"Information Overload" Alexis Gumbs Visits UNH

Recently, Alexis Gumbs was interviewed by Courtney Marshall at the University of New Hampshire as part of a dialogue surrounding technology. Alexis began by reading a poem and speaking to the concept of information overload, as we are constantly bombarded with information in this fast paced world. We are overloaded with messages from countless sides telling us what to wear, what to drive, what to believe, how to live. It is difficult to decipher the messages we see today not only through media depictions but in the vast space of the internet. Our lives are symbolically split between how our profiles on social networking sites depict us and how we feel we are in real life. However, our internet depictions are not so separate from our offline experience and the internet is not entirely an escape from the outside world. The two may be combined which is a concept which Gumbs article "We Are the One's We've Been Waiting For" speaks to.

Online activism through blogging and networking keeps important words alive. Gumbs and Bailey note that the words of Black feminists are not still thriving due to coincidence but because these feminists took action and invested themselves in activism. Blogging communities truly resemble a grassroots effort to organize but through the internet have the capability to expand the number of individuals participating. I admire the effort Gumbs has put forth to respect her elders work and utilize these techniques in a manner that speaks to the technological advances of the present. In my opinion, this work is crucial because within feminism we must not forget the contributions of our elders and how advances have been made. I've often heard that my generation does not work nearly as hard or isn't as involved in activist work. Hearing Alexis Gumbs speak inspired an entirely different train of thought for me. That current generations are not necessarily unmotivated or lazy but perhaps activism is shifting to occupy a different space. A great deal of activism is being conducted through internet communities through blogging and vlogging. This is not to say that these individuals don't take issues "to the street" but that organizing within groups looks different from past methods.