Madison's Semester Recap

 Throughout this semester, I can confidently say that one of my favorite parts was working with digital storytelling. I found that this was the most interesting form of storytelling and does a great job of capturing the audience. Hearing about many different stories in class along with the digital effects displayed in the background really helped me put myself into the storytellers shoes. It also helped me pay better attention to the minuscule details of other people's stories, considering that much of their stories were shown to the audience through projected digital displays. I have always loved how digital storytelling allows others to look back on one's past together which can be comforting, by making people feel as though everyone is experiencing their personal memories with them. I feel as though this can be especially comforting along with emotional stories that are harder to just verbally tell. Having digital effects along with a story really captures certain emotions in a way that solely verbal storytelling could never. Another aspect I like of digital storytelling is that people can learn about others' stories from all around the world. Without the advanced technology that we have today, people living in small communities would remain completely unaware of situations that other people across the world go through. This goes to show that digital storytelling is a great way to bring awareness to events that people anywhere in the world have experienced. As technology keeps getting more and more advanced throughout the years, I believe that digital storytelling will become the standard in the near future. We will have much better graphics and sound systems than we do now which will be very helpful for future storytellers. Although there are a lot of pros to new technology, there will definitely be some cons as well. As technology gets more advanced, I believe that it will one day be hard to tell the difference between what's reality and what’s fake. Many of the deep fake videos circulating the internet nowadays are already hard to tell if they're real or not and this will just keep getting harder with new technological advancements. I want to be able to witness a digital storyteller and right away be able to tell if the video footage or images that they have used are real or not. I feel as though it is much more authentic if the footage or images are real. To me, real footage portrays that a person is very passionate about their story and truly wants for their voice to be heard. I wished that I had done more digital storytelling activities in my english classes growing up. I have always wanted to express my past memories but never quite knew how. I believe that this is one of the many correct ways to do so. I hope that digital storytelling will one day be recognized as an art form and that it will eventually be a mandatory activity among all english classes. Based on the readings given and my overall class experience, I strongly believe that digital storytelling is the future of all storytelling.