Are You a Player or Are You a Watcher?
Video Source: YouTube
Have you ever seen the movie Nerve? This movie has two sides to it; either you are player that is completing tasks, or you are a watcher and simply watching the players complete the tasks. While I was listening and reading about David Whites Visitors and Residents idea of how individuals engage with the applications and digital tools that the internet provides, it reminded me of how the two types of characters behaved in the movie.
Below is a quote from David White, "The digital environment is as much where people live as the physical environment," (David White, Podcast Episode 312). As I was doing my research, this quote stuck with me because today everyone with access to internet is on the internet and everyone is somehow living digitally as they are physically in this world. Whether they are on the internet to simply do research or if they are on the internet to connect with others, they are somehow using it.
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| Image Source: David White; Teaching in Higher Ed |
Let's get back to the idea of being a Visitor or a Resident while using applications and digital tools on the web. First, let's define A Visitor and a Resident. A Visitor leaves no trace on the tool that they are using, they are simply using the tool to complete a function. A Visitor is not using the tool to connect with others. A visitor would be like a watcher in Nerve. A Resident is a user that is looking to leave a trace on the tool and looking to connect with others while they are using the tool. When a person is a resident with a digital tool, they are using it to create relationships with others who are engaging with it similarly. A resident would be a player in Nerve.
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| Image Source: Joyce Seitzinger |
My Digital Map:
As I was doing my research, I looked at all of the online applications that I use throughout my day. I looked to see which ones I used to simply complete a task and which ones I used to communicate and leave my digital footprint. I placed my usage of applications into four categories: visitor, resident, personal, and professional. Some of my tools that I use daily can be placed in two of the quadrants.
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| Image Source: Personal Canva |
Personal Resident and Personal Visitor: While I was doing my placing, I was extremely surprised, that I could not think of many personal applications that I am a resident in. I feel like I spend so much time on the internet throughout my day, but a lot of the digital tools are simply to complete a goal. I noticed that I am frequently a visitor while using my digital tools during the weekday evenings. During my weekday evenings, I find myself on Netflix, Google (searching random questions that come to my head), watching TikTok videos but not posting, and scrolling through Instagram but not leaving any trace behind that I was on them. Some other tools that I use as a personal visitor are Amazon, Lapse, Spotify, and Twitter/X.
Resident Personal and Professional: The applications that I am a resident in throughout my entire week are Outlook (my work email), Teams, ClassDojo, Instagram (if something exciting is going on to post), FaceTime, Facebook, and Facebook messenger. On my digital map, I have some of these applications listed twice. Once in my resident personal quadrant and once in my resident professional quadrant because I use these in different settings. I use Outlook, Teams, ClassDojo, camera, Instagram, and Zoom for professional communication. Instagram, camera, and Zoom are listed in both professional and personal because I have two different accounts one for personal use and one for professional. I use the camera for school and for personal. Above I mentioned that for my social media accounts, I am not a resident on the weekdays. However, if something is interesting or exciting happening, I will post during the weekdays. On the weekends, is when I really become a resident with my social media applications like Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and Facetime. The weekends are when I have more time to express/post what is going on in my daily life, my thoughts, and my opinions through my internet connections.
Visitor Personal and Professional: If you take a look at my digital map, you will see that I have many applications in my visitor professional quadrant. These are applications that I use daily with my students, to better myself as a teacher, and keep my students engaged. However, when I use these applications, it is quick and to the point, they are not used for a long period of time. These applications are YouTube Kids, BrainPOP, Kahoot, Blooket, and TeachersPayTeachers. I have a few tools that I put on the line for both visitor personal and professional. These are the Weather Channel, Google, and USAToday. We use the WeatherChannel website every morning to see what the temperature and weather are in our area, but I also use it for my own wonderings. Every time my students have a question that I do not know the answer to, I will use Google to learn together. As mentioned above, I also find myself searching the web with my own wonderings. Finally, USAToday gives me news and stories about teaching and the classroom, but also, I look at the news that is happening not involving my career. My quadrant that was easiest to fill was my visitor personal as I described all the applications I used in the personal resident and personal visitor section.
Visitor Professional and Resident Professional: There are no over lapse when it comes to me visiting professional tools or being a resident on the tools professionally.
Am I a Resident or a Visitor:
In the movie Nerve, the players and the watchers could not be both at the same time. If you are a player, you have to be a player and if you are a watch you have to be watching. You can't switch halfway through the game either, you have to stay with your first choice. This is different for being a resident or a visitor when it comes to using internet outlets. I believe that I am both. I have many applications that I use to visit, and I have applications that I share my whole life story on. Personally, I think that it depends on how busy I am. In the summer, I am a huge resident on social media but during the school especially the beginning, I am a visitor.
Additional Videos and Articles about Resident Vs. Visitor:
Cited Sources:
Formatjé, N. B. (2016, May 5). Digital visitor or digital resident, how do you browse?
UOC. https://www.uoc.edu/en/news/2016/086-visitant-resident-digital
What is a digital footprint? | IBM. (n.d.). https://www.ibm.com/topics/digital-footprint
OCLC Research. (2012, January 17). Digital Visitors and Residents: What Motivates Engagement with the Digital Information Environment? [Video]. YouTube.
Seitzinger, J. (2013, July 3). Culture mash [Slide show]. SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/culture-mash/23892382
Stachowiak, B. (2020, July 7). Digital Visitors and Residents, with David White – Teaching in Higher Ed. Teaching in Higher Ed. https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/digital-visitors-and-residents
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Hi Lindsey! I love your connection from visitors and residents to the movie Nerve. It gives the reader a new perspective of the terminology. I think a lot of us have some type of correlation between being a digital visitor and resident in our lives. Like you mentioned, our digital status changes depending on the day of the week. I think it can change as we evolve as well. I learned a lot about you based on your digital map. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Lindsey!
ReplyDeleteYou hooked me in your blog post with the video for the movie Nerve! It would such a good connection. Your digital map made me think of websites I do use a lot professionally I just don't have book marked such as Kahoot, Blooket, and BrainPop! Your graphic also helps me understand visitors and residents better with a clear lay out. I think your map has a nice distribution throughout of being a resident and visitor in both your professional and personal work. Lastly, I like how you brought it back to the movie Nerve to wrap up the post. I agree that my position as a visitor or resident depends on a variety of factors and it can change at any time.
Hello Fellow First Grade Teacher! I hope your school year is going well. I have never watched the movie Nerve. I will need to check it out. I was looking at your digital map and we share a lot of sites as visitors and residents. I know sites such as Brain Pop and Class Dojo are great for our students. This year our district was asked to switch over to ROOMs instead of Dojo. I do miss using it. I agree with you about being more of a resident in the summer on social media. Teaching full time and taking Grad classes has limited my time on social media. Most of my focus is now on Happy Numbers, Epic, Brain pop, and Lexia. Yeah! I hope you have a wonderful school year!
ReplyDeleteIt was so interesting to see you place some of the apps twice, in different quadrants, because you use them in different capacities and sometimes different accounts. Most folks would place these in the middle one time. Thanks for the different perspective.
ReplyDeleteHello Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteI appreciated that you identified as both since different apps have different purposes. Initially, when asked about visitors and residents, it sounds like we have to make a choice -- that we are one or the other, depending on the app. But there are shades of gray which I appreciate you highlighting. Within a website, it can be both, like you mention with Instagram, and it makes perfect sense since most of us are not influencers who live off of social media residency. When you are on TikTok, do you still like or comment on videos? Or is it just passively watching? Liking and commenting could still leave a trace, so I am curious about what that would look like for you.