Return to the Classroom: It was good to return to campus this week. I have not been there since mid-November. It was good to be back in the classroom. As in the fall term, my two undergraduate classes meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the first two periods in the morning. Both classes are large, 43 and 47 students. The room I was assigned normally holds 50 students but these days it is configured for social distancing and can only accommodate 26. I polled the student to see who wanted to physically attend class and who preferred or needed to attend online via Microsoft Teams. Just over 20 students opted to attend class. I teach in this mixed mode method on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Fridays, the entire class is online.
I liked being at home during this pandemic. I am thankful to have a job that allows me to work remotely for most of what I have to do. I am well aware that others do not have the luxury of working from home. There are also those who have lost their jobs and struggling to just get by.
This pandemic has made me appreciate that I am still able to do what I do. I am also thankful for the simple pleasure to leave the house two mornings week and drive to campus to teach. I listen to NPR’s Morning Edition on the way there and some music on the return trip. It is good to be able to walk across our beautiful campus. I am only there for a few hours. I leave the house between 6 and 6:30 and am home sometime between 11 and 12:30. I have included wintry photos I took there this morning.
Restaurants Opened in Illinois: This incident rates have dropped in the state to allow the restaurants to open for limited seating indoor dining. I am pretty sure I will continue patronize my favorite restaurant by carrying out. I know others are looking forward to the simple pleasure of dining at a restaurant. I am not sure how
long the in-house dining will last. They are expecting the more contagious strains to be the most prevalent by March. I don’t think the vaccine rollout will be fast enough to stave off the spike in incidents and thus forcing more lockdowns.
The Social Dilemma: My friend and colleague Brian Vollmert, Associate Director of Marketing, recommending I watch the Netflix documentary: The Social Dilemma. In a word, wow! The documentary makes a case for the way social media has changed our society, and not for the better. Ex-executives of Google, Twitter, Facebook, and more talk about how the people are not the customers of these companies. The real customers are the advertisers. The people who use social media are actually the product. We, the users, are delivered to the advertisers. The goal of these companies is therefore to keep us online longer and longer. While we think we are engaging more socially, we are actually feeling lonelier than and more isolated than ever.
Clearly there are some positives to these platforms. I know when people share their people, I appreciate the reminder and opportunity to wish my friends happy birthdays, I love to learn has new babies or grandbabies, it is good to see photos of my friends, their families, and what they are up to. I love the way Armenians use social media to share current events in our communities, the history of our people, and to keep updated with the on the Republic of Armenia.
I strongly recommend this documentary, especially if you feel we are being manipulated by social media. I will definitely watch it again and most likely comment on it in this blog.
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