Blog post 10 - Abby

I believe the future of digital/ multimodal writing is very promising. Personally I've loved exploring these interactive websites and multimodal formats, it was never something I tried before this class and being exposed to this new form of interacting with a text/narrative made me realize how far we have come in regards to reaching an audience. I think this digital/multimodal breaks down the barrier that the internet inherently creates between an individual and the rest of the world. As technology and social media has become such a vital part of our everyday life we have been more connected than ever, though, ironically there has been a rise in reports of people feeling more disconnected from people because of the superficiality that is often found in social media. I think digital and multimodal writing is a good way to get over the superficial barrier that makes people feel disconnected. With immersive storytelling the reader can really put themselves in another person’s shoes, thus creating an incredibly emphatic experience. I especially liked learning about the VR systems that were used in Chris Milk’s “How Virtual Reality Can Create the Ultimate Empathy Machine” by Chris Milk. I think this is such an exciting humanitarian project that could lead to some large strides towards a better, more understanding future. I believe projects like those are the ways in which we should be using technology. I also really enjoyed the interactive animated films they had on the National film board of Canada. I browsed a couple of them and found a heartwarming short interactive film called "Brainstream" about a young girl who livestreams her brain activity. I like the futuristic aspect of it. As you're interacting with the film the space feels so intimate and safe. After taking this class I strongly believe in the power of immersive storytelling through digital/multimodal platforms and hope to see more innovative avenues of which it can be used for entertainment but most importantly for social progress.  link to "Brainstream": https://www.nfb.ca/interactive/brainstream/?interactive-hp_en=feature_4&feature_type=w_interactive&banner_id=80187