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I've had a hard time trying to figure out what is considered electronic literature and what isn't. With this class, we've gone through so many different works, and I think I've come to the conclusion that almost anything and everything is considered electronic literature, as long as it's electronic of course. From Twitter concepts to Instagram concepts, each work has a meaning with its art, and that's what makes it literature. It's been hard trying to take myself out of the realm of just academic essays and novels, but the things we've read and studied have been a great introduction to the rest of the literature world. This week, what caught my eye the most was Dronestagram. The only time that I've ever really heard of drones being used was when my friends would play around and fly them to get some nice views of the beach or campus, but it never crossed my mind that drones could most definitely be used as a method of surveillance, a way to view a piece of the world and gain intel. But I mean, why wouldn't they? If a drone was tens of thousands of feet above ground level, no one could ever spot it. Looking at the photos though, I realize that all these news stories we hear and read about aren't just some made up story, they're real. Sure, learning about these current events is one thing, but being able to conceptualize and understand, especially see where these events are happening, really bring them to life. From first glance, all of the photos look the same: a dry land with a few structures which could be houses or buildings of some sort, barren and seemingly like there is no life, some trees and greenery here and there, but so much is happening.

It's hard to understand the breadth and brevity of current events when it isn't happening to you, simply put. I find myself reading tragic stories on the news and feeling terrible for a couple minutes, only to move on to something else. But these photos of villages from these surveillance drones give us insight on what's going on in the world, in the parts of Afghanistan and Yemen. Bridle makes a strong point when he mentions that these posts make everything feel more real. To have some hard evidence, these photos bring another layer of dimension onto these news reports that we hear. These attacks, these innocent children being targeted and losing their lives, it isn't just a headline, rather it hits home when context is given, such as a picture from the drone. In the way that the government is trying to view these areas and gain information, we as readers also gain a new sense of perspective on news like this. We learn that we shouldn't just react towards a new headline and forget about it after ten minutes. We learn to understand that these things are real. But most importantly, we learn that we should act, speak up, and engage in conversation about this in order for any spark of movement to occur.