This post was inspired by reading this article: In Praise of A.D.H.D.

This article looks at some studies that suggest that some of the traits of A.D.H.D. may adaptive to the current state of things in the world. When the article mentioned that on average it takes 26 websites to plan the creation of one new one it stirred up countless memories of my own experience planning and creating my blog posts for this class, as well as every experience I have writing research papers. I would say that on average I have 6-20 tabs open for each class on any given assignment, and I am pretty sure this is pretty standard way to go about getting larger projects done in our crazy information saturated digital golden age we are liveing in.

We live in a swirling chaotic world. We are bombarded with more and more information in our everyday lives as our interactions shift from phone calls and conversations at coffee shops to Facebook posts and text messages. I am not sure where this statistic comes from, but Sarah Mazzetti, the author of the article in the link above titles “In praise of A.D.H.D.” claims that “We are bombarded each day by four times the number of words we encountered daily when my mother was raising me.”. If this is true (and I believe it in this world of Facebook and text messages) how are we to adapt to a world and a culture that is evolving faster than our biology?

This article points to studies that show that particular sects of Jews that migrated to north to Rome and Germany have higher instances of A.D.H.D. than sects that did not migrate as far. They say that this may be because the curiosity and sensation seeking that comes with the genetic markers for A.D.H.D. also make them better suited for exploration and adapting to new situations.

Do the same genetic traits that caused the German and roman Jews to migrate also apply to aiding their descendants adapt to our turbulent new world of technology? Is there a niche for scatter brained dreamers and risk takers? I believe so, especially in a field like the digital humanities that is all about finding new and exciting ways to look at information. It is important to consider many points of view, you need the dreamers to come up with the ideas, doers to actually construct the projects, and driven and solidly focused individuals to keep the others on track. The beautiful thing about the digital humanities is the entire point is to find new and effective ways to collaborate with others in new and exiting ways. It takes a village to fully comprehend the humanities we create. There is a indispensable niche for every member of the community to fit into <3

I just got some feedback from someone in my gaming community that would have been useful to know weeks ago. The U of O blogs platform requires them to have a DuckID login and password in order to post any replies in the space I created; because of this the only people that could participate in this project are U of O students. I should have used a WordPress like platform to post my work. I feel sort of silly for not noticing the flaws in the U or O blogs platform sooner, but it was easy to overlook when I am constantly automatically logging into my U of O accounts all day when I am at school.

The one interesting piece of data I got out of this project is some responses to a SurveyMonkey questionnaire I created. Because I am part of the Pokémon go community as well as being part of the generation of millenials and 90’s kids that grew up on Pokémon so I already had a pretty good idea of the sort of people who play the game. Getting some statistical information about the community who I play with was pretty nifty experience! I am posting this survey to the social media groups and chat rooms that I play with so expect to see the statistics change a bit over time.

Results: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-5NJGWSCZ8/

The Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BBN6K9M

Some things to consider when looking at the results of the survey

• The maximum player level is 40
• a “raid pass” is something you need to participate in the seasonally rotating Pokémon that change every month or so.
• If you miss the current “raid” Pokémon you may never have the chance to catch it again or at least for a very long time.
• You receive one free raid pass per day
• Additional passes cost two days of collectible in game currency or one real world dollar when they are not on sale.
• Doing most raids requires at least two people to and some require at least 5 high leveled players to complete them.
• A average raid group consists of 7-12 people

Pokémon go is a great way to meet people in your community. I play when I have downtime on campus or need to take a walk to get my blood flowing after studying for a while. It has surprised me how many professors and other productive and successful people in our community play this game as a hobby. I have ran into people in the U of O administrative offices that I was taking down and catching Pokémon with earlier that day. This game brings the community together

I will make one more informational bullet point section listing some of the people I have found in the Pokémon go community

• Professors
• Authors/editors
• Students
• Game desingners
• Guidance counselors
• Parents
• People from other majors that I would not have met or become friends with otherwise
• Old aquaintances
• And more!

The failed blog: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/pokemongo/

Not only was my page totally inactive because of the barrier caused by people needing a DuckWeb login to post to my page but the banner image already broke.

This is an experiment to see what kind of blog post I will write if I type it out on my phone while laying in bed, the same situation a lot of people make their social media posts.

The first thing relevant to our class that comes to mind is my sense of hometown. As I was walking around town playing Pokémon go this evening I saw so many familiar faces; roommates from the past, school buddies, people I would rather avoid, old friends that I wish were in better places, and I even saw a classmate from WR 250. I ran into a couple of friends I know from the artsy high school I went to, they were making a music video, my friend Lars said “Running into Zev while walking around is one of the most Eugene thing.”, I am not exactly sure what he meant by saying that, but it made me think about how nice it is to know so many of the people around you.

Intermission: Time to reflect on my experience with starting to write a blog post on my phone. Because I am pretty comfortable with the touchscreen keyboard on my phone keyboard the character input is not too tedious, the biggest issue with this is that I am just getting distracted with all of the other things I could be doing on my phone (facebook, research, chats, and games) so I feel like that is holding me back and making me less productive than I would be on a PC. Alright, back to my homegrown story about living in Eugene.

My friends comment about running into me being a very Eugene thing got me thinking about all of the things we associate with our hometown. Rain, drifting homeless people, rivers, the faint smell of someone smoking pot, and street vendors selling handcrafted goods all remind me of Eugene even when I experience them in different places. What things remind you of your hometown? Leave a comment listing a few, I am curious to hear your responses!

Conclusion: writing posts on your phone is convenient when you do not have access to a full blown computer, but there are some serious drawbacks in terms of productivity that I ran into. First of all I was too comfortable laying in bed writing my post last night, I ended up falling asleep with the light on and my phone in my hands; I have moved to an upright chair to finish writing this post. Secondly, I associate being on my phone with down time and light social interactions, so trying to write a longer piece on here is not something I am use to or totally comfortable with. All in all I feel like the content that came through while using my phone as a word processor is decent, not quite as structured as my writing usually is when I am sitting at my computer, but I feel like I get the vibe across. I did not plan on jumping from my story to my reflection on writing on my phone, but I feel like this happened because of the nature of cell phone communication. When we are on our phones we usually communicate through simple sentences and generally flip through topics pretty fast. How do you think writing on a cellphone does to your sentence structure and writing habits? Leave your thoughts in a comment below!