Blog Post #10

 I have a Youtube channel called Shadow Force 623. It is a gaming channel with 483 subscribers. The channel contains videos of me playing a wide variety of video games ranging from Flash Games such as Sift Heads, Bloons Tower Defense 3, and Papa’s Freezeria, to Arcade games such as Pop’n Music 20 Fantasia, Donkey Kong 3, and Offroad Thunder. Social media sites I use are Youtube and Deviantart. On Deviantart I have put photos of sunsets across North Carolina, pictures of characters using programs such as Mega Anime Avatar Creator and Anime Character Maker 2, and photoshopped pictures. I have linked to BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint and other Youtube videos.

After visiting my youtube page, people would know that I am a hardcore gamer and that I am really creative and I am excellent at using Photoshop. From reading my stories on Deviantart people would know I like to write various stories in the genres of action and horror. One example of this is a story called Hunted Down which is a creepypasta based on the infamous Half-Life fan game Hunt Down the Freeman. Voluntary information I have shared includes my age and the fact that I come from the great state of North Carolina. However, my home address and email address are not present because I don’t want to be doxed or risk having an online predator or a cancel culture mob show up and put my life at risk.

When I have used social media, I have felt lonely and isolated. This is because people who are lonely and longing for companionship are seeing the content and thinking that they have less going on in their lives than others. What’s really disturbing is that many people have been exposed as predators on social media which may also possibly stem from the loneliness mentioned earlier. Steps that I take to consider my online privacy is that I never give my email address or home address to anyone, I even stay off of social media at times and I especially avoid TikTok at all costs. This is because TikTok is notorious for having doxxing and harmful content such as radical left-wing propaganda as evidenced by the pro-Palestine and anti-Israel activism taking place on the platform, people doing almost anything for views and clout which include pulling dumb pranks at an establishment such as a local Walmart or a McDonalds location and making a scene, and self-harm videos which have in some cases lead to deaths of users. All that is nothing compared to the cherry on top of this evil sundae which is the fact that TikTok is owned by the Chinese Communist Party, who collects information on individuals, and use it to potentially spy on Americans in their quest for power, which is the number one reason why I stay away from TikTok.

My relationship with technology is both healthy and unhealthy because on one hand, I have gotten useful information for both my game ideas and my school work. However, on the other hand I have unwittingly stumbled upon internet drama numerous times and have fallen down several rabbit holes. Also I am someone on the autism spectrum and I struggle with OCD. OCD is a problem with people like me and the internet is known to amplify that.

Technology takes up time in my life when I look at video games or other things that interest me thoroughly. It is because I may want to get some ideas for my games or a source for my school work such as this blog post.

After googling myself, I found that I have a small following on both Deviantart and Youtube. On Deviantart I have a small following and presented myself as a student photographer. 

After watching the music video, Mad World, I felt that it really struck a chord with me. In one part of the music video, a teenage girl was dancing horribly and was featured in a video titled, “OMG!!! Girl Dances Badly at Party! Fail Alert!!! on the site Tellytube which obviously parodies Youtube. The girl was ridiculed and scorned. As a result, later in the video, she jumped from a building, thus committing suicide in the process. This is relatable and resonates with me because I have witnessed people who were deemed “talentless hacks” get bullied and scorned to the point of quitting whatever they are working at and even ending their own lives. As a future game designer, this has concerned me because if you fail at something like programming games, making art, cooking, dancing, or singing, you get tons of hate comments and in some cases death threats. This is exactly why I have a strong fear of failure especially once I go into my company and start making games one day.