My first tool is one that I discovered in this class and it is hypothesis, it is a platform where people can share articles and then they are allowed to publicly or even privately comment and share opinions on the piece. I was actually a huge fan of this tool and enjoyed the assignments that were posted on it a lot, I really liked that we could all share opinions and pinpoint the places we stated and we can all see each other’s view points and you can even see different ideas and interpretations on the same bit and it really makes me think how we can all interpret the same thing differently and it has actually managed to make something very regular such as reading more interactive and fun! Using hypothesis, I believe I developed the skill of seeing things in other people’s eyes , like for example when I write something about how I understood a certain sentence and someone else writes something completely different I feel like I out myself in their shoes and try to see it the same way in order to comprehend how they’ve seen and interpreted it , I also enhanced the skill of speaking my mind and clearly voicing opinions seeing that we were free to do so with no barriers and also to respect everyone’s annotations. Something I did not like about this tool is that sometimes when a lot of people annotate it gets extremely messy and you can’t properly see where each comment belongs to and it gets extremely overwhelming, I believe that it can be made in a more organized sense or have several groups for the same reading in order to preserve the organization and neatness of the annotations. I would definitely use this tools in other classes if I am allowed to as it genuinely made me like reading our assigned readings and managed to make me engage in discussions about the readings and not just want to skim through to get over with the assignment , if I may I might even want to use it with my fellow coaches at the place im coaching at as sometimes we find fitness related articles and just send them on our whatsapp group and it gets a bit hectic because some people miss out on it and we have to keep going back to the article to relate the phrases with the comments and therefore this made me think that hypothesis is suitable for annotating with smaller classes with smaller groups but not for large ones at all

The second tool is slack, it is also a tool that I discovered in class and I actually found out It is more widespread than I thought it was! I believe that slack was a virtual common workspace and actually facilitated the course quite a lot because we were able to constantly stay in touch and keep track and even ask questions. I believe I did not take full advantage of slack, this is primarily because I could not download it on my phone, but I actually really enjoyed reading the conversations I missed later on and the conversations I took part in, I developed the skill of sharing things I find interesting and reading their opinions and accepting differences, I believe I actually also acquired the skill of learning how slack works as it was a new tool and was able to easily navigate throughout. I really liked that we could create several channels in order to keep things more organized and easy to find and even have different discussions about different things simultaneously , I also really liked that we could link our slack workspace to several other useful softwares such as google calendar and google docs , I found this to be extremely useful at times and made keeping up with posted assignments much easier , one thing I also accidentally discovered and really liked was the apps option where you could enter what you want and an app for it would just pop up , I think this would be extremely useful in the actual worklife which I believe is something slack can be extremely useful in , I might even try to implement it also with the head coach at the facility because sometimes our whatsapp group gets a bit chaotic and important information is lost so we can have a channel for schedules, emergencies such as covering sessions, important  announcements for us and maybe an information channel where we share our findings and lastly one where we share things we normally do such as meal prepping. I believe slack is actually really suitable for the work/study environment but it is not very casual conversation friendly. 

The third tool is zoom, I believe zoom took the world by storm during this pandemic and has actually became an integral part of all of our lives , I believe zoom taught me to be comfortable to speak with my video camera on and eventually taught me how to organize a virtual conversation and how to indicate if someone will speak so I can wait for my turn and also how to focus and learn from a screen! I really liked how we used zoom in this class because it wasn’t like any other, in all other classes we would mute and the dr would speak and we would only speak if we ever had a question however, in this class we made it interactive and we were actually the ones contributing to the lesson , one thing I actually witnessed in just this class was the breakout rooms which is a feature I actually really liked because it was just like in real classes and it was easier to talk and discuss and I really liked that we would share our findings in the end. I also really liked that it allowed many people and I really liked that there was always a fun factor to it when using virtual backgrounds, I did not even know that was a thing! One thing I didn’t like about zoom was the lack of security in its initial versions and the fact that there was no tool to organize the conversation such as maybe having the option for only one person to speak at a time by pressing a button similar to soliya. I would definitely use zoom in the future because it actually facilitated a lot and I think I would use it in group project meetings in particular because it allows us to share things together and agree on them whilst seeing each other and it can be a great substitute for when we can’t agree on timings which is actually quite often. I think zoom is suitable for all kinds of meetings or even a casual video chat! 

The fourth tool is soliya, also a core 2096 hidden treasure! Soliya is a platform that allows facilitated conversations with people around the world. I actually developed several skills with soliya, to begin with I also developed the skill of being comfortable to talking with my camera on for several hours , how to voice my opinions and input in a sense that people that don’t speak the same language I do or have the same background would fully understand me , how to attentively listen to different people with different accents and how to organize dialogue in a way that allows maximum benefit to all parties, I also learned some conversation etiquette and that I have a lot In common with people that are completely different than I am! I really liked that soliya had a facilitator because it made the conversations go much smoother and allowed us to effectively speak about several subjects, I also really liked the mic tool that allowed one person to speak at a time because it allowed us to attentively listen and talk only when we have an answer and respected the person speaking as there were no interruptions, what I did not like is that there was no option to turn off the camera which kind of made me feel obligated sometimes. I believe that soliya is not a versatile platform that could be suitable for anything else but the online exchange program and therefore I will not be using it in the future. 

The final tool is wordpress, I actually knew wordpress before the course but probably would have never used it, I literally learned the whole art of blogging through this tool, I am not much of a writer but blogging actually makes it a bit lighter unlike essays , it also allows u to interact with each other’s posts and see each other’s work and progress and sometimes some posts actually inspired others, I actually got a lot better at writing and reflecting. What I liked about this platform was that it was different and was actually easy to use when writing and publishing the pieces and had several options in layout, picture options and even privacy options I especially liked the password protected posts because that way you can select the people that see the more sensitive posts. However, I think that wordpress is not the easiest to navigate through as many things are not clearly labelled or found and sometimes I faced a lot of technical issues such as items being sent to draft even though I opted to publish them, I also do not like that you can’t choose your own name in the free version because I believe this is the base of the blog and should be free. I believe wordpress is suitable for all types of blogs and blogging can basically be a part of any industry. In the future, I would definitely use wordpress for other courses but not for my personal use as I am not much of a writer. 

These tools taught me that there are always multiple uses for one platform and each tool can serve a different purpose and might even be complementary to one another , they also taught me that I can creatively present anything im assigned to do and that there are always virtual alternatives for daily operations, I also learned that I actually really enjoy things that are interactive and collective and always prefer doing things with people rather than alone and to my own surprise , I am actually good with technology! 

before entering this course, I thought that digital literacy is basically having digital skills but to my surprise I found out that they are completely different but actually compliment each other one way or another. as we went on and upon reading the article I learned that skills are basically the knowledge of tasks on a certain digital tool for example being able to share something or upload pictures on social media or maybe even being able to install the picture in this blogpost and typing it , however , digital literacy is the knowledge on how to use these skills efficiently , cautiously and respectfully. digital literacy allows us to be aware and have proper judgement when using digital skills and tools such as the importance of mindfully writing things on social media and being aware of the consequences such as acknowledging political messages that might be of high risk in Egypt or how your social media profiles might affect employment oppurtunities. in my digital profile i was confident in communicating and collaborating as it is something im currently studying in depth as a marketing major and i use it often also in many other courses when in group projects or so , i was also comfortable in the find and use as this is somethng i gained knowledge of over my years as a student whilst conducting assignments and research , i did not choose confident seeing that there are some methods i have basic knowledge of such as reseraching in books. i was competent in creating and innovating seeing that at this stage, i am not taught to creatively express myself using digital tools a lot nowadays seeing that most of my learning is done in the traditional ways and therefore i just know the basics. in identity and wellbeing, i used to be just competent but during this course i have become comfortable as i learned a lot about data safety and online security and how i can ensure them. lastly, i believe that i am competent in tools and technology as i know the basic functions of the tools that help me as a student.

I actually chose the theory path as I found the articles were of extreme relevance,importance and interest as well , I also chose my articles to be , “show me my data , I’ll tell you who I am”, “how do the biggest internet companies make money?” and “breaking free of the addiction machine”

I will start by reflecting on how do the biggest internet companies make money, this was a question I always wondered about and that is why I chose this article, I found out that these companies actually have several ways to get their revenues and they are actually split into categories. to begin with, there is the attention merchants, these companies benefit from gathering information about individuals and their interests and then sell them to companies in order for companies to be able to personalize ads and then they allow them to advertise on their platforms, examples of attention merchants are Facebook , google and Baidu. alphabet (google mother company) has several revenue streams such as digital ads, owning Adsense and admob, an ad placing service, and they also sell devices and software such as home assistants and apps. Facebook is actually very similar to an ad company rather than a social media site seeing that 98.5% of their revenues are actually from ads and 1.5% from games and apps , Baidu serves the Chinese land and provides services such as being a search engine, selling ads (80% of revenue) and small innovations such as a video streaming platform and investing in AI

second comes , the machinists , these companies have a main stream of revenue from selling softwares and devices, an example of these companies are Microsoft and apple , Microsoft actually have most revenues from product sales and productivity from Microsoft office and LinkedIn and also clouds. apple also mostly get revenue from device sales and some from services such as Apple Pay.

lastly, the retail middlemen such as Alibaba and amazon and these companies sell everything online and have recently opened few physical shops and have expanded into more Digital areas such as amazon having video streaming subscriptions and Ali baba having clouds and softwares such as AutoNavi.

the second article is “show me my data , I;ll tell you who I am” this article speaks about how our privacy is constantly invaded by data brokers that sell our data to companies in order for them to be able to effectively target us and it then poses the question of ” if we tell them who we are , will they stop invading our privacy?” it also makes the point that we have very little control over our profiles and has then explained it in a rather simple but effective illustration.

the diagram shows circles of data given to corporations , it all starts with what we choose to share such as pictures, names , friends and interests.

this is then followed by what our online behavior tells them this includes the websites we vistit, our geograhical location and how much time we spend and our activities.

the last stage explains how the first and second stages are processed and assumptions are made from them about our lives.

the author then argues that if companies use a rather transparent and straightforward approach of asking us questions and respecting our answers they may even benefit from having more wholesome and accurate profiles that have little to no margin of uncertainty rather than drawing assumptions and conclusions whilst breaching our privacy. however, she also believes that we are nowhere near changing the existing mindset and have a long journey to convince companies of her ideology.

the last article is “breaking free of the addiction machine” this article discusses the staggering usage of smartphones nowadays, it discusses why we are “addicted” to machines. to begin with, it discusses that the time we spend online has increased for many reasons and not just the obvious “phones and internet connection” have become more accessible but rather because they have become convenient companions , acting as our alarm clocks, navigation systems and even memory enhancers. it also states that the evolution of apps to maximize engagement has also played a major role. they call this “addiction by design” and they have even compared them to how slot and casino machines are designed in order to put their users in a trance of some sort.

it also stated that while there was no correlation between technology use and wellbeing in teens, related factors did have for example wearing glasses had a negative effect on teens and it has been proven that many teens actually got glasses from endless hours on screens. it has also been reported that many suffer because of fear from data breaches and invasion of privacy and then go frantic in buying data detox kits and social media hiatuses and recently people have actually realized that maybe technological industries don’t have their best interest in mind.

many companies then responded by introducing features to their respective applications In order to limit screen time such as “including options to mute notifications for Facebook and Instagram and create time limits.” and apple creating the screen time app that allows you to effectively track screen time and where it is spent and then take control of it. however, the author argues that these options do not change the design that causes the addiction in the first place and that many of these companies should actually consider changing their business models o benefit their audience and take a step towards better wellbeing and safety

When I first signed up for this course, I never expected it to be as eye-opening and helpful as it has been, I thought it would be just another core course where I’ll have to learn things that I would never actually relate to in my day to day life. However, I was completely wrong about this, I actually learned a lot in this course, let me take you on my learning journey! To begin with, I learned a lot about myself seeing that during the course we learned a lot of aspects and then were given the tools and the time to reflect how this particular topic relates to us , this was particularly evident in the “my biases and I” assignment , when we saw several videos about biases and othering in class, I really did not make much of it , then came the hypothesis reading where we had to read” the problem with othering” think and then annotate , whilst reflecting on my thoughts and reading my colleagues’ opinions and thoughts I learned a lot about a side I chose to ignore thinking it was a bad trait , only to discover it is completely normal and I was then able to play the intellectual game/ quiz about my biases and actually discover a lot of them! I accepted them and even wrote a very long post about it , this brings me to my second point , acceptance something I really learned during this course is acceptance , of myself and others, I was taught through several assignments that whatever I feel/think is a right of mine and is not something I should hide or feel guilty about , this was also constantly praised and encouraged during our conversations in class, we always made it a safe space for everyone to talk even if they have unpopular opinions, not once did anyone argue over conflicting thoughts or anything , and I was also encouraged to voice thoughts that I normally would not have! I also learned that there can be creative and attractive ways to present very basic information about myself, I believe this is a very important skill in order to be able to stand out in the “real” world especially that I am a marketing major and creativity can make a lasting first impression in my field of choice, I was taught this during the making of my “alt cv” and comparing it to my normal CV. Then the pandemic came along and the content became even more relatable, I even learned about time management through the module that we read about and this was a skill needed especially at this time, I learned that to do lists are almost essential and that dividing tasks intro small increments with rewards is great and very motivating and has actually helped me when things got too overwhelming. I also learned about several real-life issues through playing the professionally made games such as spent and refugees, this gave me knowledge about issues that I am not familiar with seeing that I am not in that position. I have also learned several attitudes throughout the course, I learned patience and understanding and to be able to listen attentively and put myself through different people’s shoes, I learned this mainly through Soliya and the discussions we had on their solely about these attitudes. Finally, the game also allowed me to dig deeper in a topic I deeply love, health and wellbeing, and allowed me to put my knowledge in a project and make it fun and interactive as well, I have also learned several things about my own field such as family effect on food habits in children. With that being said, the attitudes I learned will always be very beneficial to me in both my career and my social lives seeing that these are very important in terms of communicating whether with friends in terms of being understanding, honest and accepting and with work partners in effective communication and honesty with your seniors. As I also mentioned , being creative in assignments and being able to express serious things in more fun and spontaneous ways is essential to my chosen career path of marketing and the time management skills will most definitely help in my career seeing that workd eadlines are extremely strict and crucial.

whilst every piece of this course managed to add to my learning experience if it came down to three things the very first would be the “my biases and I” assignment because it showed a lot of self-exploration and confessions being brought to the light, it also shows that there are tools available that can help us reveal a lot about our identities , things we never knew about and I would not have known about had I not taken this course , it also showed a great deal about me being at peace with my biases and how I have taken the time to self-improve and move past some of them and that makes me a more accepting and wholesome person. All In all, it shows how one slight lesson can be such an eye opener and it shows what a long way ive come. Secondly, I would choose my ALT CV , this is because im really proud of how creative I can get when the right tools and lessons are given to me , and this is something I have always had self-doubts about, it also shows how this course allowed me to show all sides of my life and personality rather than just the work and achievements mentioned in the normal curriculum vitae  and it also shows how this course and Dr Maha encouraged us to be out there and was very interested in all aspects that we care about and want to show off in a sense. Lastly , the game I created, I believe this game taught me that I know things too and that my journey in something I have struggled with and put effort into learning is most definitely something people can benefit from and I can even make it lighter by using technology and creativity to make it into a fun game that can educate people and entertain them at the same time and hopefully even guide them into the correct path.

on the other hand, there were some things that I would like to enhance in the course, to begin with , I would allow an alternative to the online exchange program “soliya” seeing that sometimes people are extremely uncomfortable with having to talk to strangers on camera for a couple of hours ,whilst it is extremely beneficial it can also be a burden to introverted or shy students and therefore, I would definitely keep it and encourage students to take part in it but also allow them to have an alternative assignment that would maybe make them a bit more comfortable with the assignment as well seeing that it was a rather big part of our course. Also, whilst the course does allow some reverse teaching as in allowing students to bring in their own content occasionally and having a discussion, I would definitely increase that as it allows us to explore more about ourselves and others for example the coronavirus meme assignment allowed a lot of us to express how we feel midst a very stressful time in a way that relates to us , so I would definitely see it as an improvement if students were allowed to fulfill their assignment requirements in a form that allows them to express themselves for example maybe instead of writing blogposts people can create mind maps or interesting videos. Lastly, I believe a person that is on a journey of self-exploration and craves interesting learning is one that should most definitely choose this course. 

I really loved the opportunities presented in this course seeing that it allowed each of us to stay true to ourselves and our interests and we always felt that Dr Maha was always interested in our differences and was eager to see our individual mindsets and talents, I really did value that most of the time our differences were catered to for example there was always a reading or a video about  a certain topic, I found this extremely valuable as people were always engaged because there was always something they preferred over the other and were therefore motivated to do the work and take part in our fruitful discussions, I never found any of the ways not valuable because each aspect taught us something different. 

the game I created is called health is wealth , it is a game about the journey to having a healthy lifestyle and the challenges that people face on a daily basis and the decisions that they have to take based on them. in my first draft, there was an error with the linking between the scenarios and I needed to make my game more appealing by adding pictures and i have managed to do so in my final draft.

if I had more time, I would have definitely added more scenarios that relate to many other people rather than myself and the few people I have interviewed , I would have tried to consider the challenges that face people that come from different backgrounds such as social class. i wouldve also loved to have the time to make more secondary research as the findings were very interesting

I learned a lot making this game , I learned a bit about myself actually and the wide knowledge I know about this particular field and how interested I am into it , I also learned that there is a lot more to know whilst researching for more information and I even learned about the family impact on food habits which is something I personally went through without knowing so that definitely was very eye opening. on the other hand, I learned that I can do a lot on google slides and manipulate what looks to be just a presentation tool to make something that is fun and enjoyable , I also learned that there are websites that only offer legal images!

Q1 how does the dialogue in connect express differ from other types of communication you are familiar with and why is it different?

I believe my connect express experience is immensely different than the types of communications I am familiar with on a daily basis, to begin with, I prefer physical communication and talking face to face and actually find that communicating digitally has too many obstacles such as not being able to portray the correct meaning of my words, connectivity problems and many others. The dialogue itself also differs seeing that I usually interact with individuals of the same background as I am in terms of religion, ethnicity, culture and nationality, however during the program I got to connect with several people from different backgrounds and actually found out that I have a lot in common with them, this was initially shown through the identity task we had to create by listing 7 things that make up who we are and most of us had 2-3 in common, it was also shown through our interests and hobbies. Another different aspect is that we took turns to speak and weren’t allowed to speak over each other using the grabbing mic tool, this allowed us to listen better and have a better-quality conversation. 

Question 2: what type of communicator I am in the digital world?

I learned that I actually am a very good listener, and I am very open to different points of view and that I am never easily triggered and actually very understanding as to trying to comprehend why the person has this specific outlook, I also learned that I really like exploring different aspects of different people that I barely know and I allow them to do so as well even though I am a very closed off person in the real world. I also learned that I’m a rather active communicator as I was always very eager to participate and voice my opinions and knowledge about the topics we discussed. 

Question 3: what can you do to foster constructive communication both online and face to face?

This was a topic we mentioned a lot in our dialogues and I think we all had the same principles, to begin with we have to go in with an open mind and understand and foster differences between individuals, secondly, we have to be respectful and even if we have different opinions we have to voice them in a manner that is acceptable. We also have to listen and try to understand the meaning someone is voicing and then respond in regards to that seeing that too often, people are eager to respond rather than understand. We also have to be honest and put ourselves into other people’s shoes and also empathy was a key thing , we all shared personal stuff about ourselves that made us who we are and we have to be empathetic towards one another

My overall experience was very informative and enjoyable, I had lovely individuals in my group that are all different in regards of backgrounds but we all had things in common and actually loved learning about one another, I had some technical issues during the sessions seeing that they are rather lengthy and my country’s internet is not the best and I think that was the only downfall, sometimes it was also difficult to understand the local terms seeing that most of us were of different nationalities but we were all very open about it and asked for further clarification and that actually allowed room for more growth and getting the best out of the experience. 

Growing up, I was overweight and had extremely poor health choices such as eating junk food, binge eating and doing little to no exercise. however, 4 years back I decided that I’ll turn this around and I started by discovering myself and the reasons behind my choices to be able to undo them and then I lost weight and then today, I’m on the path of getting certified as a fitness instructor and working as an assistant coach in a fitness facility. that being said, most of my research is from personal experience and some of observation of clients and I interviewed a couple of friends and lastly, there was one aspect I found some secondary research about.

To begin with, our culture typically glorifies food and almost all outings and generosity is shown through food outings which encourages people to always be up to eat at anytime because it is the most widespread form of leisure. also, our cultural food is mostly very dense and very unhealthy and most foods is made with unhealthy means such as oils and butters and therefore the foreign idea of choosing healthy foods when outside and also buying healthier groceries such as subtituting oils with olive oils and healthy fats.

Secondly, our lifestyles are typically very busy even as little kids from the wide range of activities our families sign us up for to our adolescent years where we’re busy with our social lives and studies and then work. having a busy and fast paced life disables us from being able to pursue healthier eating choices as we always need something on the go and the unhealthy meals are much more widespread and having to meal prep is a burden to many. upon interviewing 3 of my friends, they confirmed this by saying that for example on campus rhe ratio of healthy meals to unhealthy ones is almost 2:5 and the hectic life of university, extra curriculars, sports and social lives always encourages them to eat out and eat whatever is available. busy lifestyles also disables many people from excercising as they either do not have the time or are drained of their daily activities and have no energy to workout.

upon interviewing my friends, I also found that peer pressure is a huge factor. upon spending time with colleagues and seeing them opt for their unhealthy habits people tend to cower away from standing out when in the middle of the group. also, in younger ages they may be put under the spotlight or get made fun of because they are opting out of eating dense foods or eating lighter meals whilst their friends aren’t. also sometimes their friends are vocal about it by saying that they should enjoy the same meals or encouraging them to eat together at unhealthy food joints.

lastly, some people are put off due to the increasing social pressure of being healthy and fit which is actually very contradictory. during the interviews, 2/3 participants mentioned that the uprising fitness industry and people who are becoming fitter by the idea actually threatens them and has them feeling extremely self conscious to an extent that they are too embarrassed to go the gym feeling like they would never be able to compete and would feel like they are being scrutinized.

upon researching previous articles, I found that family plays a huge part as well. a family’s encouragement or discouragement can make or break a healthy habit. to begin with, the “food rules” families set for their children in younger ages has actually been proven to majorly influence a person’s nutritional options as they mature and choose their own diets seeing that it had already become their normal habits. (Contento et al., 1993; Herzler, 1984; Rozin, 1988) also, whether the families explain why some food groups are prohibited or favored actually made a huge difference in making conscious food choices later on. Family scrutiny was also a huge factor, when families tend to criticize weight in their children actually encourages or discourages a healthy lifestyle. for example a family that calls their children fat or too skinny and constantly makes fun of them and scolds them for not doing anything about it has children that are less likely to want to make changes and actually start to believe that they will never change on the other hand, a family that encourages healthy eating to be able to develop and change habits for a better lifestyle and actually encourages and provides incentives and are careful with words can provide a huge motivational factor for their children

sources:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/135910539700200105

I decided to choose the article on time management since I have been struggling with it more than usual during staying at home which I actually did not expect at all. I really enjoyed this article seeing that it gave both the general tips and ones that are a bit more specific and not as common. The chapter also had a lot of gradual progression ,to begin with it advised to skim through the courses’ syllabi and plug in all relevant due dates and announced assignments to be able to have an overview of the semester. it then went into more depth, into showing how to create an outline for a semester schedule containing more details about course content and assignment details. later on, they taught us how to make a detailed weekly schedule that has more meticulous details and divides the time amongst our daily lives and our academic lives in order to juggle both aspects.

once it got to a daily basis it introduced to do lists which is something I already recently familiarized myself with but was struggling to be consistent in. it gave several simple tips on how to make an efficient to do lists such as writing all tasks and their dates and then priotizing them in order of dates rather than writing everything you need to do and randomly select tasks throughout the days. it also introduced the several platforms to do lists can be done on and their various benefits. It actually introduced me to the apps and i think they can be much more suitable to my lifestyle. one concept i really liked as well is that they encouraged self motivation by gifting ourselves when we manage to finish our tasks on time, this is something i believe most of us forget to do when we’re constantly rushing to finish our tasks. lastly, it encouraged splitting big chunks of work and studying into smaller modules to be able to keep up with tasks and to be able to comprehend the knowledge better and more efficiently. i believe this is necessary at this point seeing that the workload is noticabely higher and harder to manage during this stressful time.

spent

my initial thoughts about this game is that it is very professional and appealing. this game was by far the most user friendly out of all the games i’ve played, the instructions were very clear and concise and as the game progressed it didnt get complicated even though it was quite lengthy. i personally loved the idea behind this game seeing that it put me into a situation i wouldn’t quite understand and showed me the importance of prioritizing and being rational about spending patterns. the fact that the game had many options that are perceived as necessities was what made it intense and it put me into situations that would be extremely difficult in reality such as choosing between paying for my pet’s treatment when i can’t afford to do so or abiding by the law when it came to my vehicle and then being fined even more when i couldnt do so. this showed me how life can be extremely tough even in affording daily necessities and that obtaining money can be extremely inconvient such as taking my kids money or donating plasma. moreover, there were several times where i found myself choosing things that satisfied emotional needs to people around me such as buying a present to preserve my kid’s image over money. i believe that i learned to always opt for the necessities and that sometimes life throws unexpected hurdles that we have to be prepared for. one thing i disliked about this game is the fact that it had a lack of positive scenarious such as rewards or decisions that lead to actually obtaining more money.

BBC Syrian Refugees

this game was an eyeopener and actually allowed me to go into depth in a topic that i had very little knowledge about, i believe this game depicts an ongoing struggle for syrian refugees and highlights the fact that they are exposed to several dangerous in attempt to save their lives and have better living standards for themselves and their families. i played this game several times but never managed to make it to Europe , in my first trial i based my decisions on doing anything to get there with the money i had whilst disregarding the risks. however, the second time i managed to balance it out and i ended up with a boat that was faulty and was rescued but put into a refugee camp which also isnt the optimal solution. i love how realistic this game is and actually has several options of how the refugees end up. however, i believe that the instructions were quite jumbled up and the game skipped a few steps that may have allowed the users to make more educated choices.

responsible partying

this game is actually very relatable to my generation seeing that these are choices we tend to make everytime we go out to a party. i loved how realistic the situations such as being offered alcohol constantly and feeling like a buzzkill if you do not take it and stick to your prefernces however, i really enjoyed the facts that popped uo in the middle as it educates us in a field that we need to be eductaed in as these are choices we face a lot, i also really liked that it awards the sensible decisions and this doesnt really exist in real life if we make the right decisions. it also raised awareness on similar issues such as consent and this is sadly something that we see as a taboo. one thing i did not like was the fact that upon choosing the irresponsible answer there were facts thrown around rather than an actual scenario.

Fake it to make it

This game is all about making a career off of fake news. I personally take interest in this seeing that i am a journalism major and we get taught a lot about building credibility and differentiating between news types. however, this game actually introduced me to the side we dont get taught is how these news are made and spread and it also showed me that by using the right platforms and connections it is very much possible to deceive people and make a living out of it too. this game was very thorough and took you through the entire process in great detail such as starting by copying articles and then by planting it into appropriate channels in order to maximize the reach and finally by writing the articles taking you through the base and the supporting pieces. however, the game was extremely time consuming seeing that the target was very high and the rewards were too low.

Peer Destruction

Growing up , i struggled a lot with body image so the concept of this game was fantastic to me! i really liked how it took into consideration both body types and their day to day issues hiwever, i found the decisions quite shallow and that these arent the biggest challenges people with body image issues face however, the outlining was well thought of such as pressures from family and friends. one major issue i had was that the game was sequences incorrectly for example i chose the overweight POV and i was suddenly taken to the underweight situation so it was a bit confusing for me!

second hand depression

i find mental health a huge taboo in egypt but in our community is more spoken about however, still slightly judged. what i really liked about this game is the fact that it gives you several situations such as someone has a hard time completing a task(sending you an email) or someone not wanting to leave the comfort of their homes(the birthday party situation) and even having a partner than dopesnt have energy to put in efforta relationship and they give you several reactions and they either applaud you on your decision or they tell you what to do instead and they even have an option of suggesting what to add to your reaction in order to make it more sympathetic. i really admire the fact that this actually puts you in the shoes of those who are depressed for a change and guides you on dealing with them simultaneously. i also really enjoyed the facts that were there about depression and they weren’t extremely dark but they were rather comforting and empathetic. one thing that could have been done better is that it could have been a bit more visually appealing.

This actually gave me a whole new perspective about what actually may be going on, i think it helped me connect the dots between a lot of information i was previously aware of, many of the developed countries and China have been neck to neck for quite some time now but china was outperforming them and instead of initiating wars with many complications this may have been a much more subtle way to achieve what they wanted. it seems very convenient and it had already achieved what other countries may have been targeting , the virus’s cause has not been determined yet and the appearance of the virus was very sudden and unanticipated so this may be a plotted move.