Class Announcements :

• Thursday November 6 will be our library session . We will meet in front of the library, entrance found on the fourth floor. Brief orientation on library uses, and resources.
• Think and brainstorm some ideas for research project that’s coming up . You can relate it to career interest etc.
• First Draft of essay #2 is also due tomorrow ! Don’t forget to bring in 4 printed copies. Peer review will be Tuesday.
• Professor Belli will be available during her office hours to meet with individuals to discuss essay 2 and get some feedback.
• Midterm grades were also handed out , refer to rubric for blogs & how they are graded.
• If your thinking about withdrawing from English or HUS speak to professor Belli , this decision has a lot of implications.

Getting Started On Your Essay :

• If you’re having trouble getting started on your essay, refer to your blogs and ideas you’ve already written about. This is Fair Game !
• Read through blogs posted.
• Think about our class discussion.

Class Discussion :

• The class started talking about the app – T2 Mood tracker. An app that asks you to asses yourself daily, and rate yourself on certain areas.
• You have to critique yourself
• The vision of this app was believed to be “to show you whats wrong with”, but app doesn’t offer suggestions or “tells you what to do” to change behaviors.
• The idea is to change what were doing , based off results produced.
• Rhonda Byrnes : Self help, positive thinker. She believes that we just need to think that good things will happen, and they will just sort of appear or happen with no real efforts made.
• Faults with this app were noticed by classmates
• The issue of temporary came up, Your answers  really depend on your current mood at the time your answering ?
• Another App looked at was Headspace
• Questions were raised of apps being pure nonsense ? Do apps for feelings really work ? Is there really a need for them ?
• Professor Belli suggested a “believing game” when looking at apps. Even if we dont agree with the functions or visions of apps, we must look at them with an open mind, and make criticism without pre- judging.
• After all many copies of Rhonda Byrnes “The Secret” were sold and believed by many
• Visions talked about by governors, government are believed by voters.
• Bringing it back to essay 2, we have to be careful on the tone we portray in our essay. Trying to make it as formal as possible.
• When looking at apps thinking of Audience, Definition, & Value
• Think about the about page of Apps, Consider the language.
• Many of us were surprised to hear that the T2 Mood Tracker was originally made for ex-military. So they could track their moods and get help if they seemed to have problems.
• We have to understand certain things like the intentions of the apps, in order to be able to really analyze.
• The last app talked about was Emotion sense. Where 4 quadrants were involved. And you pin point where you feel you land on the radius. More people felt less annoyed with this app in comparison to the previous ones.
• The issue of privacy came up with this one, because of the app’s about page. able to invisibly see information on your phone.
• Many felt this was an invasion of privacy and kind of scary.
• While others said that now a days nothing is really private. Most things on your phone are already available to the public. There is no real privacy.
• One must be careful before downloading anything , suggested to read terms and agreements,legal.
• Do these apps provide false advertising was another important question.
• How much of ourselves can be revealed in data ?
• Some argued that Data t a certain extent worked
• while other said these apps were just annoying.
• So engage yourself in the Apps, Ask yourself questions and be critical !

Vocabulary

asses- evaluate

objective – unbiased, able to report same thing

Subjective – bias , different things may be reported

Track – keep notes/ noticing