Shane's semester recap

As technology continues to envelop our daily lives, I can see a clear and steady shift to digital mediums as an outlet to present new literature and ideas through. As a society, we’ve grown far more attached to digital mediums as a means of stimulating our brains. Our connection to social media and television as a form of entertainment has desensitized us to the traditional ways of absorbing literature, and as such it’s crucial that storytelling is adapted into the digital sphere, through inventive and interactive forms like virtual reality. While it takes some of the imagination out of reading a standard book or print article, I would argue that digital storytelling is a far more immersive and digestible form. Stories that I typically wouldn’t be invested in — had they been presented in a more traditional form — suddenly gained complete control of my attention, rarely wavering and oftentimes conveying a narrative simply through imagery and auditory senses. For example, “Way to go” at first glance seemed like a video game as opposed to an actual story. The dialogue, or lack thereof, wasn’t presented in any traditional sense, rather it was fostered within the reader as they wandered through a vast open world for ten minutes, only to find a piece of writing at the end of their experience that would tie it all together. Imagine buying a book with 100 blank pages, only to find a small blurb at the end that tries to convey what the emptiness of it’s contents actually means. This style of storytelling is only possible, and successful in the digital sphere, and it’s quite refreshing to see storytellers breaking the conventions of writing in this way. From a writer's standpoint, however, transitioning to digital forms of storytelling can be a frustrating process. Technology, though a mainstay in our daily lives, is still fresh and evolving. What’s popular today could be obsolete within a week, rendering some of our stories as outdated just based on the platforms we use. For example, video storytelling is quickly being shadowed by virtual reality: a far more immersive experience that lets the reader dictate their viewing experience as opposed to the director of the video. There’s something about books that are timeless though; a physical pamphlet of thoughts engrained in paper and tied together by a spine, that can be found in a bookstore or your local library. These places, though vast, are incomparable to the infinite expandability of the internet, and as such, digital stories can get lost far easier when considering how stories are presented online; i.e what’s popular is usually what’s presented to us sooner. With that in mind, I still think there’s limitless potential for digital storytelling. No longer are we confined to a word count or style, and our exposure is no longer dictated by a publication. We have complete creative control and can share our stories nearly anywhere on the internet. That’s the true beauty of digital storytelling. Of course, that freedom comes with some technological difficulties, but that’s a small price to pay knowing that you’re thoughts can be published digitally in an instant for the world to see, and there’s an entire palette of different expresional forms at your disposal.