Wonder Media keeps evolving to serve you better! Welcome to the webpage to learn about all things about the upcoming musical, Click: Connect IRL.

It’s the latest iteration of Sue Ellen Christian‘s Wonder Media project that began as a university course, then a textbook, followed by a major museum exhibition and then a full-scale interactive website. (You’re on it right now!)

Librarians, educators and parents have asked for more ways to connect with youth to tell the story and convey the skills of media literacy in engaging ways. Enter “Click: Connect IRL,” a musical in development now but you’re lucky, as we are releasing our songs as soon as they are completed by Music Producer Bob Wallis and our partnering composing artists.

This tune is by composer and musician Jeff Moehle and singer Eric O’Daly. It’s a rock anthem to encourage all of us to set aside the boxes in which algorithms place us and find human connection. To help support this non-profit effort at a time when our major funder, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, has been defunded, please consider a donation.

Programming/Activity: Listen to the song as a group, and have listeners follow along with the lyrics below. Ask for feedback about what the song is about and what it wants us to do. Then, invite teams of 3 or 4 to write a new verse to the song that fits with its theme, and share with the group — and us here at WonderMedia via our contact form!

The Anti-Algorithm Song

We get our news through a piece of glass

and we never even think to ask

Is it true or is it fiction?

Bogged down in the metrics of the system.

Yeah, we want to live without the lies

Coexist in a paradise,

But we gotta put the work in

Wise choices to resist the next suggestion,

Cuz truth isn’t the idea they’re suggesting.

There’s no telling where the next threat is coming

No telling when the next threat is coming

Mix up the beat

Take to the street

Say it loud:

We won’t retreat

We’re feeling strong and feeling proud.

Cuz we believe that we all share the same heart–

We are a part of everyone.

Everybody wants to think they’re right

No challenge means you always win your own fight

But with partial information

Is anyone, anyone really winning?

Still we try to get the upper hand

And choose pride over kindness

Yeah, we’re cast in a play

Written by fools for profit and gain

They get the money, we get the pain.

Mix up the beat

Take to the street

Say it loud:

We won’t retreat

We’re feeling strong and feeling proud.

Cuz we believe that we all share the same heart–

We are a part of everyone.

All this twisted information

it’s pulling our nation apart.

Old friends new enemies,

Heading straight into tragedy.

In the end, it’s really up to us –

yeah, we gotta make a change,

yeah, we gotta rearrange:

Try to connect, not divide and separate

Mix up the beat

Take to the street

Say it loud:

We won’t retreat

We’re feeling strong and feeling proud.

Cuz we believe that we all share the same heart–

We are a part of everyone.

It’s a machine, and it don’t dream, like we do.

We can receive all the things we know are true.

And we believe that we all share the same heart

We are a part of everyone.

Mix up the beat

Take to the street

Say it loud:

We won’t retreat

We’re feeling strong and feeling proud.

Cuz we believe that we all share the same heart–

We are a part of everyone.

Flip the machine

Find the in-between,

Start again.

Then we receive

All the good that’s coming in;

Better believe that we all share the same heart

We are a part of everyone.

Trick the machine,

Find the in-between,

Start again.

Finally receive

All the good that’s coming in;

Better believe that we all share the same heart

We are a part of everyone.

Click: The Musical – Connect IRL

Wonder Media keeps evolving to serve you better! Welcome to the webpage to learn about all things about the upcoming musical, Click: Connect IRL.

The Anti-Algorithm Song

We get our news through a piece of glass

and we never even think to ask

Is it true or is it fiction?

Bogged down in the metrics of the system.

Yeah, we want to live without the lies

Coexist in a paradise,

But we gotta put the work in

Wise choices to resist the next suggestion,

Cuz truth isn’t the idea they’re suggesting.

There’s no telling where the next threat is coming

No telling when the next threat is coming

Mix up the beat

Take to the street

Say it loud:

We won’t retreat

We’re feeling strong and feeling proud.

Cuz we believe that we all share the same heart–

We are a part of everyone.

Everybody wants to think they’re right

No challenge means you always win your own fight

But with partial information

Is anyone, anyone really winning?

Still we try to get the upper hand

And choose pride over kindness

Yeah, we’re cast in a play

Written by fools for profit and gain

They get the money, we get the pain.

Mix up the beat

Take to the street

Say it loud:

We won’t retreat

We’re feeling strong and feeling proud.

Cuz we believe that we all share the same heart–

We are a part of everyone.

All this twisted information

it’s pulling our nation apart.

Old friends new enemies,

Heading straight into tragedy.

In the end, it’s really up to us –

yeah, we gotta make a change,

yeah, we gotta rearrange:

Try to connect, not divide and separate

Mix up the beat

Take to the street

Say it loud:

We won’t retreat

We’re feeling strong and feeling proud.

Cuz we believe that we all share the same heart–

We are a part of everyone.

It’s a machine, and it don’t dream, like we do.

We can receive all the things we know are true.

And we believe that we all share the same heart

We are a part of everyone.

Mix up the beat

Take to the street

Say it loud:

We won’t retreat

We’re feeling strong and feeling proud.

Cuz we believe that we all share the same heart–

We are a part of everyone.

Flip the machine

Find the in-between,

Start again.

Then we receive

All the good that’s coming in;

Better believe that we all share the same heart

We are a part of everyone.

Trick the machine,

Find the in-between,

Start again.

Finally receive

All the good that’s coming in;

Better believe that we all share the same heart

We are a part of everyone.