Hello! My name is Dylan Bennett, he/him. This is my second year at LBCC (I think) and I'm majoring in Art. My dream job has been animation/character design, but considering the state of the animation industry, I'm just remaining hopeful that I'll be able to make some sort of art career for myself in any capacity. I'm originally from Ukiah, California, and I moved here about 3 years ago when I was 18.
My art is typically traditional (pencils and ink and sketchbooks and whatever) but I do work with digital art apps as well (Ibis Paint on IOS and Krita for my laptop, though I'm still practicing with Krita). I've consistently had sketchbooks all throughout my life and I imagine when I hit 40, you could fill a storage unit with them. Hobbies outside of drawing include going on walks, making bracelets, video gaming, writing, reading, and having fun with friends and, more often, playing with my cat Mateo. One of my favorite forms of media is Zombie Fiction, if the URL is anything to go off of. I love The Walking Dead and The Last of Us series very dearly, both the games and the shows.
I'm interested in all of the topics that we are going to be discussing in this class! One standout one though has got to be New Technologies and Video Games. I love seeing the impact games have on people, how integral they can become to a person and their identity (including myself!) I also love the technical side of it; as a kid, I would look on YouTube for videos showcasing glitches, how to perform them and why they happen. I also think the process of video game creation, namely design and the art that goes in to it all, is just absolutely amazing.
The Information I Consume
For news, I do my best to find reputable sources online, sometimes I also watch YouTube videos covering news topics as I like seeing multiple different perspectives from other people. Sometimes my initial opinion changes as well after doing some research on a given topic! I also discuss things with my family and friends to gather insight, as we can sometimes disagree and I like understanding where others are coming from. I think learning from others is very important when it comes to communication, as well as keeping an open mind. My main sources for news would be YouTube, Instagram, and word of mouth (which I often later look up online.) I don't consider these sources to be overall reputable; instead, I try to find creators who offer news who are unbiased and often show both sides of the story. A go-to creator like that would be Phillip DeFranco on YouTube.
I'm deeply concerned with fake news and deep fakes. As technology has advanced further and further, we've seen a massive surge in fake internet stories and AI manipulated photos (now even videos and AI generated voices) that many people, tech-savvy or not, often fall for. It's gotten to the point where TikTok and Instagram ads will have ads for products using an AI program to make a person say something for a product. There should be tighter laws put in place about these things, as people seem to have become very easily manipulated because of this rampant misinformation and how quickly it can spread, especially if it involves something that's very heavily debated at that point in time. When I find some information, I go straight to Google and try to find sources that reflect this information, trying my best to avoid websites that are more for entertainment instead of factual evidence. If I don't see reputable sources with this information, I don't spread it, plain and simple.
Eli Pariser makes a point I've often thought about myself. We give a lot of power to social media, to the point where we get our news from them often, myself included. During my lifetime, I've grown up with people telling me, "Don't believe everything you read online! Don't trust strangers over the internet!" And yet, within a decade or so, these same people look on Facebook and look at news articles created solely with misinformation to bait people into interacting with them, and they fall for it often. I agree with Eli that this is a people problem, and the people are not only the ones we see online, but the ones who are running these online spaces themselves. I think we definitely need to bring back rules to online spaces, as Eli said, because considering the state of online spaces like Twitter now, it only brings out the worst in people for the owner's own gain.
