The Self in Contemporary Society

The self in contemporary society was an interesting outlook on the differences of "self" in our modern world differ very much in comparison to previous generations.  Kenneth J. Gergen's "technologies of social saturation" has an enormous influence to almost everyone's life in modern society.  With these technologies, the variety of relationships differ much more than it did in the non-globalized world.  I also thought that Gergen's perspectives competing in modern life was very understandable.  Although he had three different perspectives, the two that stuck out was the modernist and romantic movements.  "The modernist self is described by the philosophers of the Enlightenment as the rational creature, one who operates in the world by attempting to master the passions and to act rationally, while for Romantics our sense of self originates from a deep inner core..." (pg 164).  These two perspectives are very visible in people and it's almost like distinguishing between the "emotion" driven people versus the "logic" driven people.

A Virtual Death and a Real Dilemma

This article took a look at multiple aspects about the effects and insight of the controversy that occurred with the fake death of  Kaycee Nicole Swenson.  What triggered my interest throughout this article was the direct effect of the blog, as a medium, had in the ability affect so many people.  As the reading states, "Hoaxes may have a history as old as communication, but some hoaxes are better suited to particular media than others" (pg 202).  Because of the lack of visual mediums, blogs are more susceptible due to the fact that it is typically text based.  Reading requires the audience to use their "imaginations to fill gaps and gloss over inconsistencies in their interactions" (pg 203).  This created an atmosphere where the audience became more connected with this fictitious character.  Furthermore, I found that because the freedom in which blogs hold, some address the impact of the hoax because of the technology itself.  This may bring people to not "trust" information conveyed through the web.  I found an interesting perspective to rebuttal why we shouldn't hate or distrust the internet  further in the reading.  On page 212, there is a quote from Powazek's forum , " This saga isn't going to make me stop trusting what I read on the web, the relationships I form here, because what enable trust, compassion and love is the message, not the medium...I found a out a friend died recently, because her daughter called up and told me. I do not hate the phone. I hate the fact that she died".  Although these hoaxes may be easier to be susceptible to on the internet, we should still take an appreciation of the web.  We must be more cognizant of what we trust, but that is on the individual to determine what is fake and what is reality.

The End of Books?

The End of Books was a unique outlook of the demise of novels.  However, I did find this article confusing as far as the specifics in what is being affected.  Im not a literary buff, so if I were to assume the intent of the article, I gather that novels are being threatened by "hypertext".  I was not previously aware that there were specific established systems in which people manipulated and added onto other peoples writings.  The effects of "hypertext" was confusing at first but George P. Landow clarified exactly what is occuring.  He writes, "Electronic text processing marks the next major shift in information technology after the development of the printed book.  It promises (or threatens) to produce effects on our culture, particularly on our literature, education, criticisms and scholarships, just as radical as those produced by Gutenberg's movable type".  I found it interesting how these "hypertexts" in "hyperspace" has no real rules or base.  Rather, it is a free for all with no specific order or system.

Research Project

I chose to focus my research project around the effects of online communities.  I have not decided if I am going to look at a specific online community group or keep it general to all online communities.  I haven't researched much thus far, and I will have a better outlook within the next day or so.  Depending on the material I can find, I would like to focus more on a specific age group, preferably children in middle school and high school, because I feel they would be more effected my these online communities.

Navigating Technomedia

I wasn't entirely confident in what this article was attempting to present.  I thought the first couple pages was going in one directions, then it turning into a history lesson.  However, I was able to grasp a couple interesting points from this article. I thought this article made clear that technomedia is not tied down to a corresponding technology, but rather it has multiple, multitasking and interconnected capability.  The article specifically identifies the Internet, and is a great example of it "has become a progressively more inclusive media technology, one in which technological developments of past and future somehow incorporate one another".  I am hypothesizing that the point of this article is to ask or find how and what our new technomedia is being used for...but I still feel that is not the purpose of this article.  Although I don't really understand the point of this article, I realize that the importance of technological advances is becoming a global necessity (or want) as expressed by the President of Senegal.  

Personal Dynamic Media

Wow! This was a very interesting article! Its amazing how these plans of the Dynabook have become actuality and it was all visualized so many years ago!  Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg had fully examined all the capabilities they could see a notebook sized computer to be.  Opposing to Licklider's time-sharing computers, these two people visualized and end goal of what they saw would be the most functional in the end-game rather that Licklider's views of what you be capable.  I thought Kay's and Goldberg's approach in creating a system in which children, hospitals, and musicians can all use what a great method in creating what we have privilege of having today.  By looking at all the various uses people want and need, they were able to devise a system that met all requirements for virtually any customer they may have.  The amazing part is, today this dream is true, and all facets in which they examined utilize laptops and other notebook size computer for those purposes.  Now everything is run in our world by the Dynabook-like devises.

From Computer Power and Human Reason

This article from Joseph Weizenbaum is a fascinating look at the humanistic possibilities that computer are and possibly can become like a human.  He looks deeply into how computers can be very humanistic in a sense of patterns and can imitate man in every aspect.  However, he believes that there are limits to what computers ought to be put to do.  I found that ELIZA brought two very interesting perspectives.  Weizenbaum writes, “a number of practicing psychiatrists seriously believed that the DOCTOR computer program could grow into a nearly completely automatic form of psychotherapy”.  Although this was completely not the intent of creating this program, the technique used by psychotherapist was incorporated in this program.  I could understand the perspective of the psychotherapist believing this because some techniques utilize a method of patterns and responses derived from the patient, and it seems that is possible to program into a computer system.  The example of the interaction between the young lady and ELIZA is a prime example of how this is possible.  Another idea I found very interesting was the emotional connection people created with the DOCTOR.  They had anthropomorphized it to the point where his secretary had asked him to leave the room because of the intimate thoughts that were being discussed with the computer program.  Weizenbaum found that he did “not realize that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people.”  This unexpected finding shows how people can form such emotional bonds and create relationships between an individual and a computer. 

Second Life

This was another interesting article about a very odd (at least to me) topic or game platform.  The main purpose of this article is to based on gender and roles in the second life platforms.  Several unique results were identified throughout the project. First, to attempt to come to a solid conclusion on virtual worlds and positions on gender is very complex as many variable may play a role.  The vast perceptions, social visions, and social layer of the world can influence this.  In addition the player's technical skill level tie into the performance of gender.  Secondly, the stylization of the body seemed evident that they are common among the "particular normative visions of femaleness and maleness".  The male and female appearance and beauty are very stereotypical and constructed as the in ways of our popular cultures perception of attractiveness. For example, for women, slender bodies, tiny waist, big breasts and for males, broad shoulders and muscular upper bodies.  However, what the article found is that the gamer level or technical skills increased the ability to software writing.  They can manipulate and escape the constructions made available by the platform.

Technology and the Society

Wow, this was a very interesting article on the history of technology and the social affects upon it.  I found a lot on interesting information throughout the article in regards to the correlation of different technological advances in various mediums through our history and how the society formed with it.  It was very interesting to read how there was also a correlation between our historical events such as WWI and WWII, and the developments in technology.  The article reads, "the principal incentives to first stage improvement in communication technology came from problems of communication and control in expanded military and commercial operations".  Like much of the tools we use today, our channels of media were directly involved in the development of what we use today on a daily basis.  The phases in which television and radio had gone through was very similar.  Both had phases which "technology of transmission and reception developed before content, and important parts of the content were and have remained by-products of the technology rather than independent enterprises".  In addition to the historical coming of these mediums, the history in uses were very fascinating throughout the article.  These examples include the regulatory aspect, and the uses in politics as mediums to speak to the "masses".  Technology is and always will be a part of our society, whether it's used properly or manipulatively.

Just Like Me Only Better

In Just Like Me Only Better, the author investigated "Second Life" avatars which represents individuals from different ethnic origins and various other backgrounds.  I found the results of this article very intriguing.  First, the commonality in preference of facial features among the study subjects  were very similar.  Even with the subjects coming from various backgrounds and nationalities, they had seemed to choose characteristics following a "contemporary Caucasian pattern of beauty".  However, every nationality seemed to have favoritism in slightly different features of their avatar.  This is another aspect of this study I found to be unusual and interesting.  Each nation had their own version of a "perfect" avatar.  For example, the Germans preferred tanned skin, blond straight hair, and thin lips and nose.  Among the Vietnamese and Chinese, they seemed to prefer darker skin as well, and the Japanese preferred larger eyes.  These slight variations and commonality show the general tendencies of what is preferred in these nations.