After participating in the Open Hashtag Chat on Twitter in class the other day, I decided to try my hand at a Twitter Essay to reflect on Chris Gillard’s article Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy. It turned out better than I had anticipated, after having failed miserably several times at making a sketchnote. I, basically, learned that I shouldn’t choose anything that involves drawing or planning or really anything too creative.
Now onto more serious business! Before reading Gillard’s article, I didn’t realize redlining was a thing, or maybe more specifically, I didn’t realize it was a term that went farther than schools blocking social media on the school’s network. Redlining wasn’t in my vocabulary at all, not even when it came to neighbourhood segregation. It was definitely an interesting read and a topic that students should know about. As I said in my Twitter essay, I wonder how many times I’ve been redlined from accessing information?
I’m not quite sure I agree with Gillard completely when it comes to redlining being discriminatory (which I go into more detail on Twitter) but new policies should be created to get rid of redlining for good. It shouldn’t matter where you go to school, you should have access to everything. It shouldn’t even matter if you’re in school or not. How many articles are there out there that cost money just to read without access from the University? Are the author’s redlining us? Where is the line drawn?
Anyway, to read my full thoughts on the subject, click the thumbs up below, it’ll take you to my Twitter thread! Hope you all enjoy!
