kind of workout I can do in the sea?”. Another one in “Interpersonal relations”: “How to make decisions quickly and not regret afterwords?”

For the first question I got an answer that was a bit off-topic and thus useless. But my second question was “voted to be deleted”, which made me upset. The issue was that I described personal anxiety arising from decision-making, and other users commented that this questions is a personal issue that should be addressed to a psychologist. I deleted the question, realizing that I made a mistake by posting a PERSONAL question in “INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS”.

To conclude, I had fun using Stack Exchange, it got me feel very excited and willing to help others. It made me feel like I’m part of the community where everyone is there ready to lend a hand to everyone. However, I don’t think I will continue using Stack Exchange as I do not see how it is any better that regular forums (except for the required depth in asking and answering as well as strict moderation). Maybe in other sites, that deal with more concrete topics, such as Stack Overflow, this system makes more sense.

P.S. My reputation numbers: Physical Fitness – 36; 1 badge “Teacher”. Impact: 380 people reached.  Interpersonal Relations – 19; 3 badges “Student”. Impact: 622 people reached.

Design and Process

We decided to design a semaphore system that uses colors and shapes to code the meaning of the communicated text. Our decision was based on the knowledge that human eye tends to react to colors and shapes very quickly, which is why the traffic signs, for example, rely on the color and shape system as well. There is a well-thought and well-tested methodology behind the traffic signs system, as each sign communicates a message to the drivers and pedestrians. A message is supposed to be as clear as possible and the receiver is expected to comprehend and react upon the message as soon as possible.

As speed and clarity of communication were some of the main parameters of the assignment, we decided to use the most clearly noticeable colors and shapes in our semaphore system. Firstly, we were trying to identify which colors are most easily distinguishable. For that reason, Theo consulted his colleague, Sarah Frampton, who is the Lead of Design and UX in NYUAD OSA department. She helped a number of colors and shapes that are most distinctly visible from a distance. So, having taken her advice into consideration, we decided to use 4 shapes (triangle, circle, square, and diamond) and 9 colors (red, yellow, green, blue, black, pink, brown, turquoise, dark red). Sarah also recommended using bold black borders to emphasize the shape and color, so we designed the shapes accordingly.

As we printed a few shapes out, we realized that dark red looked very similar to red. Thus, we added a black circle to the middle of each red shape, making sure it is clearly visible from the distance.

Then, we began to assign each symbol a letter. For that purpose, we researched the letter frequency in English alphabet. We wanted to use the most easily distinguishable shapes and colors with the letters that are used most often. So, for example, we assigned a yellow triangle to a letter E, which is the most frequent letter in English alphabet (it appears in 12.7% cases). Conversely, the least frequent x, q, and z were assigned to less distinguishable colors. Also, we decided to give all numbers the same shape of diamonds, as we saw this shape as potentially confusing given its similarity with triangle and square, and we assumed that there will not be a lot of numbers in the sentence.

Lastly, we assigned particular hand gestures to space, article “and”, “the”. Besides, we agreed on gestures that the receiver might need to use: one would mean “repeat the letter”, and another one “repeat the word”. We also decided that the sender should try to omit as many vowels as possible, assuming that a word can be easily comprehended without them.

In regard to the process of sending the message itself, we first thought about attaching printed symbols to a cardboard. Then, we thought about using clippers and attaching papers to the glass. Lastly, we decided that the sender would just take one paper by one and then show it to the reciever. 

Outcome

At the tournament we realized that our system had a few disadvantages. Firstly, communication was not fast enough (it took the sender 5 minutes to send the message). The reason for slow speed was the following: we had a separate paper for each symbol, and they were organized in different piles by color. So the process of searching for each symbol and then putting it back to the pile took longer than expected.

Secondly, the receiver could not always distinguish between the blue and turquoise colors, which led to confusion with some of the letters. Thus, one word in the sentence was not received correctly, which jeopardized the clarity of the message. However, omitting of vowels did work fine, as the receiver could comprehend the word “anniversary” sent as “annvrsry”. Thus, the overall meaning of the sentence was clear, despite the second letter being understood incorrectly.  

Perhaps, if we could improve our system, we would think of a more efficient way to send a message – something that does not require every symbol to be on a separate paper, but can rather allow multiple symbols to be communited with the use of few objects.

Alphabet

Belarus is located between the Eastern and the Western civilizations, Catholic and Orthodox beliefs, as well as Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Originally, Belarusian language was recorded in Cyrillic alphabet. Then, since 16^th century Belarusian language started to be recorded in Lacinka (Latin script) until 1850s – when it went back to Cyrillic. Alphabetic changes reflect the diverse political and cultural changes in Belarus. A shift from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet happened with the increased power of Poland and Polish language within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. However, when the Kingdom of Poland fell apart and Belarus ended up under Russian Empire, Russian rulers banned Latin alphabet, fearing that it might prevent Belarusians from embracing Russian identity. Even though Belarusian intellectuals were still using Lacinka under Russian Empire, when Soviets came to power, Latin alphabet totally vanished from Belarusian language.

After the USSR collapsed, the interest in Latin alphabet came back together with the wave of Belarusization. Now, in a country with two official languages, Russian and Belarusian, a modified version of Lacinka is used for transliterating local geographic/street names. Also, people who choose to speak Belarusian in the country where more than 80% of the population speaks Russian, use Lacinka when communicating with each other.

The emergence and development of both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets demonstrate the problem of building and preserving Belarusian national, cultural, and political identity that Belarus, located between two big political players, faces. No wonder, Belarusian intellectuals have even tried to develop another alphabet, neither fully Cyrillic nor Latin, with a purpose of uniting Belarusians.

Sources to be used: 
Mayo, P ‘The Alphabet and Orthography of Byelorussian in the 20th Century’, The Journal of Byelorussian Studies, 4/1 (1977), pp. 28-47. ZC.9.a.9127 .

Mechkovskaya, N ‘Belarusian language: sociolinguistic essays’ Specimina philologiae Slavicae, 138 (2003)

“Three Alphabets Of The Belarusian Language – European Studies Blog”. Blogs.Bl.Uk, 2018, http://blogs.bl.uk/european/2018/01/three-alphabets-of-the-belarusian-language.html. Accessed 1 Oct 2018.

Photography

Photography developed in Belarus since the 1850’s, following the general course of development of photography in Europe. There was a documentary photography, which documented different aspects of life, urban development, etc. These photos began to appear on postcards, which were used as a medium of communication. In the paper I could analyze how photos depicting daily life became a message in themselves. Also, I can discuss how now, these photos reinforce history, as they allow us to look at historical development of the country.

Besides, photography was developing as something commercial (portrait-taking in studios), and was also was used for scientific, military and other reasons. Only in the 21^st century photography also became art. During the Soviet times photography in Belarus began to serve the ideology and propaganda of the state. If documentation was somewhat impossiblet control, depiction of photographs publically carefully selected and censored. This way, the use of photography under state control contributed to creating and sustaining certain illusions about life in Belarusian SSR, that we might be tricked by even today.

Sources to be used:  
Osterman, Mark. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY. Accessed 1 Oct 2018.

kozhemyakin.dironweb.com/for_the_waiting_of_photography/for%20the%20waiting%20of%20photography.html

As I sat down to create my own emojis I began to look for some guidelines. Having listened to the “Person in Lotus Position” podcast, I learned that emojis should be distinctive, not too big, not representing any brand, etc. I also looked at emojipedia in order to see what kind of emojis already exist so I would not end up repeating someone else’s idea. Then, I started to think about various symbols, objects, and activities that represent my hometown. I looked for inspiration in the old photos archive, creating a list of 15 potential emojis. Afterwards, I tried drawing my first emoji in Paint. It was too painful for me as someone who has zero graphic design skills, so I switched to regular paper and pencils.

My first selected emoji is a soldier, which is a strong association I have with my hometown, because it has the largest in Belarus air defense base as well as other military objects. I was surprised not to find a lot of military-related content in emojipedia, so I felt like this emoji would count as original. However, I wasn’t sure if I should make it universal or not, and I ended up drawing a real Belarusian soldier with an exact same cap and a red star in the center that they wear.

My second emoji is a birch tree – a very prominent symbol of my motherland, which has a lot of birch forests and folklore related to it.

For the third emoji, I tried drawing three different options. First was an orthodox church (because already existing emojis have only other kind of temples), second – a girl with a flower coronet (an expression of local culture), and the third, which I ended up selecting, was a hair braid (something that girls in Belarus wear a lot).

Firstly, I sent my emojis to my mum and sister. I said the following: “I’m going to send you three emojis that I created myself. They’re just drawings, but imagine that they’re real emojis sent as a message. Tell me, what do you think? What thoughts or feelings they evoke in you?”

My sister’s response: “The first one is Sashka [our brother]…looks confused :D”; “Second one is Motherland”, “Third one is femininity, traditions, Rus’ [the old name for lands currently occupied by Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine]”

My mum’s response: “First – surprise, Second – smile, hope. Third – romantic mood, a bit of sadness”.

As the military emoji made my sister associate it with my brother, who went to the army several years ago, I decided to send him these emojis too in order to hear his opinion. He did not reply 🙁

In order to make the 1^st emoji more universal and remove any association with a particular person, I changed it. I drew a new face, filled with a khaki color, removing the cap with the red star.

I left the 2^nd emoji, the birch, as it is. To the 3^rd one, the braid, I added a flower and a red ribbon, which are again somewhat symbolic of Belarusian culture.

I sent the improved emojis to my two hometown best friends.

My friend Ilaria texted the following: “The first one makes me feel disgusted. He is silly and dirty. But at the same time I want to help him. He’s like a savage who has to be taught how to live in our world”. “The second is very nice, meditative”. “The third one reminds of the good old days. Maybe everything was not that good in the past, but we always remember it as something nice”

My friend Anton replied in the following way: “The first one is sad because he looks like a military man. The second one is very pure and real. The third one is simple and with a soul…So cool to receive hand-made emojis!”. I asked him “do you see any connection between the three?”. He replied: “If I look at them all together I’d call them a series of emojis about Russia”.

So, overall my sister was the closest to understanding the communicated message, as she related the two emojis to the theme of Motherland.  Also, my friend Ilaria, associating one of the emojis with the “good old days”, perceived the message in the right way, as when I was communicating an aspect of life in my hometown I was obviously thinking of the past because I no longer live there. My friend Anton, calling my emojis “a series of emojis about Russia”, was also close to understanding the cultural/locational reference.

Detox exercise was a relatively easy and enjoyable thing to do, which is why I extended it from 8 to 12 hours. As I turned off all my electronic devices, I immediately felt happier. I started paying attention to my inner state and the surroundings, grasping the beauty of the morning sun, feeling the gentle wind on my skin, observing other people around me. On the contrary to Turkle’s claim that multitasking makes everyone feel good immediately as it gives the brain a new input, I felt good because I freed myself from multitasking. I could focus on one thing at time, such as my meal at breakfast in the dining hall, conversation with a friend, or the dirty floor of my room. No one could deprive me from the experiences of the real life, everything I could sense now and here, and everyone I could communicate with face to face.

The joy of being able to feel life more deeply on the rare of occasion of a technology detox proved to me that technology does deprive us of our senses. This relates to the words of Kuno in “The Machine Stops” when he talks about the Machine which “robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch…” hence making humans lose a part of themselves. Even though I might have experienced a few moments of discomfort while being completely alone, I soon started rejoicing the solitude as it activated my awareness of the beautiful environment around me. I never felt bored, which is one of the main problems that Turkle highlighted. On the opposite, I felt more excited and entertained than usual, simply because I was more conscious of all the different components of my life.

However, the second part of the detox went not as smooth as the first one. I went to Dubai with friends in the afternoon, and this was when I realized that I’m seriously addicted to reporting whatever is going on in my life. The more fun things we did and saw, the more anxious I became. Why? Because I had no phone to upload an insta-story or send a picture to my friends and family on whatsapp. I felt so desperate about not being able to capture the moments of the trip, and I was jealous seeing my friends doing that all the time. Only after they promised to send me all the pictures and videos that they were making, I calmed down a little bit. When I returned to my room, I rushed to my phone and started sending and uploading these pictures and videos, relieving my anxiety at the same time.

So, even though thankfully I have not experienced loneliness, boredom, or desire to put my attention in my phone, I did feel anxiety about not being able to share my experiences with my whatsapp contacts and Instagram followers. In other words, while being in a group of my friends in Dubai, I couldn’t stop thinking how much I wanted others to hear and see how awesome my day was. This proved that although I can easly go without receiving information, I am somewhat addicted to communicating information to others.

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I view technology as a paradoxical phenomenon which already got out of human control without us realizing it. Presumably, it made many of our life aspects, such as communication, transportation, education, easier and more convenient. However, if one was to calculate the costs of technological development at a speed it has been occurring, especially intangible costs, then I believe we would find ourselves at a loss.

I must admit that I do rejoice the convenience brought by technological development, specifically when it comes to communication. Being able to talk to or follow the lives of the dear ones who are physically far away is the advantage I cannot underestimate. However, technology and technologically-advanced communication while being forceful are still lifeless. Just like with the invention of writing people lost ability to memorize well, with technology we are losing our ability to be present and connected (connected to actual reality, not the virtual one).

Even though I would not call myself a Luddite, both my body and my mind reject the intervention of technology into my personal life and the life of the society. What I constantly observe is an addiction to technological devices and the unlimited non-stop communication that they made possible. A lot of the times I am myself staying in a technological cage, waiting for a dose of virtual communication, which successfully manipulates my emotional state. Yet, I am able to recognize that this is a cage, and that somehow technological devices as well as the process of virtual communication exhaust me, taking away my connection with the world around and limiting my ability to communicate with it using my natural senses.

No wonder the happiest moments of my day are the ones when there is no phone or laptop around, but rather someone sitting next to me, present in this very moment (hopefully not partially on snapchat or instagram). At these moments communication with people and the world around occurs without a medium but with the actual senses. As Miller argues, “the larger the number of senses involved, the better the chance of transmitting a reliable copy of the sender’s mental state” (48). With technology humans no longer feel the need to have these senses as the medium perfectly replaces them. This, I believe, consequently leads to a loss of a precious ability to sense, making humans crave for a technology-created sensations.