An Anonymous Existence

I recently gained a better grasp of what coding was and how to use it through my “Writing in Digital Environments” course, which I am currently taking through the Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida. While contemplating on my experiences with coding, those experiences I had prior to this course, while seemingly insignificant, ended up providing me with the motivation to learn more about this unique language that is used so frequently today.

My first unknown experience with HTML coding was when I was in 5^th grade. It was at this young age that I established an account with Neopets. Do you remember playing on Neopets a decade ago? (The site still exists today, too. This is the homepage of Neopets: http://www.neopets.com.) For those readers who have not heard of this website before, Neopets is an online gaming site that allows users to create pets and care for them by purchasing clothes, food, toys, and health care necessities with Neopoints, currency that can be earned by playing games, participating in various contests, bartering, and investing in the stock market. Pet owners can communicate with each other on Neopets through message boards and personal messages. These messages can be embellished by altering the text or adding emoticons. When I started becoming a more active participant on the message boards, I realized how bland my messages were compared to those from other users. I saw how some messages contained text of different fonts and colors, whereas my messages contained the standard, black, 12-point, Times New Roman font. Once I saw how vibrant and attractive these posts were, I wanted my messages to look just as awesome. I figured there was some big secret to obtaining the various styles, so I did a Google search in hopes of finding information that might be useful. I was surprised to have discovered quite an extensive list of ways to change my text. I saw that the list not only told me how I could alter the text, but contained many combinations of letters and symbols. At the time, I did not know what these letters and symbols meant, but I was determined to use them anyway. After many failed attempts, and after looking at many examples, I discovered the correct way to incorporate the codes, which involved using the symbols < and >, which I likened to quotation marks in function. I was pleased with the way my messages appeared after incorporating the various codes. I didn’t understand how the letters and symbols worked, or even that I was working with code, but all I knew is that they would magically make my messages more attractive. (In case you were wondering, I still have my Neopets account and very rarely access it.)

My coding experience in class is different from my coding experience on Neopets. On Neopets, I worked with HTML code, and I worked with CSS code in class. In my class, I read how-to-type books on coding. I was then able to use my knowledge to edit a generic code in order to create a webpage about kittens. Reading the books and being able to directly apply that knowledge enabled me to learn significantly more about coding than I mustered from my earlier experience. During this assignment, I was required to edit a long code on a Notepad screen, and that code would eventually contribute to the webpage. It took me a long time to edit the code, because the Notepad page was so short and the code was very lengthy. Many times, I would lose my place in the code and would edit the wrong section. Luckily, my brilliant professor showed me how to make the code appear longer on the Notepad screen, a function known as word wrapping. This technique made it a lot easier to eventually complete the task at hand. After I completed the basic assignment, I experimented with different fonts. Unfortunately, once I made the necessary changes, I didn’t see any alterations to the appearance of the webpage. Upon completing this assignment, I learned that while I am obviously not a coding expert, I can definitely understand the basic concepts behind coding and can use them to enhance the appearance of web pages in ways that cannot be done without coding.

Prior to this class, I feel that my attitude toward coding was positive overall. Though I haven’t had much experience with coding prior to this course, the experience I had showed me how cool coding can be. The reason I liked coding at that point was because it beautified my online writing. I like how coding can, basically, produce art, since I am not so good at that with a pencil and paper. In this way, I perceive coding as a form of art. I also see coding as a language, because coding, like a language, utilizes combinations of common symbols to portray an idea.

Before this course, I had no idea how to manipulate a code to obtain a specific result. Although my major digital writing experiences are essays or Facebook posts, I still think that coding plays an integral part in my life. While I do not exactly use coding to submit a post or an essay, and while I do not need to learn coding to become a successful doctor, I need to understand that coding exists and plays a significant role in my online activities. Regardless of profession, everyone should understand exactly that about coding. By just knowing that code exists and has a significant function, people will be able to learn more about coding when necessary for daily function.

I believe that code’s role in digital writing is similar to the functions of the parts of a sandwich: the web pages and message boards are bread, and the content displayed is represented by the condiments and fixings. In most cases, the consumer didn’t harvest the wheat for the bread, and nor did he or she produce the condiments and fixings. More often than not, the objects were already available. As users of message boards and web pages, we know that the materials we need to create our responses already exist – we just need to put them together to get our point across. The final result is often successful: one yummy sandwich.

After perusing the class Wiki and book review for From A to <A>: Keywords of Markup, I feel that, for a group of readers whose experience with basic computer coding was, indeed, basic, the book review turned out great. It was especially helpful that the contributors to each of the book’s chapters constantly used real-life examples to facilitate reading of the book and enable an audience of our type to thoroughly understand each concept that was presented.

Looking back at my personal review of Chapter 8, <frame>ing Representations of the Web, no revisions had been made at the time of writing this review. When I initially created the chapter review, I did not include my own opinion, as I felt my own opinion wasn’t vital to an accurate chapter review.

While revising the review for Chapter 10, Body on <body>: Coding Subjectivity, I collaborated with another classmate. Two first-draft reviews were presented to us. The two reviews were combined, and it was my job to shorten the length of the new review. After correcting punctuation, I focused on sentence fluency. At the same time, I also tried to combine sentences, while at the same time deleting those irrelevant phrases and sentences. As I revised the piece, I needed to think about paragraph length. Because this review was being added to Wikispaces, it was important that I keep the paragraphs as short as possible while still allowing for an accurate chapter review. The most difficult part for me, however, was shortening the last two paragraphs of the review. I felt that all details were vital to the accurate representation of the chapter, which was one of the longer chapters in the book.

This was my first experience with a Wiki. The closest experience to this is when I once edited a page on Wikipedia. The pages on Wikipedia are often much longer than the chapter reviews posted on the class Wiki. A good Wiki should be general in content and opinion, just like the pages on Wikipedia. I do not feel that a Wiki page should be biased, especially because not everyone who reads it will share the same opinion, leading those who disagree to be quickly turned off by the review. When writing to be revised and reused, I feel that leaving out my opinion allows the revisions process to be easier, since it would most likely be the first thing removed.

While I have used Wikipedia countless times in middle and high school as a valid source for information, I do realize that not everything on its pages may be correct, which is why it is always important to utilize more credible sources. What is great about our book review is that if a reader likes what he/she sees on the course Wiki, they can choose to read the book. I feel that because we created a book review and not a page that can potentially be quoted in a student’s research paper, our information is accurate because it is just that – a summary. In order to strengthen the final product, I feel it may have been nice to include some general information about who contributed to the book review. It would have been interesting to see others’ reactions to our book review when they find out many of us are not computer coding experts.

     It was quite interesting for me to learn more about my Internet use habits. I access the Internet for a variety of reasons related to school, work, entertainment, and my own curiosity. I am often tempted to access the Internet during my courses when I have my netbook in front of me.

     Over the past few years, the verb forms of Google and Wikipedia have become prevalent terms in my vocabulary. The Internet has become such an integral part of my daily life that I will often try to look up all information online instead of at the library. Because I use the Internet so much, a lot of my information can be found online. I am sure yours can, too. Try googling your name and see what comes up. I googled myself before, and it is amazing how accurate (and even how distorting) the search results can be.

     I access my Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter accounts everyday. I follow a variety of people and companies and enjoy learning new things each time I log on. I use my accounts to remain in contact with friends I do not see all the time, keep up with new occurrences within the education company I work for, learn about events I might want to attend, read the daily news, play games with friends, keep in touch with distant family, enter contests, and obtain free items. It is apparent that the Internet is my second life.

     One of the new things I do is search for coupons online. I already receive coupons each Sunday in my newspaper, but there are some coupons that cannot be obtained that way and can only be found on certain web sites. I have been using my coupons to pay for items that I can donate to people in need. The Internet allows me to give back to my community in a way I couldn’t before.

     It is so weird how this novel invention called “the Internet” takes over my life and allows me to interact in ways that probably cannot be accomplished outside of this realm. I look forward to what the upcoming years will bring in regards to what else the Internet will provide its users. The Internet feeds our need for communication, and I am thankful for the Internet, for without it, my life would not be complete.