San T. La
For my deprivation project, I chose to deprive myself of all social media for a week. The period was a short time but it felt like ages because of how much I relied on them. During this time, I missed out on a lot of communication with my friends and family because I didn’t have a way to talk to them other than in person, or through telephone calls. I had a hard time cutting myself from social media and I realized how little I used my phone without it. However, by depriving myself from social media, I felt that I had become disconnected with what was going on. I felt a little bit alone without the usual Snapchats or Facebook messages from friends. This disconnection was why I drew this piece, representing how I felt I was dead to the world. I know it’s dramatic to say that I was dead to the world. But with how much social media, is a part of my life, giving it up for such a short period made an impact to my mindset. However, there were a lot of positive changes that occurred. I felt more in touch with the present, now that I was less distracted by my phone. Furthermore, I felt happier, other than the loneliness, because I wasn’t constantly seeing amazing things people do on Instagram, and such. It was refreshing to live without that feeling of having to impress people on social media, and instead I just did things for myself.
Mariela Martel
https://www.buzzfeed.com/marielam4622a4940/when-you-quit-social-media-2v5l5
On February 1st I decided to delete any social media I had: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Prior to the deprivation, I would tell myself that I would start my homework after 5-15 minutes on social media, and before I knew it 2-3 hours had gone by. As soon as I deleted the apps, I found that I was constantly picking up my phone for a study break and putting it down because I couldn’t just go and scroll through my social media. I quickly found that my life revolved around social media, every free moment I had was spent using it. Those around me—strangers, friends, and family—were constantly using social media, while I just sat there miserably, pretending to be on my phone. I then realized how much time I had wasted on social media. So I decided to fill up that time by reading, doing homework, delving into my thoughts, and looking at the world around me. I was actually a lot more productive, and I’ve decided to continue my social media deprivation until after finals. I had a bit of trouble determining how I should represent my deprivation experience. Initially, I took pictures of my family and friends. On the image I put how much time they wasted per day on social media, as well as how many likes and retweets they had on average. But this project didn’t really satisfy me, I felt like it didn’t capture my experience well. I wasn’t excited or connected to the first project. So I decided to do a Buzzfeed article, where I was able to use gifs and memes to creatively and succinctly capture my experience.
Katrina Ledesma
SILENCE
For a while, I did not know which kind of digital media I was going to deprive myself of. I initially had considered completely isolating myself by asking a friend of mine to change my Discord password. (Discord is a free voice and text chat app designed specifically for gaming); however, at first, I did not want to do that because I have done that before with Skype when I still used it. I remember it being one of the most miserable experiences of my life. Unfortunately, due to some circumstances that I cannot explain out of privacy, I did end up depriving myself of Discord and in turn, depriving myself of all of my online friends. The experience was hardly different from the last time I did it. I was very sad and lonely. One notable difference was how deafening the silence was. It was a strange combination of anxiety and relief in which the very act of leaving had given me anxiety but taking a break from it all cleared my head. When it was over and I returned to Discord and my friends, drawing a comic about my experience was a simple choice since I’m very familiar with how to compose a comic and have it convey my feelings.
I really enjoyed and connected with San’s art piece. I did the same deprivation and had a similar experience as the art piece portrays. During that deprivation you are out of contact of what seems to be like a second life through social media. Once my phone turned off for the week it seemed as if I was dead to some people because the only updates they get from me is through social media, so I connect with the art piece as if your social media life has died and is in that coffin during the deprivation week.
San your usage of the no battery phones was amazing. I for one cant live without my phone so your project must have been hard
Katrina, your color usagr mimiced the style of comics and manga. I really enjoyed seeing it
Hi Mariela, I loved that you used Buzzfeed. I think that your use of Buzzfeed really represents the current state. Almost everyone has seen and used buzzfeed
Hi Mariela, I loved that you used Buzzfeed as your project. I think that your use of Buzzfeed really represents technology that is prevalent in our society today. Today, memes and gifs are very popular and many people spend their time on the internet just looking at them. I loved that you used the gifs to basically tell your story and I enjoyed the fact that there was some humor to your project.
Hi Katrina, I thought you did an excellent job on your comic. The lack of color and just the use of black, grey, and white I believe really resembled the style of actual comic books. I thought that the art that you did for it was done very well too. Your comic really described how you felt and was expressed well through the emotions and colors of the character.
Hi San T. La! I definitely understand why you decided to include the phones with the dead battery sign. When my phone is dead is the only time that I am not able to use my phone and when it dies, I feel disconnected from everyone else and dead as well like how you depicted the girl in the coffin. Actually, sometimes I pretend my phone is dead to avoid situations.
San, I also gave up social media, but I have opposite effect. I didn’t feel dead to the world, I felt liberated. I can definitely understand why you felt this way because social media has become our new medium to connect with others (I missed out on a lot because I missed messages on Facebook too). But like you mentioned, you felt free. I felt free because I stopped comparing my selves to others (that I had normally watched via Snapchat stories/facebook posts). I wonder, did you redownload your apps again? I haven’t and it’s been a great experience thus far.
Hi Mariela,
I just love your project. I had so much fun scrolling down the pages and reading and looking at the pictures. I agree with every single picture and comments on the page and I could see you put into a lot of effort and time into the project.
Hey San,
I like your deprivation project. I like how you draw several smartphones with no battery screens on it. I cannot live without my phone either and without it, it seems like there is nothing I can do and it looks like you represented the dead battery smartphone as meaning of no phone no life. I like the idea of your project.
Hi San,
I really enjoyed your project, while it was a pretty common idea; I still enjoyed how you presented in a different way. I agree with you in that with social media we have become obsessed with it, but without it would be almost impossible to stay connected with most of your friends today. So, it’s a very interesting “push and pull” relationship because you don’t want to give it up completely but you can’t stay away from it either.
Katrina, I really liked the simplicity and shortness of your comic. The simple scenes of which portrayed the character dealing with constant vibrating notifications are quite relatable to a majority of people nowadays as our phones have now become an integral part of our lives. I, myself, also use Discord and can relate to the constant barrage of messages that would set my phone off like crazy and understand how different it can be as we take steps to avoid that aspect of technology. To me, I feel that logging out or simply muting our notifications on our technology places me into a state of isolation and awkwardness as something important had strangely vanished from my lifestyle.
Hi San,
I understand how you felt when you said you felt lonely without social media. I am a pretty shy person, and I usually connect with friends through my social media. I also gave up it up, and I agree that it was a positive and negative experience. The deprivation did make me feel lonely, but that only made it so that I would actually interact with my friends in the real world instead of just texting them or sending them snapchats, etc. I think you did a wonderful job expressing those feelings through your art. I also think your artistic skills are beautiful and I really like the way it came out.
San,
I really enjoyed your project and the drawing in particular. Although exaggerated or satirical, many people actually feel “dead”‘ without their phone or access to social media which is sad. This is a perfect depiction of our society’s dependence on technology; technology is somewhat an extension of our minds and hearts now so as we’d be without a vital organ, we are as such without technology.
Hey Mariela!
I really liked your project because it was really relatable and comical, and it was a fun read! I am an avid buzzfeed user, and this article seemed really similar to the type of articles they publish on their website. Your article did a really good job expressing how it felt to give up social media ( I gave it up as well), and you did it in a way that was also very entertaining. Your project was really creative and one of my favorites!
San, I thought your drawing was unique and kinda funny because it’s so true. I also gave up all social media, but for 12 days and I sure did feel “dead from the world” as you described your deprivation experience. Also the fact that you’re holding your dead phone in the coffin was humorous. Maybe in my will I’ll ask to have my phone with me to my grave because that’s how attached I am (and all of us, really) to our phones. I wonder what you used to create your drawing? Did you actually paint it? Or did you create it using Paint? Nonetheless, great project!
Mariela, while I am not a fan of the overly dramatic Buzzfeed I definitely like the medium you chose to do this project. It was really creative and quick to digest. I also found myself more productive in my time. I noticed that I had the same reaction about every 5 minutes. It was almost a reflex and I caught myself doing this and knew I wanted to pick up my phone. But it wasn’t there. I agree, this article told your experience very well and in a better way from your other idea. Great job!
San, your artwork is most definitely bold! I like the use of the phrase “dead to the world”. I don’t think I would have gone that far in my description, because I am not overly reliant on my phone. I really like the detail in the artwork including the multiple dead batteries. And then of course the coffin represents your death during deprivation period. Very well done!
For Mariela’s project, what I thought was interesting was the fact that she was unsatisfied with her first attempts of creating the project and decided to instead create a buzzfeed article using a bunch of gifs to show off her feelings and beliefs about the media she gave up. I thought it was a very unique idea that was executed well.
I enjoyed San’s project. The drawing was very symbolic because it shows that being disconnected can mean being dead to some individuals. Social media can be a way for some to feel like they are relevant to others but it shouldn’t have to be like that. Distancing yourself from social media can be a nice way to mix things up a bit.
Hi, Katrina,
I enjoying reading your comic. I like your choice of color. Color can tell you a lot about a work of art. Bright colors can make you feel happy while darker colors can make you feel glum. I can feel the loneliness depicted in your comic.
Hi, San
I love the artwork, it is so creative and meaningful. I think we’re all capable of choosing to disconnect, to live the way life should be lived.
Hello San,
Your piece with a girl in the casket signifies how you mentioned that you felt dead without your phone. I enjoy how there are also a bunch of phones with the dead battery symbols strewn about with the girl. It creates the connection that a person in our present day is one with their phone; if their phone is dead, they’re dead as well. Even her clutching her phone also sent a powerful message as opposed to people clutching rosaries in their casket.
Hello Katrina,
As a person who has never really done any drawings in their life, I’m impressed as to how you created your comic. I’m looking at it and I don’t even know where to begin. Did you use any online tools? Did you freehand everything? As for your content, it was very minimalist but still sent a powerful message. I’m not familiar with Discord but I can relate to the protagonist in the piece.
Hello, I draw digitally using a drawing tablet (I use a yiynova product which allows me to draw on the screen itself as if it’s paper). For the drawing program itself, I use Clip Studio Paint. There are tools in the program that help me (for example, creating perfectly straight lines or rectangles) but essentially, everything was hand drawn.
Hey San,
I feel your drawing shows a perfect representation of how people feel when they don’t have their phones. Nowadays, everyone is glued to their phones and focused on social media. Some people when they don’t have their phone feel lost and disconnected. I admit I am one of those people, but your drawing helped me realize that we don’t need our phones 24/7. I really like the idea of instead of roses being thrown, phones are being thrown instead. It brings up the idea that phones have more value.
Hi San,
If I was given just one word to describe your project, it would be “wow.” I thought your art piece was prepared very nicely and does its job conveying its message to the audience. I found your project to be visually appealing to the eye as well as humorous — without social media us college students might as well be dead, right? Of all the art projects showcased in this class, I thought this was the most artistic. Great job, San!
Hello Katrina,
Your project on the comic book was very cool. I thought about doing something like that, but I just don’t think I could actually draw anything other than stick figures consistently. Anyway, I really like your project because I also play video games online (however I use Skype instead of Discord because it for some reason doesn’t work with computer very well) and I can relate on how much more fun the games are when you can actually talk to your friends/teammates when playing than having to talk alone. I was wondering if it actually made the game almost unplayable at times with the fact that you couldn’t talk to anyone? Anyway, wonderful project.
Hi Mariela,
I don’t use Buzzfeed really at all because I see it as a distraction, but your project actually got me interested in looking for more. I really like how project told a great story of how you went from such a positive outlook on how this project could be beneficial to all the struggles that came during the process and then finishing with it a great and humorous reflection. I know that just giving up a something you use often can be tough and I really liked the humor of your project and the formatting that made it very appealing. Overall, I hope you got something positive out of this experience and great job on the project.
Hi San,
I love your drawing. It is well-painted and it truly reflects how most of the people think and feel when they are away from their mobile phones. I could not imagine how I would feel if I was away from my phones. However, it would not be a good idea to take a break from those social medias and clean my mind.
Hey San,
Your picture is a perfect representation of what it feels like to not have your way of easy communication with others. Phones are very important in how we communicate these days and your picture depicts that perfectly. It literally takes away the majority of the function of your phone. How many of these traits will you take going forward since your deprivation because when I gave up my phone, I realized how much I use when I really shouldn’t be and it actually helped my focus in class for the rest of the quarter. Anyway, great project.
I like that point you bring up about the importance of the phone as a communicator. Personally, I think that phones actually make people more conscience and curious about others because the first thing a person wants to do is check up on another person. However, San’s project really hits it on the head of just how dependent people are to their phones.
Mariela,
I am glad to find someone who is into meme and buzzFeed beside me. I loved your selection of the meme pictures. I definitely relate to your experience, I gave up all my social media too. first couple days, I couldn’t resist that I found myself opening the apps by mistakes as I always used to. I decided to delete them all and I had those moments when I open my phone and keep scrolling into my apps wanting to check my social media and just end up checking my email over and over again
Memes are life, I really liked what Mariela did by incorporating memes and being one of the main draws to my phone. If I am not using it to communicate, I generally pass the time by using my phone to find memes!
San,
You are truly talented! I loved the idea of how out lives became so related and attached to our phone battery life. I can relate to this painting so much. I feel disappointed when my phone send me the low battery warning and feel forced to leave it away and just do anything else. It is hard to think how it looked like 10-15 years ago without phone or this entertaining device that became a norm in our lives nowadays.
Hi Mariela,
I love the fact that you used Buzzfeed as your medium to showcase your deprivation experience primarily because it’s easy to follow and it invokes a sense of humor that effectively captures our reliance on social media. I had a similar experience with my project, choosing to give up music for five weeks and noticed increased productivity and efficiency in my time management since my phone was now dubbed useless. What I specifically liked about your portrayal was that it reflected the interconnectedness we feel to those we hold ties with and how our understanding of a situation may alter when a digital intermediary is removed.
Hi Mariela!
Your art project made me laugh so much! It was very relatable and incited emotion from me which is something that I think art is supposed to do. Though your medium was a bit unorthodox, or in a way that I personally have not seen yet, I thought it was great. At first, I have to admit that I didn’t think of it as an art piece but the definition of art is a concrete set of rules. You definitely stretched the boundaries of art and I loved it!
Hi San! First I want to say that your artwork is beautiful. I love the attention to detail you had and the drama that the piece holds. From your artist statement, it looks like you had a hard time through this deprivation process and I feel like your work definitely represents that. I thought it was very interesting how you added all the phones with the low battery symbol, like the death of your phone led to you own death as well, but emotionally of course!
Mariela,
I really liked your project and how you decided to use Buzzfeed as a medium. As a user of Buzzfeed I was astounded at how realisitic your post was. I can also relate to the feeling of lost time due to access of social media, and the dread of having wasted so many hours on it without having done homework. I think it’s really interesting how you pointed out that people around you were all using social media and you were in a sense, “pretending” to use it as well. I’m curious to know if you felt obligated to join in on the use of your social media. I really enjoyed your project and your use of memes that provided a funny take on a common issue.
Hi Valerie,
While I was doing the project, as much as I wanted to, I didn’t use social media. I’m really glad that the class project was a motivating force to give up social media; I think without the project being an incentive, I wouldn’t have been able to give up social media.
When I first started using social media, it wasn’t so much as an obligation, I wanted to join because it connected me with my friends and family.
I really like how everyone can relate to Mariela’s project. When we we’re all sitting in class scrolling through the Buzzfeed article, no one had to say anything, we all just looked at the gifs and captions and understood so clearly how Mariela felt. That’s crazy because if someone from say a hundred years ago saw us in that moment they would have no idea why we’re laughing at a series of images being looped together (a gif). Gifs/memes of today are so familiar to us now and if they were to ever die out like hundreds of years from now, they’re going to seem as foreign to those future humans as Shakespeare humor seems to us now.
Mariela, I’m glad you went with your gut and you changed your project to the Buzzfeed article format. You use social media to reach an audience of social media users. Our generation has been trained to communicate with gifs and so your use of them really gets the message across. Even though I didn’t reprieve myself of social media I feel as though I have an insight on what it would be like and I’m tempted to try it out. I especially love the idea that you posted it on a public platform and so your project can actually reach a wider audience then just our class.
San’s project makes me think of the idea “If a tree falls in a forest when no one’s around, will it still make a sound?” transformed as “If a person isn’t present on the Internet, do they still exist?”
I never thought of it that way! I would assume that by “existing” you mean on the internet as information, which I would say yes. If you mean that they were never engaging with the internet in the first place, that brings up a question of dependency of others on the internet.
Hi San,
I think your project is amazing! But I am pretty confused of the screen of the phones. Why are they all showing “no power”? Does it mean this girl die with using all the powers?
Hi Katrina,
The comic you made is interesting. It vividly represents your feelings after your deprive yourself from Discord. I can see “Quiet” is the most obvious feeling you had through your art work. I felt the same way when I deprived myself from the social media–Lonely, anxiety and emptiness. However, as time goes on, I started getting used to life without the social media.
Hello San, I’m rather intrigued by your representation of cutting yourself off of social media. It’s kind of surprising to see how you could feel that you were dead to the world and it makes me wonder how many more feel similar to you in the way that their digital presence kind of has more meaning to them. I personally don’t have these same feelings since I don’t actually have an actual presence online nor do I really care for what happens to anything I do online. When you become more aware of what’s around you it allows you to fully observe and react to what is actually around you.
Hi Katarina,
I really liked your project, and can definitely relate! Cutting yourself off from friends that you are able to talk to everyday, but can’t necessarily see normally can be extremely lonely and sad. I enjoyed your representation of that in your comic and how in the beginning it looks as though you’re suffering to control yourself not to check the notifications and the depiction of it spiraling into an eerie silence at the end. I loved how simple and understandable it was. I loved your comical take on that situation.
^I believe this posted twice, if on of the TA’s can delete it, please do so
Thanks!
Hi Katarina,
I really liked your project, and can definitely relate! Cutting yourself off from friends that you are able to talk to everyday, but can’t necessarily see normally can be extremely lonely and sad. I enjoyed your representation of that in your comic and how in the beginning it looks as though you’re suffering to control yourself not to check the notifications and the depiction of it spiraling into an eerie silence at the end. I loved how simple and understandable it was.
Hey Katrina,
I really love the approach you took on with the project. Creating a comic is a creative and clever idea. After reading through your comic and seeing it, it really impacted me because that is exactly how I feel whenever my roommates go home for the weekend and leave me alone in our apartment. I’m really glad you portrayed this comic as your project for the deprivation project because not only can it affect individuals who deprived themselves of using technology, but it can also affect other people who feel the same feelings as being deprived from using their phone in other situations. Also, after seeing your comic, it brought comfort to me because it made me realize that I am not the only person who hates the thought of being alone.
San: Your artwork is amazing! I also felt disconnected from the world when I was deprived from social media, Snapchat in my case. I also agree with what you said in class that the only way many of us get off our phones is because they run out of charge. It happens to me too often even though the separation is temporary once I connect it to my charger. I think the low battery icons in your pictures and the whole casket really go hand in hand with the representation of how we feel when it happens.
When I turn my phone on airplane mode, I can’ t help but feel like a art of me is missing. Almost like I’m dead to the world as well. People feel like if they are not on social media, then something is wrong. When in reality, being on all that social media isn’t aways so beneficial. The representation of how you felt is spot on to how I think we all feel about not being connected via technology.
Hey Mariela,
Your project on buzz feed is super clever and hilarious! You are actually one of the people I admire because I think it’s hard to come up with a meme to use for a situation that calls for one; unless that is just me and everyone else is able to come up with memes easily. Anyway, I would have never thought about compiling a lot of memes together to portray not only your point of view on how you dealt with the deprivation project, but also almost everyone from class who deprived themselves from some form of technology. I also like how your project resembles what almost everyone who owns a smart phones does, scrolling through all the feed in various social media accounts.
Hey Mariela,
Your project on buzz feed is super clever and hilarious! You are actually one of the people I admire because I think it’s hard to come up with a meme to use for a situation that calls for one; unless that is just me and everyone else is able to come up with memes easily. Anyway, I would have never thought about compiling a lot of memes together to portray not only your point of view on how you dealt with the deprivation project, but also almost everyone from class who deprived themselves from some form of technology. Great job!
Hey San,
I really love your painting! It looks to lovely and beautiful! You did a great job in not only portraying how you see technology through your perspective, but also through the perspectives of almost everyone who uses technology on a daily basis. Your painting impacted me because that is exactly how I feel everytime I don’t have my phone with me or when my phone messes up. Actually, I had spent a whole year without having a smart phone; it was very hard for the first couple of weeks because I missed having to look through my apps, but after a while, I began to enjoy life not having a smart phone. Therefore, after seeing your picture, it reminded me how I survived a whole year without having a smart phone.
Hiya Katrina,
I use Discord too, but mostly for updates about a game that I play. I had mostly a question, your friends on Discord, wouldn’t they also be in the games that you play as well? Mostly because the people I know on discord are just people from random games that I play, but collectively. I feel that you could still feel connected if you had just PM’ed them about playing together, unless maybe that was also a part of the deprivation?
Dear San,
I can understand why a person can feel so disconnected from a social platform, I myself only deprived myself of one that I use very randomly throughout the day mostly just talking to myself. It must be very difficult to give-up all platforms because …there isn’t really much to do without social media especially if you’re the type of person that just stays inside like I do most of the time.
You said that you felt happier, but lonely at the same time. Are you sure you wouldn’t have had the same level of happiness with the access to your phone? It seems like the biggest effect was feeling more lonely than happy ?
Hi Katrina,
I love your comics drawings! I can’t imagine the feeling of losing all your friends online. The way you depict the feeling just hit me inside.
I also liked how Katrina chose to do her deprivation project in the form of a comic! It was without a doubt the most creative piece in my opinion out of all the art projects showcased in this class. As a gamer myself, I could definitely relate to how lonely it’d be without the Discord app. The comic itself was nicely done, and I myself chuckled at the changing passwords bit to random letters and numbers. Your project was very expressive throughout the comic — it was effectively drawn in a way that allowed us viewers to understand your emotions. Overall, fantastic project Katrina!.
Hi San,
Your artwork is lovely! I think you are brave to stay away from all your social network apps. Social network has become my only way to connect to people online. Also, I have the same joy as yours when I reopen the app after my project.
Katrina, your piece spoke to me on a level I truly did not expect. Your depiction of your deprivation experience was raw, real, and so true. It hit home to how I feel when giving up my form of media – distant, different, and alone. Thank you for being so real and not sugarcoating anything.
Mariela, your piece was amazing. At every single GIF and caption, I would crack up laughing because for me, each and every one was so true and applicable to how I feel when I am deprived of my social media sites. Like you, I would be consistently on my phone taking “short” breaks which ended up being way too long breaks of me scrolling through pointless photos and posts, and slowly realizing how stupidly I’ve been spending my time. I am so so glad that you found this deprivation experience worthwhile.
San, I was beyond blown away by your work. This piece so perfectly demonstrated your deprivation experience, and resonated in me when I realized that that was the exact same way I feel whenever I stop myself from social media sites and inevitably make myself feel as cut off from and dead to the world, just as you portrayed. I have always been jealous of people like you who can create such beautifully artistic and meaningful work from an assignment as simple as ours. You truly do have talent, and I hope that you never forget that!
Hi Mariela, I enjoyed your Buzzfeed article! I think what’s different about your project is that it IS a Buzzfeed article, which kind of raises the question of what is art. Yes, this assignment is an art project, but as an art piece, this creates a conversation for what is art, and its mixture with technology. Something like, can we consider even a generated Buzzfeed article as a work of art to be fit in a museum?
Hello Mariela!
I really enjoyed seeing your BuzzFeed Article because it was funny and relatable. The pictures and gifs you used really depicted how you must have felt with this deprivation. It’s good that you deprived yourself of this because social media is one of the biggest distractions in my life and we don’t really need to use it that much. I find myself aimlessly scrolling down Facebook for random content to view and that sometimes takes quite a bit of time out of my day.
Hi San!
Your artistic skills are very good and I enjoyed viewing your piece of work. As for the deprivation project goes, I can relate quite well with you. Not using social media made me feel a little empty and dead because I felt like i was missing out on something and missing those connects. During the middle of this quarter, my phone was broken and i was without a device for a week which made me feel scared since I didn’t have one of the most important device in my life. I had to use other people’s phone to satisfy my need.
What I love about Katrina’s project is how she portrayed her deprivation of social media by using a form of social media. When I go on my Facebook, Instagram, etc. I always find myself reading a bunch of memes and laughing at gifs that people create and spending a couple hours over the course of my day doing so. With Katrina creating a story by using memes and gifs it gives off a feeling of hypocrisy, depriving yourself of social media, but using social media to portray what the deprivation felt like over time. Loved it.
Hi San,
Your overall results from your deprivational experience are really well observed. With your drawing, the overall message of disconnection really lingers around the mindset of our modern era. The fact that if we don’t use media/the internet, we simply don’t exist in the eyes of our current generation is pretty scary to think about. I think you did a great job explaining this and your experience is an example of this current trend of electronic culture.
Hi Katrina,
Your comic is very well done and it really shows your knowledge on the conventions of a webcomic. I feel that you really captured that feeling of isolation and silence in the last panel as everything was lead up to it. I have had similar experience as well and I can really relate to this piece. Good job!
Mariela,
I really enjoyed your recreation of a buzzfeed article and thought it was a real one because i am constantly on it and you were spot on with the gif’s and language use and tonality.
Hi Katrina!
Wow. Your piece was very unique and creative. I thought it was very interesting to show the character in the comic as distressed and nervous, not being able to look at the phone. I have taken many psychology and brain development classes where studies have shown that time away from your phone and such decrease the reward centers of your brain and they have a decreased release in dopamine which makes you feel rewarded. I thought the comic strip was very emotion and thought provoking. Great job!
Hi Mariela, when I first saw your face project I literally thought you linked us to a legit buzzfeed page and all I could think was “how on earth is this exemplary if she just copied a link.” However then I realized you made your own buzzfeed page and at that point I was pretty amazed. It looks so legit. I can tell you put so much effort into that. Not only that but it was super funny to scroll through. Amazing job!
Hey San, nice drawing! I also deprived myself of social media and felt the same positive things that you were feeling. I noticed that I was not constantly looking at my phone and was living more in the moment rather than looking at what everyone else was doing.
Hi San, your piece was really cool. I don’t think a lot of people chose to do your medium which was interesting. I liked the phones with a dead battery and a person in a coffin because that does really translate what a lot of us feel if we didn’t have social media at our fingertips. I have travelled abroad and didn’t use international data and while I was on vacation, it was still really hard for me to be away from my phone and social media for that week. I felt completely isolated and dead to the world as you stated even though I should have been having tons of fun on vacation. I wanted to share with all my friends what I was doing. Your project just reminded me how I felt and I loved it because I realize now I should just give up social media. Thank you!
Hi Katrina, your art work is brilliant! I very like this style. It is very similar with a Korean comic. Sometime, I also want to abandon the use of the electric devices because there always are messages I need to read and reply, but the fact is I would never want to isolate myself with the public and the social society I have been familiar. There are unread messages means there are people need to ask my question or offer me some information to know. I do not think I would be brave enough to delete them, I am suffering unread messages but at the same time, I enjoy them.
Hi Mariela , I try to calculate how much time I spend on the social media and I found that, except for sleeping or taking classes, I almost spend all my rest of time on social media. It does not matter whether I know the people I met on social media or not, because all relationship seems not real. I know them depend on words and some fixed pictures. So, if one day, we separate with the social media, how many relationship would left.
Hi San,
From you work, I realize that as a modern individual, I could not separate myself with my phone and the social media tools such as Wechat, Ins, etc. in the phone. Gradually, because of the convenience from social media, we met more people and have more chance to communicate with others, but do we be more familiar and closer to the friends? I think the answer is negative.
San,
I love your drawing! Your drawing was so simple, straight to the point, and it depicted how most of us probably felt during our deprivation period. I can tell you spent a lot of time on this because of how precise and neat your lines are. Also, the little details such as the grass, dead phone battery, and the lines on the casket were so well drawn. Your drawing did a great job of showing us how social media some of us might feel lost or dead without it.
Mariela’s article was so amusing! Since text is limited and can’t portray emotions, we’ve developed ways of communicating our emotions through stickers and gifs. Sometimes gifs have the perfect expression to express our feelings without having to explain to another why we feel that way, and I feel that Mariela’s experience of living social media free was portrayed perfectly in the gifs she chose. Through this project, I feel that sometimes, words can’t express feelings as well as a gif can and that she meant for us to feel what she felt emotionally by showing us the exact emotions she felt in the form of gifs.
Hey San,
I think your artwork is very impressive and relatable. I always carry a portable charger with me to avoid the “dead” feeling. One time, I forgot my portable charger when I went to horror night. During the time, when my phone’s battery was still charged, I was very “scared” of the ghosts/zombies because I was constantly posing on snapchat. However, when I realized that my phone was dead, I was less “scared” of the ghosts/zombie. I felt like not having my phone or social media available, I felt that the event (horror night) was less stimulated, and I was less excited.
I have same experience with San. I also deprived myself of social media for the project, and it’s hard for me to find a way to talk to some of my friends without social media. We are used to exchanging facebook, instagram, what’s app account instead of phone number to communicate with people today.
Mariela’s project is really interesting and creative, we do rely on social media a lot today. I like the way she combined images (gifs) and texts together to present her deprivation experience, which organized her work easier for understanding.
Katrina, I think your deprivation process was very interesting, mostly because I think it varied from my experience. As for me, I did not necessarily feel lonely, but more annoyed than anything because I could not access something (Facebook) that was so routine for me. With that being said, I think your project definitely exemplifies how you wrote your deprivation experience was. Not only is it silent, but I can feel the sense of isolation through your comic – especially in the case of being alone in a room with nothing but your phone. It can sometimes be very grueling to see your notifications but not be able to check them.
Mariela, your project was definitely one of the most enjoyable ones to peruse. I like to consider myself as a BuzzFeed Connoisseur, since I am on it quite frequently. With this being said, I think you perfectly captured how most BuzzFeed articles are written and that just makes it even more relatable as a whole. I feel like you were able to perfectly capture how social media deprivation really is and the stages of the process – especially with your choice of gifs/memes. Job well done!
Hello Mariela,
I thought your art project was hilarious! I loved it so much and I found it really relatable. I think it is amazing how or generation communicates and relates to each other through gifs and memes. It always made me wonder if other generations had any type of communication close to memes and gifs, that involved jokes, or if they were more serious all the time. (well i know they were not serious all the time, but sometimes it really does seem like it.)
Hello Katrina,
I think your drawings were amazing and were really able to convey your message about feeling alone. I also use discord relatively often when I play video games to talk with my friends. When I am unable to play video games because midterms and finals, I also feel lonely, I feel cut off from my friends, and i feel behind from all the experiences that my friends had online without me. I really liked your project and i think your art is amazing!
Hello San!
I also decided to rid myself of social media for my art project. At first it was really hard, it was so hard, I almost redownloaded the social media apps onto my phone multiple times. Whenever I would open my phone, my finger would immediately try to open the app until i would realize that the app is missing. It took around a week for me to stop trying to check my phone. I really liked your art work, because i did not even think about how me missing from social media would look from another person points of view besides mine.
Mariela,
I really enjoyed how you used an element of social media culture, gifs, to create a satire of how you deprived yourself of social media. Your technique of using gifs and Buzzfeed to depict your love and hate relationship with social media apps definitely showed through in your project. Your Buzzfeed article was well-organized in a way that I felt like I was going on the social media deprivation journey with you. You chronologically journalized your emotions, thoughts, and feelings through the gifs that made it felt relatable. I feel like your project definitely appeals to the audience -especially the younger generation who are used to conveying their emotions through gifs.
Katrina Ledesma: What intrigued me about your project was that even though it is titled “Silence”, it felt loud. This short graphic novel shows your experience as you deprived yourself of the app, and we can all relate to how it feels being deprived. I see madness in the silence which is why it feels noisy. When we’re alone and there is no sound surrounding us, we’re alone in our thoughts. Those thoughts are the loudest thing that stands. Your illustration of the scribbles as your thoughts perfectly describes my statement. In my opinion, your piece is the most powerful projects out of the 9 for the creative use of a manga-esque style conveying oxymorons of silence, noise, madness, and peace.
I was out ill the day the exemplary projects were shown in class, so I had no idea that my project was even chosen!
@ Everyone, thank you for the kind comments; it means a lot and its definitely a confidence boost on my artistic capabilities.
From what I’ve seen here, I’m also a fan of San T. La’s digital painting (I may be biased for choosing a person who used the same medium as I did). I adore the painting style they used and the composition of the work. I quite like the idea of the subject being surrounded by technology (the low battery cell phones) and also nature (the leaves surrounding the casket). It was a very nice touch that I enjoyed.
Hi San!
When I first saw your project being presented, it reminded me of one of the earlier ideas I wanted to do for this project! I was thinking of doing a tombstone that would have read “R.I.P. to all my Snapchat streaks.” That idea seemed a little dramatic at first, but I also thought about how important Snapchat streaks are nowadays. If you break a long streak, you become dead to whichever friend you broke the streak with, especially if that streak reached triple digits. I think your project was a really good representation of how social media is dominating our lives and shows how it’s a little more difficult to keep up with other friends who don’t have social media because then you begin to question if they’re okay or where they are in life. It’s also scary because if you don’t see someone who you used to know on social media, you start to forget about them, unless they’re brought up by another person or if you stumble across old photo albums or yearbooks.
San, this was my favorite exemplary project by far! One of the things I liked the most was how the girl is still holding a phone – even though she is already dead. I think it perfectly shows how our generation now just really cannot let go of our phones and technologic devices. The Egyptians used to bury their dead with their most precious belongings – is our phone now that much of a treasure?
I agree with you! I totally understand the sentiments of being dead to the world when you don’t have your phone or your phone has no battery. I myself am a person who uses her phone for social media as well as texting and calling, so my phone loses battery very quickly. San’s artwork was very beautifully done and was very intricate. I loved how San fused both the literal and figurative meanings of dead to the world because once your phone no longer works a person is for the most part dead to the world.
Mariela, I really liked how you presented your project. I feel you were clever in taking over an actual website and making it your own. I personally loved the fact that you added humor to your message. It was able to resonate with the class because you incorporated a lot of things that we see everyday. I felt it was very effective and everyone was really interested in what your message was. Really good job!
Hi Katrina!
Your project is really impressive. I think comic is a good way to show your experience. Your painting makes audiences feel comfortable, and you did a great job focusing on the details, such as the 20 notifications on the phone.
Hi Katrina,
I think that your comic is such a great reflection of the lives of a lot of us. I am exactly one of the guys who have same experience as the character in you comic (I’m not sure whether that is you or not). From my perspective, this can even be a really educational comic. It’s just like a mirror of us. I think it would be better is you can talk more about the skill you used to draw it in the statement since a lot of us want to know how should create such a comic.
Hi Katrina,
I thought your project did an excellent job representing your deprivation of Discord. I completely understood how alone you felt and it broke my heart seeing how anxious your character looked without the program. You did such a good job conveying your message to the audience, and I thought the use of a comic was such a unique media of choice to present your project with. Excellent job!
Hi Katrina!
I agree, your project was amazing. I wish I could draw comics like that. But I definitely see myself in that situation where I did feel alone and sad that I got no notifications unless I had certain apps — for you, Discord; for me, Snapchat. Thank you for showing the bad side of how deleting certain social media from our lives can be.
Hi Mariela,
Your project was excellent and so creative!! I loved how you used a type of digital media to represent your deprivation experience. Buzzfeed is so popular with everyone on the internet, so it was wonderful to see a creative and familiar interpretation of how your experience went depriving yourself of social media. So many people are constantly on their phones, and I do find it is important to focus on the present. I also did my project on social media deprivation and had a similar experience to you. I tried being more productive with my time, and it’s awesome that you’re continuing to do this into finals. Overall, excellent job!
I think we can relate Katrina’s comic to not just losing discord, but any form of communication in general. The comic can explain our constant need to always check our phones and the emptiness and panic that envelops us when we lose touch with the world. I always complain about having too many messages, emails, snapchats, and missed calls, but feel very awkward when they don’t appear for a while. Thanks Katrina for making something totally relatable to everyone. I’m love that you stuck with black and white, to create contrast and emphasis in your work.
Hi, San,
I love your picture so much. I really represent the relationship between the human and the media. the girl dead in the coffin with a lot of phones which are out of battery.
We can see people can’t live without the social media. We don’t know any thing around the worlds without the social media. It just like we dead. I love this picture.
Hi San,
I thought you did such a wonderful job on your project! You’re so artistic, and I wish I had the same gift to draw as you did. I also deprived myself of social media for the project, and felt exactly how you represented yourself in your artwork. Being disconnected with social media does make you feel dead in a sense, as everything is happening around you and your friends are engaging in conversations you cannot connect with. It’s also extremely difficult to communicate with people, as social media has become such a convenient way to make contact with friends and family, as you pointed out. In addition, I also found the experience to be quite rewarding, as I was able to see the world just like you were. Being present and not worrying about your phone is something I have tried to do as well since the deprivation. Overall, excellent project!!
I really enjoyed San’s project. Giving up social media is not easy for many of us and I think the symbolism of the low battery iPhones sums it up perfectly. Giving up social media is pretty much giving up our whole phone (besides texting and calling) for most of us. I am on social media the majority of the time when I use my phone, so I definitely agree that giving up that aspect of my life would feel like a phone with no battery…
Katrina this was something I had tried to convey within my project actually. The silence that comes with removing something that creates noise in your everyday life. I feel like in this day and age we do not really comprehend what silence truly is. EVERYTHING creates sound. Electronics create background noise, footsteps, wind, and even that car that goes by in the middle of the night when it seems like there is no noise. There is always something and trying to find that silence can be scary and deafening as you say it. once you find it however your come to one of two realizations. This is what peace is or this is something you cannot truly handle because of how we have been brought up in this noisy society. Loved your comic truly beautiful.
Samy, I really liked your comment about silence and how we don’t really comprehend or appreciate this aspect in our life because we are always consumed by noise. This is something we can all relate to and I think Katrina’s project did a really good job of showcasing how her deprivation experience makes us all feel when faced with silence.
Katrina, the way you described the silence as “deafening” really struck with me. I feel like our discomfort with silence is a problem we all face because of the technology we have today. I thought your comic was very well done and I could tell how much thought and effort you put into all the little details.
Hi Katrina,
I personally don’t like gaming, but I can image how bad you feel without it.
Thank you for your sharing
I am totally impressed by the painting work of San. It’s a splendid combination of art and the actual lives of us. The painting shows her experienced drawing skill and ability to observe things in detailed. The iPhones are drew in real scale with low-battery screen, which give this work multiple aspects of meanings. In conclusion, this is my favorite project in all of the nine projects which are shown in the lecture.
Hi Mariela,
We all know that we spend too much time on social media such as FB and IG, but we still spend hours and hours on them. Sometimes I was thinking why would we post pictures on these social medias. Do we really want share these moments? Or we just want these “likes”? However, me personally, I can live without them.
Thank you for sharing!
Hi San! I found your work absolutely stunning! Your attention to detail is phenomenal and the idea behind your work is something that I found to be extremely relevant to my life. Often times I feel like I’m a slave to my phone, like there is no way for me to get away! Your project evokes such an amazing and truthful idea and it was definitely one of my favorites! Beautiful work!
Mariela, I did really similar to your project. I thought since we look at lots of listicles or BuzzFeed in our lives, I thought it was really good idea to use it to express myself. Very well done and I really sympathize your feeling towards the deprivation.
Katrina, I know those notifications are so distracting whenever you are trying to focus something. However, when you do not see them or check them it is also difficult not to look at it. It was really well expressed.
Hey San T, rest in peace social media. I believe depriving the social media would be extremely difficult. Your expression through graphic design is really amazing. I hope I can do that as well.
Katrina, I really liked how you decided to make a comic for your art project. I wish that we had a chance to read and look at projects beforehand, because pieces like yours are much more impactful when read in private. The last page was very memorable and captures your feeling about the deprivation very well; you mentioned how the silence of not having social media was “deafening”, which is very interesting since having so much stimuli from social media is something I’d consider to be deafening too! Your piece ended very sadly to me; there was no resolution or appreciation after the deprivation. This felt very real to me and if my deprivation was social media, I think I’d feel the same way. Your use of color that include different shades of black, white, and gray really enhanced the melancholy feel of your comic. Thank you for sharing!
Hi San,
I really admire the feeling you put into your piece; it really speaks loudly about how you felt during your deprivation. The multiple reminders of death that include, the coffin, the dead iPhones, and dead girl, powerfully express to the audience your message. Your piece also used a very earthy color pallet, which goes well with what you wrote in your artist statement about how refreshing the break from technology was for you. I think this break really allows you to appreciate the things around you such as nature, which is alive around the girl and contrasts the death that is the centerpiece of the project.
Great comments, Danny. I also really liked the color scheme of San’s artwork. It mimicked the sense of peace that the character feels after she has passed on as well as the peace one might feel if their phone was dead so they do not have to be bothered by the temptation to check social media all the time.
Hi Katrina!
I enjoyed how your comic titled “Silence” conveyed your deprivation of Discord. I deprived myself of several social networking sites for my final project, so I too can relate to your experience of disconnecting with online friendships.
I thought that you did a great job of emphasizing your despair by using cool colors such as black, white, and grey and incorporating a profuse amount of negative space. Moreover, your distinct facial expressions, the phone’s vibrations, and the notification’s count helped to amplify your pain and anxiety.
Katrina, you did a great job with your comic. It was well constructed, and conveyed your message perfectly. I can relate to your experience because when I have deprived myself of some time of technology, life felt really quiet. I know that I, too, felt somewhat anxious not being able to connect with my friends or family online.
That Buzzfeed was killing it! I mean memes are actually every college student’ life right now. Scrolling after a gif after another one after going home, you still surprised me and humor me. Also great media for the project, something different to the class.
Then, the Buzzfeed project connects directly to San’s artwork. Phones are the medium that connects us with the Internet and all the social media content out there. I have to admit: I’m a phone-addict; without it for 5 minutes, I’m already fidgeting really hard, going through up and downs. Honestly, I don’t know how we all did with this project. Everyone deserves an applause!
I wish somehow we have access to all the students’ work, so I mean we don’t have to discriminate each other.
Hi Mariela, I think creating your own BuzzFeed article was really creative. It was very direct and straightforward to understand. It was very realistic, and it displayed your message very well. I can really relate to how distracting memes and social media can be. I found that when I deprived myself of social media, I was more productive.
San, your artwork was beautifully done! I thought that the artwork conveyed your message clearly and it spoke loudly! It seems like you put a lot of time and effort into it. I appreciate that you took quite an artistic approach.
Mariela: I really loved how you were inspired by Buzzfeed for your project. It was engaging and quite entertaining. I kept wanting to scroll down to see what gif you had next! I also thought it was ver funny and relatable. Great work!
Mariela, I love your work. Those gifs you chose in your work were interesting. It was my first time to read a Buzzfeed article, but what you did in your work really stimulated my interest in Buzzfeed. I think the way you organized your work really made your deprivation experience very vivid and easy relatable for me to understand.
Katrina, though your comic displays a sad and lonely experience from the deprivation of discord, I have to say that the scene where you changed your password to “jdfksjslfksls;lfsdk” made me laugh because of the intensity effect you added with the lines on the borders. That scene reminded me of the Mr. Krabs meme, that’s probably why I found it funny, but other than that particular scene, your comic as whole was well made! It was short, concise, and delivered your message perfectly, good job!
San,
I think your artwork is a simple, yet very powerful depiction of your deprivation. The painting itself looks good, as it has a variation of colors and it’s very detailed. I like how the buried girl in a coffin with multiple low-battery phones symbolized that a part of you seemed to have died when you deprived yourself from social media. Even though you were physically still alive, it seemed as if a part of you died because of how disconnected you were, as you refrained yourself from communicating with others using your phone and social media apps. Good job!
I totally agree with your description of the painting. I am not an art student so my ability to analysis a painting work, but I feel that the words in your comment is exactly what I want to talk about this painting work. I am really impressed by the color she used and the details in her painting.
Mariela, I thought your art project was very creative. You and I had similar ideas with GIFs, but you definitely took it a step beyond mine, and it is great. You really thought outside the box with this one. Also, since I deprived myself of all my social medias as well, I can definitely say that your GIFs are very accurate. Most of them were representative of how I felt during the deprivation period.
San, I really liked your project because I feel like I can relate to your art piece. I also deprived myself of all my social medias for a week. At first, I felt great and confident that I would be able to live without it. But as soon as the second day came, I was already missing all my social medias. You are right, at one point you just feel dead because you are not connected to anyone. You do not know what is going on, and most of the times you feel left out from conversations your friends are having.
Mariela,
I hadn’t considered buzzfeed posts as a form of art, but you absolutely nailed it! The style of writing, use of gifs, and formatting were all very well done. To be honest, I hardly ever go on Buzzfeed, so I don’t actually know what a typical post looks like, but your project and it’s content is exactly what I imagine Buzzfeed would feature. Overall, great job on expressing your feelings during this project through popular gifs and memes.
San,
I loved the symbolism in your artwork. In this day and age, if your phone is dead, then you’re practically dead. We live in a world where people are now highly connected through social media. “Read receipts”, “online now” symbols, and status/photo posts are all used to announce the presence of a person. If we don’t get a fast response or can’t contact somebody right away, we often think something has gone wrong. Having the girl in a casket along with multiple dead phones was a great way of representing that.
I agree that Mariela really captured the Buzzfeed medium in its entirety 🙂 At first glance, I actually thought that she was a Buzzfeed writer who used the art project as a way to make an article. I really enjoyed the lighthearted feeling of your piece that was really expressed through your use of funny gifs. In a way, you seemed to combine your artist statement and art piece into one entity that appealed to a very wide audience. I hope the article stays on Buzzfeed!
Hi Mariela. I thought it was incredibly unique that you created a Buzzfeed article. I never saw an art project like this before. I liked it a lot because it looks like an authentic article Buzzfeed would publish. I thought it was a very good way to funnel your deprivation of social media and use that for your art work. I also thought it was a very good idea to extend your deprivation till the end of finals week. It shows how the importance of your deprivation extends far more than just for the project.
Katrina,
I liked your comic, pretty cool way to express your deprivation although there wasn’t a lot of detail in the images themselves you payed attention to the spacing, format, and atmospheric setting. Really good story telling as well, concise. I don’t use discord but recently started gaming and realized the side conversations I see fluttering in the corner of the screen give me mad anxiety, so I don’t know how you do it. But I assume its the same as any social chat room so I can relate to the disconnect feeling of not being able to write back. Great project!
Hi San. I thought that your art work was very well created. I appreciate that you decided to deprive yourself of all of social media instead of only one type. I think that the drawing you created was the best medium you could have chosen to do for your project. It really encapsulates your feelings of being dead to the world. Artistically, I thought that it was very smart that you included many dead iphones in your drawing because it further highlights your experience through your deprivation. Overall, it is one of my favorite projects I’ve seen so far!
Hi Katrina,
I love your drawing.
Even though I don’t personally use Discord, I understand how difficult it was for you because I also have a chatting app that I constantly use for staying in touch with my friends. Since the majority of people nowadays use a chatting app, I do find that many times when people become friends, they often add each other in the app rather than adding their phone numbers. As a result, if they stop using the app, they basically lose the way to contact their friends.
Your comics demonstrate the feeling of isolating from friends perfectly.
San! I really love the medium you expressed your deprivation with. By putting her into a coffin surrounded by many phones, I can see how much you felt lonely and out of place. Thanks for sharing and great artwork!
San’s picture is so vivid and true. People will die if their phone is out of battery. Even when they sleep, they want their phone in hand. It is true phone or social media help us communicate and get instant information from this world. It is the connection. However, I felt it is also not a good thing to have. My younger sister who is aged 10, have her phone with her all day long. I mean all day long. When we have meals together, she seldom talks about what happened at school rather she is smiling to her phone. I even can not put any anger towards her because this is a social phenomenon. In my opinion, deprivation social media and phone is essential at some point to make people’s relationship closer.
Hello San, I thought your project was very clever and very relevant to today’s generation in how we have grown so attached to digital media and technology as a whole. I liked how your art piece included multiple phones with a low battery symbol to represent how one lives and dies by technology because it has been a major part of his or her life.
Katrina,
From your project, I can really feel your loneliness. The comic was gray and dull and the character’s facial and body expressions showed the anxiety you felt. It was powerful because even a few minutes after seeing your drawings, I felt some emptiness in me too.
Katrina,
I used Discord on a daily and I would understand how miserable it probably was depriving yourself of it. From my personal experiences, getting Discord notifications while trying to study is the worst because I want to join my friends but I know studying is more important. I can’t help but feel like I’m missing out so turning off notifications is probably the best option, which is pretty much what your comic conveys. Good work!
San,
I think your idea of being dead without the phones is very interesting. For me, I would think without my phone I would be more “alive” because I am actually interacting with the world, but I understand your point of view. Without our phones, we may feel disconnected with our friends.
Hi San
I also did deprivation of media like phone. I have the similar feeling with you. there is endless relationship between people and media. We have relied on each smartphone too much so that we have missed a lot of things.
Mariela,
I love buzzfeed articles because they’re very easy and fun to go through. I liked how your article looks like normal buzzfeed articles. The gifs you chose were very interesting and funny too.
San T. La,
So just looking at the image, I felt confused, that you had died with dead phones, and it wasn’t until I read the description that I understood it. Your loneliness seems a little understandable, but you being you and not worrying about everyone else seems more understandable. I didn’t have social media until college, and everyone’s lives revolved around what everyone else was doing. I never had a chance to check up on that stuff, so I winded up not caring. To this day I don’t use snapchat, vine (i heard they shut down), or instagram, and I barely use my twitter. I pretty much use facebook to browse memes, FB messenger for primary communication (winded up giing up for my deprivation), and Youtube for entertainment.
Hi San,
I think your work displays the dependency of ourselves to our smart phones, and the result of that dependency will take us to the grave. Or maybe the boundage between ourselves and smart phone will not end until one participants die.
Hey Mariela,
I thought you representation of depriving yourself from social media through using Buzzfeed was unique, I understood what you were going through and in my opinion I liked how you used GIFs because myself, as an audience made it easier to understood your struggles of the deprivation and what you learned. Interestingly I also used Buzzfeed to represent my deprivation. I was reading your artist statement and I liked how you mentioned that you created a new project, instead of going with you first project because you felt you did not connect or fully represent your experience, which is great because as I stated before that by using Buzzfeed it made it clear for me to understand you experience.
Tanvir,
I totally agree, Mariela’s use of GIFs was very easy to relate to and understand, which is actually pretty funny and unique to us in our generation in itself. But anyways, that was what made me really ponder from this piece, how we so easily can communicate our thoughts and feelings from such unique forms of media, such as GIFs.
I really like San T. La’s Painting. I also deprive myself from phone and i do have the same feeling as she did. The art is really creative.
Hi San,
I love your drawing and creativity. I could relate so much to your drawing when I imagined myself with no battery in my phone.
I get anxiety and some kind of fear when my phone dies out because I won’t be able to call anyone in emergency and find a map to go back to home.
Hi Mariela
Your buzzfeed project was hilarious. Most of the gifs you had were also relevant to my deprivation experiences as well. I would just lie down doing nothing because as much as I would like to go on Reddit, I couldn’t.
Gifs these days are usually easily acceptable and can show how a person feels through digital devices more so than emotes. Using gifs made your project seemed more modern to me.
Katrina, I was very intrigued with your comic. It blows my mind how professional it looks and it really draws me in. It told a short story without having to say much about it. The details are uncanny so kudos to you. Also I liked how the comic was black, white, and grey because it gave the feeling of isolation and this is definitely a good route to take than full, bright colors. I can definitely feel the deprivation through the loneliness you conveyed in your comic. I can somewhat relate because when I’m trying to study I put my phone to the side and I can just see and hear my phone going off and I am so tempted to get on it to see what all my friends are saying.
Mariela,
Your Buzzfeed project was super creative, I would have never thought that it could be used as an extension of art while simultaneously advocating for this kind of deprivation from social media/technology. You tested the boundaries of art and technology and executed it perfectly. It was easy to understand, super relatable, and funny. I really liked that you incorporated some quotes from family and friends who were concerned at you not responding to their messages or posts, it reiterates how immersive and simultaneously exclusive this technology can be. Overall great job!
Hi, Katrina
I like your project and I think to create these wonderful work must spend a lot of time. I think you are creative and the comic is really interesting.
Hi, San
You are a great painter and I really like your work. I think you put a lot of efforts to the project and it is amazing. I think a great artist need to be creative and also try hard on his work. You are one of them.
Mariela, I really enjoyed your buzzfeed article! It was a really clever way of presenting your project and I loved all the GIF’s and memes you included! Since tagging our friends in memes is a way of communication these days, I thought it was hilarious that you thought of a way to implement this into your deprivation experience. All in all, your project was very clever and I really liked it!
San, when they first showed your artwork in class, I was immediately impressed. I like how simple your painting/drawing is yet the meaning behind it is complex. We are pretty much dead without our phones as much as we don’t like to admit it. It was clever of you to have the individual covered in dead phones rather than rose petals.
San, I thought your project did a great job of carrying your message across. To me, it’s a powerful statement on modern society’s heavy reliance on social media, and seeing your art made me question my personal dependence with my social media – so kudos to you!
Katrina: I like your artwork and the choice of media you chose to deprive, because depriving yourself from Discord is very unique. I know how hard it is to go without Discord, because it is my main form of communication with my friends and teammates. Your artwork is straightforward, well organized, and simple which is very appealing to your deprivation experience.
I love your artwork. Deprivation of social media is a huge difficulty to us now. Social media seems makes our relationships much closer because it makes our communications with friends much easier with friends, but it actually creates a gap between us and our friends because we do not want to meet them to talk due to advanced social media.
Hi Mariela,
Great job on your art piece! I really loved how each time caption and image that followed it made me laugh. It was definitely nice to see how you incorporated memes and gifs as a form of communication. Your turned simple phrases into comical sentences. Your experience must have been hard it isn’t easy to just eliminate technology from your life more than ever social media. But the way you portrayed your experience in this Buzzfeed was really funny and awesome. I don’t usually come across many gifs and only happen to catch a couple of memes but looking at your project there was so many things I missed out on that your project just flowed. Thanks for the laugh and great job 🙂
Mariela,
I think your buzzfeed was a very unique and creative way to depict your deprivation experience. Not only was it entertaining to watch, it definitely shows the talent and time behind your project. I love reading buzzfeed articles and think they are not overwhelming with too many words and get right to the point with their creative imagery. I understand that you had changed your project approach a few times until you were able to develop something you truly felt pleased with and I truly think this reflects on your project.
Hi San!
Your artwork is very eye-catching! I really like how it is concise and clear. It is not confusing or hard to tell what you deprived yourself of for the project. Overall, the work is very compelling and it makes viewers feel a certain way. I am sure that almost all of us can relate to what is being portrayed if we went without a phone/social media. We would feel completely and utterly disconnected and in this day and age, that is the equivalent of being dead, it seems. Your artwork is very appealing and detail-oriented; your use of shadows and color all go really well together. Great work!
Hi San,
Your artwork is definitely an eye catcher when it comes to the meaning of not having social media around. The way you drew multiple phones and them containing little to basically no battery was really clever. The way the painting was portrayed really illustrated an emotional attachment to something digital and technological as a phone. It has come to the point where our life is revolved a small item that takes a huge toll on our life when it isn’t present. Life as we know if can die right in front of us if we don’t have that media outlet to keep us informed about what happens in the world around us. It is a huge relief to know that by keeping yourself away you were able to see the amazing things you were able to do on your own and not go based on what others are doing that make their life so great. But it is a way to internalize what is really important. So great job really like the work of art 🙂
San! What a beautiful piece of artwork! I’m glad your’s was chosen and I was able to see it! I love how I just knew what it was about before even reading your Artists Statement. How I would feel “dead” to the world without a link to it, being in the casket and all. I also like how all of the phones were on low battery too, it made me laugh a little bit because there were so many of them. It’s kinda like all of the friends that you regularly communicate with — through social media — tossed in their phones at the service. I don’t know if that’s what you were going for, but I really loved your piece. Amazing work!
Hi Mariela. Your Buzzfeed article is very relatable to all of us. The GIFs perfectly depict our feelings and emotions when it comes to technology running our lives. It was very entertaining to read this article during class and I could totally relate to it if I were to give up the most important technology in my life, which would be my phone.
Hi San. Your artwork perfectly explains our generation today. We rely on our phones for literally EVERYTHING and if we were to lose contact from it, we wouldn’t be able to live without it and “die.” This is so much like me because I always carry a portable charger around to prevent my phone from dying and not being able to rely on it when I am out. Overall, I love your drawing and you’re very artistic!
Katrina: I love how you showcased your deprivation experience through a comic with images that were definitely relatable. Even though there wasn’t much going on in the images, the expression and how the girl was sitting in the room along with nothing around her emphasized some feelings of being in a dark/depression place. Especially for me, when I know that I have notifications on my phone, I can’t help buy respond to view what they are. If I see that the notifications are left there, I do feel a sense of anxiety, because now I KNOW that someone is trying to reach me. I think you did a great job visually showing the viewer the emotions and feelings that were experienced during the project.
Hi Mariela,
I personally think your project was most relatable since Buzzfeed articles something that’s totally flooding on social media pages. I like the use of your GIFs to project every emotion so accurately. The progression of the emotions along with the GIFs was spot on and you accounted for the minor emotions that occur during such deprivations.
I agree! I also find it pretty ironic that those types of buzzfeed articles are often what distract us from working in the first place, and yet this one encourages us to look away from it, and focus on productivity.
Hi San,
Beautiful drawing! I liked the phrase you used to base your drawing off of (“that you felt dead to the world”). It’s funny how we think once you take away one form of communication, we think it is impossible to contact others. There are so many and even better ways to to communicate with your friends (in person, calling, even mailing is more personable). I can definitely relate though that the moment your phone dies, we feel like we will die not only because of the loss of social media, but the loss of time, directions, weather, notes, banking, etc.
I completely agree with Lauren. I love the image you created. If it wasn’t for this class and the deprivation project, I’m pretty sure none of us would willingly go a day or more without our phones (or electronic devices). I like the detail you added to all the iPhone screen of the dead battery. This is the closest that most of us will experience of depriving ourselves from our phones. As soon as we run out of battery, we are essentially “turned off”, and can no longer communicate with those who are not in our immediate surrounds. I can definitely relate to how you felt during the deprivation and the emotions depicted within the drawing.
Great job!
Mariela, I loved your buzzfeed article! I am a huge fan of buzzfeed and I did not know they allow community posts! Your article was very funny and I loved how you used so many gifs, it must have been hard to find all of them and put it together!
Mariela chose a very unique form of representing her deprivation of social media with the Buzzfeed page filled with gifs that many people use social media to access and spread in popularity. This was a very clever display and the comedy of each gif accurately portrays your overall attitude toward your excessive use of social media which ultimately distracts you from your study time.
Mariela, I really enjoyed your project. I also did a short involving memes. I tend to use them a little to often in conversation and thought to use them in my project to demonstrate my tendency to use them. Really enjoyed your piece and the memes you chose for each description.
I really liked your piece. It seemed as if it took a lot of time and you paid attention to the small details such as the empty battery sign on the phone which I thought was a really important in the piece!
Hi Mariela,
I loved your deprivation project, especially how you used Buzzfeed to express your deprivation experience of social media. I relate with you on your whole experience with procrastinating on tasks through social media. I cannot say how many times that what could have been a simple one page paper that would have taken me an hour to write ended up taking half the day.
San T,
Your illustration is beautiful, I love the painterly way in which you handled this interpretation of your derivation. The fact that your body is reflective of the disconnection you felt during this process is really intimate yet, I think totally relatable to everyone. The batteries are dead, you are in a coffin, and although you are supposed to be dead your body seems more at a peaceful rest similar to snow white waiting for her prince. The prince is social media with all its marketable flattery, and consumerism designed perfectly for you. His steed is technology which will whisk fully take you to new and foreign lands. True loves kiss is the moment you connect your charger and allow your battery to be recharged, finally freeing you from your long slumber.
Mariela, I really liked your project. The whole time while reading it I could not stop laughing because it was so relatable. Your project was very creative and truly conveyed your emotions from your deprivation. Your use of memes was really creative and you were able to convey your feelings from the deprivation throughout all of them.
San your artwork was amazing! It showed a lot of emotion and really depicted your emotions during your deprivation. The colors you used really helped convey emotion especially your use of the blue-green color for the dress it really gave a sense of sadness but at the same time also conveyed a sense of calmness.
Katrina: I love how honest your depiction of your deprivation was. It was a very unique way to portray your deprivation as well, but your honestly in your artist’s statement was very real and raw. You said that the silence was deafening and it reminded me of how it feels to be in a social place when you don’t know anyone and your phone is dead. It was a very relatable emotion. Your comic made me wanting more to your storyline.
Mariela: I absolutely LOVED your Buzzfeed take on your deprivation experience. It was super easily to relate to, not only because I had gone through a similar experience, but also because Buzzfeed is a very common website for college students to procrastinate on. You utilized a lot of different technologies to put your project together, while still accurately telling the tale of your deprivation (and even including some humor in it).
San: Your artwork really stood out to me. Your attention to detail was very useful in showing the feeling of being dead when you don’t have you phone. I especially liked how you depicted the phones as being dead because that is a feeling we can all relate to: being out in public without the security blanket of our phones because they are dead.
Katrina,
I really enjoyed the comic you made. I can sympathize with your deprivation because I also used to use Discord to talk to others too. Back then Discord was my only way to talk to others while playing video games. Without Discord, I can’t imagine playing with others without talking to them. Typing out your words is a big hassle and Discord just made everything more efficient.
Hi San,
I really like the piece of drawing you created;it is beautiful and impressive. The painting greatly interpreted the feelings you had after your deprivation of the social medias. I understand how tough is the deprivation process because I had the same feelings as you did when I first depriving myself from the social media. Before the deprivation, I had a strong dependence on the social media; I had to look at my phone before I slept. However, after the deprivation, I felt more embraced to the face-to-face communication. I felt happier and less stressful compared to my previous one.
San,
I can’t imagine depriving myself from communication social media like you did. I too rely on facebook and other social media sites to communicate with friends, family, and coworkers. Not being able to communicate with others via the internet would make my life more challenging and less efficient. The way you portrayed yourself feeling dead without access to social media sites hit home to me. I would probably not feel dead from leaving social media sites, but I’d feel dead from not being able to talk to others I care about.
Hi San,
I have to mention that the different colors of green that you use to create the grass look amazing. It holds dimension and provides a wonderful background to your main subject’s color scheme of blues and purples. I definitely see a transition from cold hues to more earthy hues, giving the whole piece an impression that radiates the mood of “cold and six feet under the earth”.
By the way, is this digital art? Or did you physically use a medium to create this? If so, what medium?
Mariela your project seems like it took lots of time and creativity to finish. I admire that of your project! Your memes and gifs on the website made me laugh but it also sends very important messages about our world today. How people are always using their phones and texting and social media features in it. I felt when looking at your project if you did not participate in this, you did not seem to fit in with 90% of the people out there. Overall, you had a great project. Webpage creation I know can be a bit of a long task to do, but that shows your dedication the project as a whole.
Hi Ryan, I agree with you that her project really did send an important message about our world today. We use our phones so much it has become a norm to constantly be looking at our phones and being on social media. This project was a really eye opening experience and Mariela’s project really shows that.
Hi San,
Your project is incredibly beautiful to say the least. I cannot tell whether this image is a digital product or a creation of markers, but nonetheless I loved your use of colors. By creating a very soft piece (light colors) surrounded by dark figures (the dead cellphones), it adds a sense of individual vulnerability that each of us face. We have become incredibly reliant on social media and other forms of technology that within a short time frame, we feel as though a part of ourselves has been destroyed or forgotten by our family and friends.
San,
I thought this drawing was genius! I really liked how everything in the painting had a reason behind how you were feeling when you gave up all sources of social media. I liked the representation of feeling dead inside without it.
Mariela,
Although I don’t usually read Buzzfeed articles, just by seeing your project, I could see the format of their articles. That being said, I think you really did a great job on creating a detailed project, and putting gifs that are appropriate for your deprivation experience was one of the fun elements to see throughout your article.
San,
I really enjoy this drawing because it shows that even in death, you can’t seem to let go of the phone. It also seems as if the death of the iPhone is the same as the death of the person using it as well. I have seen some of my friends who cannot survive when their phone dies. They would always ask for a portable charger or need to find an outlet.
I agree with Carl on how your piece is a great analogy on how the death of a phone is the death of its user because nowadays you can easily see that happening in society. I know for myself personally that I start to freak out when my phone is below a certain percentage especially when I still have the whole day ahead of me. Our generation especially has this unique attachment to smart phones in that they really encompass our whole life. The death of a phone is the death on ones connection to the world, it seems these days.
Mariela,
I think your Buzzfeed article well created in the fact that it truly grasped the feeling of actually reading a real one. The organization of the animated gifs were entertaining. I think its is great that you are going beyond the deprivation just for the project because I have realized that social media really tends to take up a lot of time.
Katrina,
I thought your project was so beautifully done. It really conveys the message of how much social media as well as online presence plays a huge part of our lives. I happen to use Discord as well and I feel that if I were to play any games with friends, I would feel left out or lonely as I wouldn’t be able to communicate with them. This applies to all forms of social media for me because I am often in contact with people on different forms of social media. I think I would be miserable as well if I wasn’t able to communicate or check on what’s going on. I think you got your message across really well.
Mariela,
I thought your project was extremely creative as I never would’ve thought to portray my project in a form of a Buzzfeed article. I loved how accurate it was to other Buzzfeed articles because I have seen them as well. I enjoy how humorous your project was with the incorporation of a common form of visuals, GIF’s. I feel that a lot of the younger generation can actually relate while enjoying this form of media as it is often so funny yet relatable.
San,
I felt that your project was created beautifully, yet still portrayed your message clearly. I would agree with you that if I were to cut off all social media, I would feel dead to the world as well. Some people bash on social media and say that it takes away from your life; however, I believe it helps people interact with others even more. It is a form of connection to society and even the world. I never find myself not checking social media unless my phone is dead, which you also portrayed in your piece.
Katrina,
I think your project touches on a lot of aspects for the daily user of social media individual living in the 21st century. Interesting enough, I appreciate you used somewhat dark colours to represent your project where the last screen reading “quit” is dark. I think this is very meaningful as today’s world without the world wide web and social media would be very dark, and quiet to a greater extent.
Hey Wael,
I don’t necessarily believe the world would be a very dark place without the world wide web and social because some may argue that sometimes social media often restricts us from enjoying the beauty of the world. Many sit in their room(which may be the dark place) as they mindlessly spend their day on the web. However, I do agree that the world be less quieter in terms of the communication that goes on between individuals, whether it be contact with someone nearby or those that are thousands of miles away.
Katrina,
like many of these replies, I do agree about how your anime drawing was really able to ec=ncapsulate many of our peers thoughts of what it may be like without having notifications neverendingly vibrate our pockets, but what really resonated with me in your project was the fact that you left it kind of up to us in terms of how to interpret the ending. By ending with the quote, “It’s Quiet…” it allows the readers to determine whether or not this quietness is errie, and strange or something that is enlightening, and adventurous… Just imagine, a world without the constant updates of random things like how my neighbor’s dog just took its daily morning poop. HAHA
San,
This piece is amazing! All that drawn on the computer is just amazing. I envy your artistic and technical skills. I, too, deprived myself of social media for a week and I have never felt so lost. It felt like time stopped and I was just wandering aimlessly, not knowing what was happening in the world. I felt like the girl lying in her grave in your picture. Little did I know, there were other means of connecting with the world: news and just plain and simple communication with others. This project shows just how reliant we have become on our cellphones. It seems as if everything we need nowadays is just a click away. Your project embodies this message very well.
Katrina, I LOVE your little comic. You are very talented! As a gamer it must have been difficult to deprive yourself of Discord, I bet! I felt that your comic was concise but it did a very good job at expressing your deprivation experience. The last box where everything was black with a speech bubble saying, “IT’S QUIET,” gave me some mind-chills. Great job!
Mariela, I really enjoyed scrolling through your BuzzFeed page again after the display in class! Your images and GIFs especially were very entertaining and funny. This legit looks like a post that BuzzFeed would make! If no one told me a student made this, I would assume that it was published by BuzzFeed themselves. Great job on depriving yourself of social media! I’m glad you were able to discover that you were more productive without the consumption of social media!
San, depriving yourself of all forms of social media must have been a very triumphant feat! I REALLY like your drawing for this project because it is both beautiful and extremely relevant. When I saw it, I understood it as how when our phones (device to view social media) are dead, people in society today in a way, die as well. Living in such a technological age, people everywhere are seen sucked into the world of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Great demonstration of your deprivation!
Hi San, I also deprived myself of social media. I really love the concept of your artwork because it perfectly describes how I felt throughout the deprivation process. I felt somewhat “dead” to the world unable to communicate online, or when my phone died. Your artwork also made me realize how much we depend on our phones to feel, “alive”.
Mariela,
I think your project is awesome. I read Buzzfeed all the time and the gifs you chose were very funny and relatable. It was the perfect way to creatively get your message across.
Mariela, I thought your project was well crafted and really entertaining. Each gif tells a little story of its own and the way you connected them all to fit your scenario of deprivation was perfectly executed. I have to say the various emotions you show in your gifs are more or less what I felt as well; I deprived myself of internet memes.
I really liked Katrina Ledesma’s project “Silence”. Although I don’t use the Discord app, it made me think about my own life and social interactions. I use my phone to interact with everyone in my life. I call, I text, and I up on people on the mobile apps of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. This comic reminded me of when my phone broke and I had to change the way that I could keep in contact with people. I was able to relate to the feelings of the character in the comic. When I had my phone, life seemed so chaotic and there was so much noise in the world, but once my phone was no longer working I felt so left out, isolated, and alone. I loved you piece of work. It captured real life emotions so well. Great job!
I found Katrina’s response to her deprivation so interesting because I have been in her position before where I muted my friends and notifications. However, my response was that I felt so relieved. I wouldn’t know if someone was calling me or messaging me. It forced me to focus and put all of my energy into one thing. It did get hard but I didn’t feel lonely. However, I understand where Katrina is coming from. Everyone lives their lives on their phones or social media, so when all of a sudden you are not on it, it feels like everyone is moving on without you. Its like living in a different time zone as your friends. Your day may just have started but your friends’ day already ended.
Katrina,
Fantastic execution of your comic strip! Your drawings were very well done, but what I admire even more so was how well you were able to communicate the feelings of stress and anxiety which come with dealing the lack of having an online social connection system. I am not a gamer myself, but your piece really makes me wish that I was so that I could relate.
Mariela, your memes and GIFs were on fleek. For better or worse, it definitely shows that you know for internet media very well. I did have to ask, though, in creating these memes, how much time did you actually spend looking up other memes on the web simultaneously??
I also agree with Ryan, your memes were definitely on fleek. As a fellow memer, I enjoyed this project alot! To me, I feel like if i was depriving myself of social media, I would be depriving myself of memes, so I think it was a great approach to conveying the proejct! Great job!
Hi Ryan, it took a couple of hours–just to find the gifs. I was very picky in what I wanted, because I wanted the gifs to capture what I felt. I didn’t actually create the gifs, I found them on the web. Unfortunately, I noticed after I submitted my project that my citations don’t show up for each gif, on my published work. But when I go to edit the work, it’s there and I don’t know how to fix it.
Sandy, the execution of your piece is flawless! Congratulations! When I first saw the pile of phones inside the coffin, I immediately knew that you deprived yourself of your own phone for some time – a terrifying feat. Having done that on my own for fun over the summer, I too know how socially detached the experience can be. At the same time, your piece is also a beautiful reminder of the monetary expenses which comes with our social dependency on phones. Every few years (or months for some people), an upgrade must be made to stay up to date with current software and hardware. This upgrade comes at the cost of hundreds – hundreds of which we now spend out of necessity, not even desire.
Bravo!
Katrina,
Your comic was a dark yet honest representation of how the deprivation feels. It did a great job of showing the temptation of sitting next to your phone and taking all your self-control to not check it. Notification after notification piling up and driving you crazy….
Mariela,
Your Buzzfeed article was hilarious and so relatable. I love the incorporation of the memes and descriptive situations like being on the bus or walking to class. It was super entertaining and creative, and a great form to express your deprivation experience.
Wow, San, you definitely had a lot of courage to let go of not one or two, but ALL forms of social media for an entire week. I don’t think it’s dramatic at all to say you felt “dead to the world.” In reality, that’s how a lot of us felt when depriving ourselves of even a single app. Your drawing does a great job of showing that feeling, both by the display of the coffin and all the dead batteries on the several phones.
Katrina,
I thought your comic looked incredible! I think you did a good job at representing how incredibly tempting it can be to want to check your phone. I liked that she was in a nearly empty room, and that you had the light coming from the blind on the floor next to her. It made me think of how when I deprived myself it seemed like my desire to check my notifications was the only thing that mattered to me. I realized how much I had shut myself off from the world when I spent countless hours scrolling on my phone, never bothering to look out the window once in a while. I would definitely never change my password to random characters like that, but if I wanted to completely cut myself off from temptation, that would be a good way to do it.
This entire time, I was having trouble figuring out what the username and password part of Katrina’s project meant! Thank you for this comment, Victoria. Now that I understand, I totally agree with you. That seems like such a risky and scary thing to do considering I spend so much of my time on social media. Once the deprivation project is over, how would I be able to log on. However, if you did that Katrina, props to you! It seems like a very effective way of staying off social media. Making your project a comic was very unique, Katrina. I shared your artwork with my friends and they were in awe. Everyone agreed that a world without constant notifications of social media, be it likes, comments, retweets, pokes, etc, is just that: Quiet.
San’s art skills are amazing. Although you felt it was a bit dramatic to say you felt dead to the world, sadly that’s how a lot of people see it. If we don’t go on social media for a while nobody knows anything about you. But like you said, it’s refreshing because of the fact that we don’t have to impress anyone. Even on snapchat, those 10 second snaps can tell people where you are, who youre with, what youre eating, what youre doing, your entire day basically. And it feels refreshing now letting everyone know what’s going on 24/7.
Mariela’s project was the one I related to the most. I always tell myself I’ll use my phone for just a little bit and every thirty minutes I tell myself “ehh, I’ll study in thirty minutes” and it’s so bad because it’s like my phone completely consumes me. However, for my deprivation I decided to give up using social media and I’ve been so much more productive because of it as well. Although the project is already turned in, I’m still trying to not go on social media especially because finals are coming up so what I did is sign out of all my accounts and turn my data off for them so if I do get tempted to use it if I’m somewhere where there is no wifi, I’ll still be restricted from it.
Hi San,
I LOVED this! I thought this concept was so simple yet had so much meaning to it. I love the creativity and the craftsmanship you presented. I think this artwork definitely captured the essence of the project, so, well done!
San,
I think it’s interesting how we both did similar deprivation experiences, and had very different experiences. The first couple of days of my experience, I really did feel like your image. It was annoying, and I felt really disconnected, I couldn’t see what my friends where talking or laughing about. It makes me wonder, had your experience been longer, if it would’ve been perhaps a maybe more positive–and the positive would’ve outweighed the negative in the beginning. I like how in your artwork, the colors are blander, darker, really giving off a gloomy vibe.
Wow, Great respect from me for depriving yourself from your phone for such a long time a be able to find the positive affect of it. I am also addicted to smartphone but then I did not have the courage to deprive myself from it.
San, your drawing definitely shows a pretty accurate representation of how most people (including me) probably felt at some point throughout this deprivation. I like how you allude giving up social media as being dead to the world because it truly is giving up a part of your life/soul. I’m glad you felt positive things despite the deprivation and recognized other things in life. Great job!
Hi Katrina!
Your comic said a lot about how you felt in a few slides. The last dialogue “it’s Quiet” speaks a lot about how it felt during the deprivation experience. From lots of “noise” to hearing absolutely nothing. It created a sense of emptiness and reminded me of how I felt when I went through my deprivation.
Katrina’s comic was really entertaining and one of my favorite works from Thursday. The range of emotion she captured from using filming angles gives us a feel of how tormented and powerless she felt during her deprivation. The blur and focus lines throw our attention to the panic and desperation she feels when she’s tempted. The ending for me seems to have a bit of loneliness mixed in with the relief of not having any notifications, since it leaves her expression up to the reader.
San’s project picture was my favorite! I thought it was very clever and well thought out, and in one simple picture I was immediately able to distinguish what she deprived herself of and how well she handled it (or how well she didn’t handle it). The drawing was very intricate and well detailed, will all the phones with a dead battery in a casket. I also cannot draw at all, so this drawing is extremely impressive and makes me wish I had the ability to create such a masterpiece!
I really enjoyed Mariela’s project. The buzzfeed article really seemed so genuine and it played out so well that it seemed very real. The authenticity made me feel like I was looking at a regular buzzfeed article.
Mariela, I think you captured the Buzzfeed format perfectly. The content almost perfectly describes how people would feel after deleting social media. Great work!
Katrina your work is one of my favorites of this project. The other favorite of mine was the website that crystal made, I really could not pick between your two. I can not believe you created your own manga to showcase your deprivation. I think the artwork, storytelling, and pace of the piece was really on point. How you let your pictures speak your thoughts and show your emotions was the highlight in my opinion. I showed your project to my other friends and they all had to agree that what you did was amazing and relatable to lots of people. It was funny, emotional, and a powerful piece. On a last note, I think my favorite part of your artwork was the part where you created a random new password that you would not remember to make sure you do not succumb to your addiction haha. Fantastic work.
I want to echo this comment. Great job, Katrina! Your webtoon was really creative and nicely made. I enjoyed the different techniques such as the use of lines and space in the frames to express the feelings of frustration and isolation. I can definitely relate to this comic as I myself was so tempted to break my deprivation experience that I wanted to log out.
Hey Mariela, your buzzfeed post was really funny to read. In fact I did not know we all could make our own buzzfeed post, I thought it was locked for only people who work for buzzfeed, so I thought that was cool haha. Either way I really enjoyed your deprivation experience artwork and the ending with how you are saying you choose to live your life now deprived I think captures the whole point of this project. We may think that we can’t live without a certain thing that we hold dear, but in the ned most of the things we cherish are materialistic and it wouldn’t be to bad to put it a way for awhile. We may never know if our lives are better without that certain item until we let go and I think your project really captures this point well. I’m glad you were able to realize something at the end of this deprivation project.
San T La, your illustration of your deprivation project was really a sight to behold. I like how after I read your artist statement it made it really clear how the days went by without social media felt like you were dying a bit inside and I think thats what your image really shows. How during your deprivation, everywhere you look there were always people with phones that could connect easily to their social media, while you could not do anything of the sort. Really great piece and will have to say the color choice of your artwork was fantastic. A picture is worth a thousands words isnt it?
San’s piece is my favorite out of all the exemplary arts. This is probably due to bias because my art piece was similar. Nevertheless, I really like it because social media has been such a distraction to many students. How many times do you check your phone for each hour of studying? Now, how much time in that hour was actually spent studying and spent on the phone? It can be very surprising to many how much time they spend not being productive. The girl laying in the bed of phones is really representative of what our minds rely on to give us ease. When depriving yourself of social media, there is an urge that is hard to prevent where social media must be checked. This art piece does a really good job of sending this opinion and message. It portrays technology as beneficial only if the user is responsible with it. The somewhat negative connotation that this piece gives represents the direction in which the young generation must learn to resist.
You are very right Connor, especially now that finals week is upon us, you would expect all of us to be super focused in studying right? But i know I am guilty of opening up my phone and instantly becoming enveloped in the social media world, and by the time I look up from Facebook or something an hour has passed away. Technology has really started to grow on us and its our responsibility to always take things in moderation. Even though it might “kill” us in a sense as San’s piece shows, depriving ourselves from social media would give us back a lot of our own time in my opinion.
I agree, I feel like representing the girl in the coffin was a very powerful choice, and shows just how strongly our lives are tied to social media and the internet, and how being off social media affects the way the world sees and interacts with us.
Mariela , you project is so true and interesting. I believe that this is how I would feel if I deprive myself from social medias. The formatting of your article is very nice and the gif that you used are very funny. I have so much fun looking over your project .
I agree, while I have seen a lot of other people who have given up social media for the deprivation project, but Mariela’s work on buzzfeed was the most interesting. Gifs are always the best way to attract people and it was very entertaining reading all of the images she put together. Great work and the message at the end of the buzzfeed article was the best.
Hi Borey!
San’s project caught my eye from the get-go and I really like his dedication to his project. The face that he chose to cut out social media for a week is something really big in this day and age. Almost all college students have some form of social media and we update it daily to keep others in the loop about what’s going on in our lives. If we cut this out, we choose to disconnect ourselves from our friends, family, and peers. The medium in which San chose to deliver his project might be seen as extreme, but I think it is a perfect representation of how one of us would feel if we cut all social media out of our lives. A lot of us spend most of our time looking at our phones on social media apps- without this, we only spend minimal time using our phones for what they were originally made for- communicating with others. In a sense, giving so much of our time to these applications also kill a part of who we are because we spend so much time caring what we present to others and how we are perceived. I like the form in which San chose to present this as it could be taken on many different levels and interpreting it from different perspectives.
Mariela: I loved your idea to make a Buzzfeed article for your project, it is super cool and creative. I didn’t even know that you could do something like that on Buzzfeed! Reading through it feels like something they would do, so great job on that. It is very cool that you found that social media was getting in the way of enjoying your life more, and the ability to be more productive is something that I’m pretty jealous of. Overall, great project! 10/10!
Hi Gregory!
I agree that Mariela chose to present her project in a very cool and innovative way. I think it is also almost satirical that she chose to present it this way because Buzzfeed relies heavily on social media to get hits on it’s articles. In a way, this is almost similar to making an Instagram feed to reflect the time wasted on social media. So much time nowadays is spent looking at our phones and computers and technology has contributed to this and I like how she was able to realize that we don’t need it to be productive!
I want to show great respect to San for having the courage to deprive him / herself from iPhone. I am also addicted to my iPhone but then when I do the project I did not dare to choose iPhone because I know that I would not be able to live without it. Speaking of the artwork, I think it looks absolutely stunning. I can see through the art work how the San actually feel when having all the phone around but then all of them are running out of battery. What could be worse than that?
Hey Bryan, it seems like whenever we’re walking around campus, people are glued to their phones. I think this piece definitely captures some of the feelings that people would have if they had to go without their phone for a while.
Hi Mariela!
I really enjoyed your buzzfeed article, it was hilarious! I can relate on so many levels when you mentioned that several hours go by before you start your homework because of social media. I give you props for deleting all your social media apps for several weeks, that is something I cannot do. I would feel lonely and disconnected from everyone because I use Snapchat to see what my friends are doing. By deleting social media, I can imagine how much time you have to study and motivation because there is no way to distract yourself.
Hi Katrina!
I did not know what Discord was until I asked my cousin and I slightly understand how it feels to cut yourself off from the main source of communication with friends. I am surprised that you felt anxiety and relief at the same time because those are two different emotions but I can see where the anxiety would come in from a sudden disconnect from your online friends and the relief from the mental break you took.
I really enjoyed Katrina’s project as well! I think that the illustrations are very well done. The choice of color really does set the mood and matches the situation well. I believe that Katrina’s skills in making comics causes SILENCE to be very easy to look and read through. Our generation is so used to receiving notifications and hearing our phones go off many times a day. It gives us a very satisfied feeling, knowing that we are on someone’s mind at some point of the day. However, since Katrina knows that she is unable to engage in the messages on her phone or even check what is happening on her device, this causes a great deal of anxiety, frustration, and sadness. This causes her to snap and log off in order to stop the notifications from Discord. As a result, it is quiet and Katrina leaves us with an illustration of her realizing how quiet life has become. Katrina expresses that the silence causes both anxiety and relief, which makes sense because it is so different and takes some getting used to.
I agree! Katrina’s comic was really good. She is able to convey how sad and anxious she feels from being deprived from her phone. She is able to show these emotions through drawings which is even more fascinating. The ending just hits you with how silent the world is when we turn off our phones.
Definitely agree with you Jeanny. I think most of us are afraid of relinquishing any type of media that we use to connect with friends because we are scared that we might be forgotten or miss out on something. However, I think it is important to realize that we might actually be better off from these addictions. The power of anxiety that was shown in this piece is what I think stops us the most from letting go certain things, because we might feel alone. But I think we have to learn that without these sources of communications doesn’t mean we lose our friends, they will still be there when we come back. We do not have to dedicate our lives to it and I think thats the relief Katrina felt at the end of her drawing because she realized its not the end of the world without these types of communication. It is okay to put our phones down.
Hey San!
First of all, you’re a great artist! I would definitely feel the way you did when you deprived yourself for a week from social media, lonely. I feel like social media is a form of communication that connects us to other people, to the world. I cannot imagine my life without social media because it’d be somewhat impossible to keep up with all the latest news with family and friends.
Hi San,
I really enjoyed your drawing! You are so talented.
The fact that you drew a little girl lying in a coffin with dead phones, out of battery, all over her is so impressive and meaningful. It represents perfectly what you said “felt like you were dead to the world”. I could absolutely understand your feeling since I am also the kind of person relies so much on phones. By the way, drawing dead battery on phones is such as smart idea!
San: First things first, I just want to say that your art piece looks really great! I believe that social media is a huge part of life in this era, and by being too connected, we lose sight of everything else that is not part of the digital world.
I also admire San’s artwork! I find the deprivation experience quite difficult — giving up all social media is very tough in this day and age. Feeling “dead to the world” may seem dramatic at first, but it also makes sense because everyone who uses social media has an online presence, or second life. Also, a phone without social media may as well be the same as a phone with a dead battery. My last phone was almost always dead because of a faulty battery, so I relate to this project because whenever my phone died, I would feel very disappointed and in a way, dead as well. Therefore, in a way, I connect to the girl in the work. As for the art, I find the piece very beautiful and well done!
Hey Ericca, I feel like thats the general response that most people feel nowadays when their phone is dead. Sad. Because it means that they can no longer connect online to their social media. However, I think that us becoming so fixated on our phones is actually a problem because what happened to the days when we would be so happy to go outside and play rather than staying indoors to surf the internet? Maybe San’s artwork showing a girl dead with phones surrounding her serves as a wakeup call to humanity. Why should we die because our phones die? Wouldn’t it be better if we rise higher and be more happy when our phone is dead because then we can actually communicate with people in the real world, face to face.
Katrina: Your choice of deprivation was quite different, and one that I would not expect people to do. I find it interesting how you felt both relieved and anxious from all of the silence that you encountered from not having Diskord. Those aren’t generally two feelings that come together from the same experience.
San: I love how your art describes feeling dead to the world when your phone is dead. My phone battery is horrible and it is constantly dying, and I always get that same exact feeling. You develop a feeling of hopelessness, like now that your phone is dead there is nothing that you can do in the world, and I love how you represented that in your medium.
Mariela: I think that your deprivation was represented in a very cool way! We hear of people deleting Facebook and Instagram and various sorts of social media all the time, and then we hear and see the generic emotions that they feel. Your piece was very unique, and stimulated my interest in your deprivation experience.
San: wow, you’re a trooper for giving up all social media for a week. i don’t think i would’ve been able to last. but i really agree with your art when depriving yourself of all social media. i think depriving yourself of just one will kill me just a little bit. because on facebook, people don’t post about daily life, they do that on snapchat. but if you give up snapchat, you feel like you’re missing the daily life of your friends but if you delete facebook, you’re missing out on all the memes. so yes, you die a little when social media is not used but it’s also the feeling dead to other people too because not only are you not able to see other people’s daily life, your friends aren’t able to see yours either, hence death.
Mariela: I really liked your project and it made me laugh because i relate so closely to everything in your buzzfeed article. i enjoyed laughing at all the gifs that tied everything together for your project. i actually gave up youtube for my project and it had a pretty good impact for me too. and i decide to leave the youtube app deleted on my phone until after finals because like you, i just randomly pick up my phone and scroll through videos on youtube and i could waste about 3-4 hours of my day on it.
San T. La; sweet concept. I had never thought of how this project would affect others around you. Although I did not give up social media like you did, deciding to not use a phone for 2 weeks also yielded the same results. Love the work, digital art definitely isn’t easy.
Hi San!
I also deprived myself of several social networking sites for my final project and can sympathize with you. Even though it was quite liberating to live in the present for a few days, I still felt as if I were missing out on something.
You are quite a talented artist and did a great job of conveying your innermost feelings. It makes me sad to think that our generation depends so heavily on social media platforms to the extent that when we unplug from them we feel as if we have completely disconnected from our existence.
I find it interesting how you mention that you “felt as if [you] were missing out on something.” I get that feeling all the time whenever I don’t check on my social media accounts for an extended period of time. It’s just funny because of how ironic it is. You feel like you are missing out on something when you aren’t constantly on social media, but in reality, you miss out on even more when you are constantly on social media.
Hey Katrina,
I thought your project was really cool. I feel that it really shows how your deprivation experience felt in a more dramatic way. I really liked that you chose to write a comic because I think it tells a story about your experience rather than leaving us thinking about how everyone felt about their deprivation experience. I also really liked that before you change your password to keep away the notification’s all you had to say was that it was quiet and your character is sitting there looking at their phone as if she wants to hear something from her phone. This was a really cool representation of your deprivation experience.
What an art piece! Great job! I really like your idea and the way you expressed it. Without social media, life can be a grave.
Hi Mariela,
I really like your project, it’s very funny, when I was going through your project it made me laugh the whole process. Social media is one thing that most of the people today can’t live without it and I think your deprivation process reflected most people’s feelings when they can’t use social media. Although social media plays an important role in our daily life, if we spend too much time on it, it’s bad because it will distract us from what we are doing. So don’t spend too much time on social media and you will find that you will concentrate on what you are doing.
I also love Mariela’s project because of its humor. This is something that I have not been experienced with in the past because I thought that art are just about beauty but through Mariela project, I know that art could make jokes too.
I had a great time viewing Mariela’s project as well. The fact that she was able to recreate a Buzzfeed article and nail it shows that she’s a pretty avid social media user herself. Mariela brought up how much time she wastes while using social media, and I am aware that a lot of students can spend/waste a lot of their time on sites just like Buzzfeed. Therefore, it is quite fitting that Mariela decided to use a form of social media to express her deprivation of it. I believe that the choice of gifs and the captions for them were all on point and very humorous in a Buzzfeed way. The point of these articles is to be so relatable that it’s funny, and I believe that Mariela did a great job. I am also pleased that she has decided to continue her deprivation to help her academics.
This was a really powerful piece that showed the lengths people go through to keep their phones. It showed the tragedy yet peaceful resolve people have, her phone became the object she takes to the grave but her face shows no sorrow or regret about that fact.
Mariela Martel
WOW. Seriously so pro. I love buzzfeed and read it a bit. It was like an actual article by them. I could relate to it so much. I read it again and have shared with friends because of how on point it is. I love the ending.
Bear San,
First of all, I have to say I really love your drawing. A girl lying in a coffin with a lot of cell phones. I guess it means we are like dying without social medias? Nowadays people rely more and more on social medias. Without social medias, we are not making any connections to the world. However, I don’t think this is a good phenomenon because we are losing the ability to get along with others in real world if we rely too much on social medias. So I think your deprivation is very meaningful.
Hi Katrina!
Your comic was very good! It depicted how I feel sometimes when I need to focus I literally shut down everything, it’s so hard to when there’s so much going on in social media, but it’s necessary. But then its like toooo quiet and I like lose my mind. I really like the comic piece, where the password is changed to random letters out of frustration because that’s exactly how deprivation feels. During finals week I usually have one of my close friends change my passwords for me, which is the only way I will literally not check my phone.
Hi Mariela!
Your deprivation medium was one of the more entertaining ones to watch. The gifs are spot on with how I would feel if I deprived myself of social media. I feel the same way when I have to do homework or work in general, I spend so much time just scrolling through social media to “catch up”. Giving up social media would be extremely difficult for me. I applaud you if you keep this up. Good job!
Hi San!
Your artwork is amazing! It was a great medium to showcase your deprivation using your talents. I could not imagine disconnecting from social media since there is just so much going on in the technological world. I would feel lost, but I feel like after a while the deprivation would grow on me and I would be more productive, not really thinking of social media.
San,
Your art project definitely exemplifies what your wrote in your artist statement about “feeling dead to the world”. I like how your art shows that even though the girl is dead and the phone’s battery is dead, she still tightly holds on to her phone. To me, that symbolizes our reluctance to give up our phones even in the worst situations. An interpretation that I’ve immediately thought of when I saw your artwork was that the phones drove the girl to her own death. Figuratively speaking, I too feel dead to the social media world without my phone, so I can definitely relate to the image that you’ve shown in your artwork.
Katrina,
your project was very nice. I to had my phone constantly buzzing and I like how when your comic disconnected it was silence like she was silencing the world in a way. it had a dark twist and I liked that because once you are disconnected from social media you are disconnected from the world in some way and left to be alone and feel isolated.
Mariela,
your project was hilarious , relatble and so unique. I feel like everyone has seen articles like this throughout social media and the way you tied your project to your experience through gifs in this article was brilliant. I really enjoyed it.
San T. La,
first of all I loved your art work. I too deprived myself and felt like I was missing out and dead to the world. it made me love your art even m ore I think because my similar experience made it more relatable to myself. I like that you used death of not only you but your phone.
Mariela,
You did a great job with your project! It fits the st of ayle Buzzfeed article perfectly, so much that I, the instructor, and most likely the rest of our peers couldn’t even tell it wasn’t an official article. I also found that it’s one of the projects that is able to really create an understanding with younger readers with its use of GIFs and memes. It effectively uses youth culture and technology to send a message.
Hi Mariela,
I thought your project was very creative and entertaining. You took what was a popular media and worked with it for your project which I thought was very clever. Nice work!
San,
I love your piece! It’s an amazing creative work that really showcases the effort and time you’ve put into the class. I’m in love with it and admittedly am a little jealous that my project wasn’t nearly this good! I love how dead phones are thrown into the casket rather than roses, it seems that soon throwing a phone really might represent something more deep and sentimental than a rose.
Hi Katrina.
I really like your project. It shows creativity and it is also very interesting. It is a great project.
Mariela – hilarious and innovative to use the Buzzfeed format. Considering how popular gifs are, your creative project is most definitely relatable and very fun to scroll through. It took me on the deprivation journey with you.
Katrina – hilarious and innovative to use the Buzzfeed format. Considering how popular gifs are, your creative project is most definitely relatable and very fun to scroll through. It took me on the deprivation journey with you.
Hi Katrina,
I really enjoyed your comic. I thought that it was dark and deep and it portrays how technology kind of locks us in with its notifications and media. Technology is really distracting when we just have right in front of us. When I am doing my homework, when I hear a ding on my phone, I immediately lose my focus. I think that your piece touched on that a bit.
I really like your interpretation of the piece Nicole. Her artwork does show how technology is slowly keeping us locked inside of rooms, to the point that we might feel like its the end of the world. Any communication base media has increasingly become distracting towards our generation and sometimes powering off our phones is not enough. Which is why I think in the comic Katrina made the girl change her password to something completely random to ensure that she does not log into any of her social medias. Phones have become rather distracting because we hold it to such a high point. Think once we realize that its only materialistic we will be much better and feel that “relief” that the character at the end of the comic strip felt.
Hi Mariela,
I thought your piece was amazing, it made me laugh and happy. Unlike most people, you portrayed a somewhat positive effect of this technology deprivation. You portrayed some of the feelings you had that were positive in your piece and Buzzfeed is a fun platform. I loved the Gifs and thought that was a creative use of technology for this project.
Hi San,
I really like how you used the Iphones to symbolize how you felt inside during your deprivation. Your piece is not only symbolic but it is also appealing to the eye. Even though it represents you in a depressed and dead like state from the lack of social media. It relates to the way a lot people feel about social media. Once it’s gone, we feel like we lost connection with everyone we know. It’s a common feeling that we all have and I like how your portrayed it in your piece.
I totally agree with you, San’s painting is wonderful and gives me a lot of information. I can read loneliness from the dead girl with so many dead phones in her work, but I can also see beautiful lives full of energy through the green part of her painting, which, I think, indicates the positive changes she mentioned in her statement.
Hi San,
Great work! I found your project to be beautiful and sad. As I read your artist statement and viewed your piece, it made me realize that are lives are truly dependent upon the technology world, especially social media. It is devastating to me that we as mankind are glued to our screens, hoping to get instant gratification from a like, comment, or instant message. I wish that there was a way that everyone could give up social media for a week, so we as individuals could remember the importance of interpersonal relationships and even just living in the moment, without the attachment to a digital world.
Hi Katrina,
I really appreciated your project as you depicted silence to be distressing and relieving at the same time. I think this is a perfect example of how our generation cannot appreciate complete utter silence since we have so many distractions around us. I like how you described silence to be a momentary relief, as too much silence gives us anxiety. Whether it’s social media, music, or games, we seem in a way, unable to live by taking in the world around us and just being.
I also agree with Lauren! Though she said it was stressful to live without discord, it seems as though her deprivation experience has revealed to us how distracted we are. For example, I realized when studying for finals, it was very hard to not pick up my phone every so often to check for notifications. In addition, I had to have music or study with someone else in order to actually do something.
Hi Katrina!
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I really liked the comic strip you made. It was really nice and I think it did a really good job of expressing how you felt. I personally don’t play games, so I have never experienced getting to communicate with those you play with. I can imagine that it would be a drastic change playing in silence compared to being able to speak with those who you are playing with. I like how you picked a project that encompasses what you enjoy!
Thanks for sharing your project with us!
Hi Rusteen,
From what I’ve heard from my friends, Discord is one of the premiere methods of communications that gamers use to play large multiplayer games. As such, trying to play these games without discord would be like trying to play a board game with your friends in complete silence. I especially enjoyed how Katrina decided to illustrate this silence by placing the setting of the comic strip in a jail cell.
Mariela! Wow, I really liked your project. I enjoy things that make me laugh and your project did that. I love how you incorporated gifs into your project. I find it neat how you incorporated something that has recently became so popular into your project.
Mariela, I love your project! First of all, I love Buzzfeed, so I adore the platform you chose to express your deprivation experience with. You are so right when you wrote how hours would go by before you start on your work because you told yourself “15 minutes” of scrolling on social media before working really hard. It was also interesting how you got to notice how people look like on their phones while you didn’t have much reason to be on yours anymore! I am sure you got to notice the obsession people have to their phones since you gave up all your social media! It was really bold of you to give up so much, but I am glad you got to realize a lot from it! Thanks for sharing!
I completely agree with you Rusteen! The fact that she used buzzfeed itself as the medium for her art project really showed our society’s obsession with scrolling through social media. Literally scrolling through the art project seemed so natural and almost made me forget it was a project rather than an actual article! I really enjoyed the article and it was able to show your deprivation experience very well.
Hi San!
I am really impressed that you actually gave up ALL social media platforms for your project! That is really bold to do. Your project is also very beautifully done! I would have to agree that when I decide to take off certain social media platforms from my life, I do feel a lot more at ease because I don’t feel like I am missing out anymore, and can spend my time doing better things! I certainly don’t think I can give up ALL my social media for a a very long time, but it is really good to take a break here and there. Thank you for sharing your experience with us!
Mariela,
I really enjoyed your project! It looks like you had a lot of fun with making the Buzzfeed article and you had some really interesting and creative ideas. I thought it was a great idea to use this medium for your project, it’s something I’m sure we could all relate to. You did a really good job covering all aspects of your deprivation experience and it was definitely entertaining to read through.
Ariel:
I agree with you! First this topic is very relatable to us in some ways. Because there is at least one or two social media platforms that we each drawn into. And the fact that she gave up every shape and form is very brave. Secondly, Mariela does a great job to express her thoughts in a creative way. Buzzed article is a very up-to-date platform that is very relatable! My project is in fact in the same format, too! I must say I had a fun time myself when I create it! 🙂
Katrina,
personally, your project was one of my favorites. Comics aren’t really something you see as much nowadays and I’m really glad that you decided to portray your deprivation this way. I love that it tells a story and you can connect that story to depriving yourself of a lot of things on your phone or just your phone in general.
San,
I love the way you decided to portray your deprivation. It’s crazy that this world has ended up to the point that without social media, people feel “dead” to the world. It’s kinda sad really, but your drawing definitely portrays an accurate description of feeling extremely disconnected without social media. I personally kinda like it because I get more stuff done and get to focus on people rather then the persona of people, but overall I loved your drawing and you seem like a very talented drawer.
Hi Meriela
Your Buzzfeed article is one of the most interesting articles I have ever read. The way you record your feeling and the use of images are very clear and attractive. The comedy instead your article is great. When I was reading your project, I could feel how much you were when you deprive yourself from technology and it reminded me of myself. I had the similar experience before and felt just like the way you did.
hello San
I really like your painting. One painting expresses so much information. The way you express how much people are addict toward phone is impressive. When I saw the picture for the first time, I thought about myself and how depressed I was when my phone dead. Your painting expressed my situation so well. I really like it.
Mariela, your project was my absolute favorite, especially being a frequent Buzzfeed user. It looked like an actual article posted from them. I enjoyed it a lot and it was relatable especially to many others since many of us use gifs to describe certain situations we are in. This really shows how creative you got because I would have never thought to make a Buzzfeed article with gifs so kudos to you. This project was clear and concise and I got your message right away.
Katrina,
I really enjoyed your comic strip. Being a user of Discord as well I understand every moment of your comic strip because it is like me when a test comes up. I have to push away the app and feel the same sense of loneliness depicted in your work.
To Mariela: I really enjoyed looking through your article. I love how every single thing was true and the gifs even made it better! I think using gifs was a clever idea because everyone loves a good gif. It is very relatable and it makes more of an impact on your message. I especially liked the last gif because although I know that social media takes a lot of my time, I also can’t just completely take it out of my life. However, it made me realize that I can definitely lessen my use of social media especially for finals week.
San,
I loved the meaning behind your painting, and I also liked the way you explained in class why you drew the dead batteries on each of the phones. I noticed that whenever I don’t go on social media for a period of time, I feel slightly disconnected as well. On snapchat, I like watching my friends’ stories to see what they’re doing and in a sense, it’s my way of “communicating” with them indirectly, so when I don’t watch people’s stories that day, it feels as if I missed out on something.
San, I really love your drawing. Being the only sibling out of three with no artistic talent, I really admire, and slightly envy, those who can draw. I really like the colors that you chose for the drawing. The cool and dark colors make it seem rather serene and peaceful. It’s almost as if being without your phone isn’t a bad thing at all. It reminds me of my project where I deprived myself of digital audio, so instead of walking to class listening to podcasts or music, I would be able to hear my footsteps and little snippets of conversations of those around me. It was peaceful without the noise. Your drawing seems to be a representation of that peace and quiet, even if it’s not a literal quiet.
I agree! I was honeestly thinking of making an illustration too but I would’ve defifnitely been beaten by San. Good job, San! I was also wondering what mediums did you use? Photoshop? Adobe Paint?
To Mariela,
I loved your project! It was very funny and creative. I can relate to your project. You captured the essence of Buzz Feed almost perfectly. Great Job.
Hi Katrina! I too use some application to communicate through voice rather than just the chat function built in within a game. I can only imagine how hard it would be to stop using Discord, making your friends and gaming experience that much more stressful. I wonder if there were any positive emotions that came out of it? Because I personally can’t think of any
Hi Mariela!! Your project not only depicts your deprivation experience but I personally really enjoyed it as well! It’s funny and interesting to see how far social media has come and to see that gifs are becoming the primary way people are actually communicating! In addition, using the buzzfeed website as your medium made it even more interesting as it is a social media itself, maybe portraying that we can never escape?
Katrina,
Your comic strip and the choice of monotone colors represented your feelings of loneliness very well. For such a simple comic strip, you depicted your feelings very clearly.
I agree. I could feel the emotion through the comics. I really liked it.
Hi San! I applaud you for being able to give up social media for a week. I honestly really thought about doing that too especially since finals are approaching and I would not want any distractions. The art that you have produced I personally think that it really depicts your deprivation experience because I honestly would feel dead without it too. In addition, I perceived the dead battery symbols on your phone to mean without social media, the phone is nothing. If you think about it now, many people use their phones for social media outlets rather than actual phone calls.
Mariela,
Your choice of making a buzzfeed article as your project was so fitting for depriving social media. I think buzzfeed in general kind of captures social media and you did the same by capturing your deprivation experience. Overall, it was really light hearted and funny despite your negative experiences.
San,
I really loved your artwork. I must say that I could definitely relate to your experience. I too deprived myself of social media and at the beginning, I did feel as though I was “dead” in the sense that I was missing out on so much. I truly enjoyed how you portrayed that.
Mariela:
I had fun reading your buzzfeed article, and now I am even more impressed with your project briefing. Not to mention that I got a good laugh while I was reading the article in class, but now I found out that it took you two tryouts to compose with this piece. I see my friend (and sometimes myself too) to give up a work when we aren’t really finished, because we almost have other plans in mind. I know sometimes my work is not perfect and there is room for improvement, but I am so distracted by the upcoming events and wanted to give up. And most of the distraction comes from social media I’d have to admit. You know when my phone is extra buzzy when I am about to go out with my friends? A bunch of them get super excited (which I don’t blame them at all!), but I could not force myself to concentrate! But after reading your briefing, I feel so inspired and I wanted improve the quality and the efficiency of my work by seriously locking my phone somewhere!!
Katrina, I would just like to start off with, I believe you project was very creative and amazing! I think it was an excellent choice to make a manga/comic piece since obviously there is no sound to go with it, which makes one go through a little of what you went through when they read it. Also, the manga piece itself was intriguing and made me somewhat feel a little bit of what you went through because it made me think about not having discord when I play games with friends. It would make everything a lot more boring and quiet, when hearing your friends while you play makes every game 10 times better. Great Project!!!
San, I feel your drawing represented your experience with this deprivation really well. What really stood out to me was that all the phones had a dying battery symbol on them. I feel that you made a good choice by including the battery in the drawing. Without it, it wouldn’t have been as meaningful. Like how you said, I felt the connection between you and your phone was clear. Your phone’s battery was dead, and thus, you were also dead.
Katrina I really loved your comic. It really shows how difficult it is to not look at your phone when you have even 1 notification. Your curiosity just wants to open it to see what activity is on your profile. You really showed that well in your comic. Once the social media is disconnected as you depicted in your log off scene, the girl in the picture did look very sad. That is how people in real life also feel, that when they are not on social media, their life is boring. They get sad and then sink into a state of mini-depressions. I really think your work is amazing and should have been presented to everyone in class today!
Hello San,
Great painting that clearly explains how people abuse smartphone daily; how people rely on their phone daily; and somehow I feel the same as your painting. When my phone’s battery goes off, I really don’t no what to do, and just like I am dying with my phone. What a irony painting but positively making people re-concerning about their overloaded smart phone usage.
I agree with you that smart phones today are such on heavy use and reliability for people. Today I kept track of how many times I got on my phone from between 9a-1 and I used it already 12 times. About 10 of those times, I just used it casually. The other 2 times I needed to check on my classes. So again, yes I see that smart phones are something in this world that not just me, but everyone else uses way to heavily for all situations.
Katrina,
Your comic is simple yet it represents how you felt during your deprivation experience very well. Your choice of making it black and white and the empty room as the background captures that feeling of loneliness and depression. I love reading comics so to see someone making a comic for this project was unexpected, and I like it.
Katrina-
Your comic was humorous and beautiful; a lot of emotions wrapped up into a very well designed story. I thought it was a very smart decision to use this form of digital media to represent your deprivation.
Katrina your comic really captured the emotions you felt during your deprivation and I liked it. I was not expecting to see a comic for this project so it was surprising. Your comic was well organized and it did not have any unnecessary elements.
Silence was cool because I enjoy comics and manga. But It was also felt a little sad. Like frustration, and loneliness. Maybe peace?
I love drawings and art work like this so this was great! 🙂 Super straightforward and relatable .
Mariela I liked your work. Your gifs really captured my attention and it was really appropriate to explain each statements. It was humorous, concise, and unique.
I really enjoyed Mariela’s creative response as well. I felt that nowadays, everyone is scrolling and reading through BuzzFeed posts, so having the GIFs is a great way to capture the viewer’s attention and express emotions which is easier than simply reading words. It also keeps the viewer scrolling through the post since it’s not too wordy, but gets the message across.
Mariela, I really liked your project. I thought it was awesome how you drew inspiration from Buzzfeed articles and put your own spin on it. I though it was really funny and relatable. It was fun to read the captions and watch the funny gifs that went along with it. It think you project idea was really original and creative.
San, I thought your piece explained it all so well. Like the saying goes: A picture is worth a thousand words. We can all relate to the feeling of not being able to use your phone and I thought it was really cool how we only do so if our phones are dead, as represented in your drawing. We can also all relate to the feeling that if our phones are dead, we are also dead because we feel unattached from the world we live in where everyone is on their phone.
Katrina: I really like the comic you made! As an artist myself, I can tell how much work has gone into making a comic. It was a great way to show how you deprived yourself of your choice of technology. You state that you felt sad and lonely during your deprivation; I think the comic really presented this feeling through the monotone colors! Great job!
San: I think this picture says so much. I feel that when my phone dies, I don’t know what to do. My first thought is to get to a charger. I also deprived myself of a social media network (one in particular: Snapchat) I felt lost without it and one week felt so much longer than one week. I also had a positive outcome because without it I felt more productive.
Mariela: I loved your project! I can definitely relate. Often times when I begin studying I find myself picking up my phone every other 5-10 minutes to scroll through social media or text/call someone back. I tell myself “okay, only be on your phone for 5 minutes then get back to studying.” Then I realize that 5 minutes turned into 30 and that 30 turned into an hour. It is difficult to keep away from my phone and this project showed how hard it can be.
Hi Brandy, I relate to your comments and get that same reaction seeing those art pieces as they allow us to reflect just how reliant we are of our phone whenever we are not busy, as I’m sure you can relate then even when your phone is dead you can catch yourself always reaching for it to keep you busy until you remember that it’s dead. That being said I feel as these 2 art pieces connect as the buzzfeed piece relates to show just how much time we kill with our phones and they are our main form of killing time!
Mariela, your Buzzfeed article was like what was said in class really realistic and current in the way it was formatted and the content as well. The gifs you used and the thought process was very relatable, especially for our generation. I found comedic relief in the gifs, yet understood the message behind it and might even go off the grid for finals myself…because you’re right social media distracts studying big time.
San: I love your artwork, it looks like you put a lot of time an effor into it and I agree with you. Sometimes it is better to go without social media, at least dont make social media your life. I feel like I used to be consumed by social media because I felt like I had to be as good as everyone else and post nice photos like everyone else.