Hi, my name is Eleora! When we first started the idea of digital literacy, I didn’t quite know what it was, and I mean, who can blame me, right? After we began to dive more into the idea, it became clearer. My digital narrative acted as a story, one where I was able to follow my journey through how I came into contact through all things digital, and where I was at now. However, what was my digital narrative? Did I even have one? Let me answer this one for all those watching. Of COURSE you do, and well me too. My start may be similar to yours. What was it after all? It all started with an MP3 player.
Now that sounds crazy, a 20 year old who had an MP3 player, but yes I was right at the perfect age for those memories. My first MP3 player (it wasn’t even an iPod) was red and held some of my most precious childhood tactics. It held my best friends of Billy Joel, the Beatles, Van Morrison, and many others. All the way from Brown Eyed Girl, to Come Together. However, this was just the beginning. I never knew that after this exposure in my life, my digital narrative would be woven together through the growing pains of middle school, the triumphs and face plants of high school, and finally, to the terrifying mid-almost adulthood of college life.
Once I established this connection, all of my digital influences came into play, especially those that I would now consider my favorites. I eventually graduated from an old MP3 player to a flip phone, and then finally: the iPhone.
This first piece of technology in my arsenal was legendary. Granted a lot of people in my school already had one, so I had a lot to look forward to. At this time the camera was phenomenal, messages were immediate, and you could even see someone’s face when they were in a different state! Looking back, this seems pretty silly compared to what we have now, but at the time (and even now) I was in shock. This tool became one that almost no one could live without. Now I argue that I personally could, but my life would look like mayhem without a calendar and a quick way to take pictures.
Now the second digital device that transformed everything was one that changed the game for everyone – social media. The world was fascinated by the short quick blurbs and real time updates that bridged time and culture gaps. As for myself, it was all about the visuals. It was at this point I started to come into my love for visual communication. I fell in love with photography, especially with devices that could capture it right there and in the moment, so naturally, Instagram was my thing. I took pictures of anything I could, especially scenes from my family’s many outdoor adventures.
As a kid I was always in love with words. It started as a young girl when my dad would read me the Chronicles of Narnia, which only fed into my sense of adventure. As I grew older, my love of words continued, spurring a new hobby of writing letters. Writing letters seemed old school, but I loved the words. Soon after, I still was hungering for a sense of literature in a digital world, which led me to my absolute love of podcasts. I fell in love with the way producers wove words together and helped create my ultimate feeling. It became a way to illustrate without visuals.
Finally, these digital devices and feelings felt transformed together and manifested into my favorite digital device known as Adobe design. Now I know, who DIDN’T see this coming?! I obviously didn’t, but I’m sure glad it did. As I went through high school and college, I began mastering components of Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and my absolute favorite of Illustrator. All of the skills I had gained from having two parents with art majors had a place to multiply. It began casually, then turned into a full time job in the University of Minnesota Crookston’s Admissions office, as well as my role of publicity with GEE, or Golden Eagle Entertainment.
All of these digital devices became essential in my love for communication, one that truthfully I didn’t realize I had until I was in college. Without these digital devices, my narrative wouldn’t have created a love that would eventually turn into career aspiration.
Pursuit of Purpose 