Twitter Blog

While I watched the first video of her blog, I felt a variety of emotions including confusion, awe, uncertainty and fear. The combination of the exciting music and constant stream of shocking information caused me to get caught up in the video and instead of processing each bit of information as it was presented, the facts combined together (I actually just realized that I've already forgotten nearly all the facts in the video because they were all thrown out so quickly and in succession) to make me feel overwhelmed by the rapid advancement of technology in our world. However, after I finished watching the video I began to think about where these facts came from and if they were taken out of context. The information in the video is certainly disturbing in itself, but it honestly does not worry me all that much. Our world and society may be changing faster than it ever has before, but it doesn't really directly affect me and my life. Of course the technological aspect of it has changed--whenever I need to know a piece of information, the first thing I do is Google it, and my friends and I text message all the time. But despite the rapid introduction of new technology, people's day to day lives, relationships, and emotions in general remain the same. The inherent characteristics that make us human are no different than they were thousands of years ago despite the fact that we use Microsoft word instead of stone tablets to record information. I guess in my mind, there's no use worrying about the facts brought up in the video because society is going to naturally progress regardless--there's nothing we can do about it. Humans are always going to try to advance our race and create a better world for ourselves.

I was more concerned with the second video. People's ideas of beauty and what we should look like is being totally distorted by the media. Advertisers know that the better the models they are using for their products look, the more likely it is people will buy it because they want to achieve this look that is, in reality, impossible in a real person. I applaud Dove's efforts to return to the idea of real beauty. People are not perfect and trying to become so will only drive us crazy.

5 New People

I enjoyed this challenge to reach out to people I might not normally talk to. I never really thought about it, but a lot of the time when I’m on my way to class listening to my Ipod or sitting in a big lecture I’m in my own little world and not really paying attention to what’s going on around me. This doesn’t usually bother me because I figure I’m not going to form deep, lasting relationships with people I probably won’t see again but it was actually nice just to chat with people, learn about them, and see what we did or didn’t have in common. The first person I talked to was sitting next to me in my big history lecture. We just chatted about the class and where we were from and it turned out that her Dad was an alumnus of the college my Dad just started working for, The Citadel in South Carolina. I also talked to a guy in my history discussion while we were waiting outside for class. He was a transfer student from American University and since he doesn’t have a car, he said he bikes for an hour every morning to get to class, which astounded me. I also chatted with a guy in my history class who lives off campus as well. He told me about recently wrecking his car and how he often gets pulled over because he speeds way too much. I told him that I’ve never been pulled over for speeding because my car is so old it won’t go fast enough. The speedometer numbers don’t even go past 85. The fifth person I talked to was a girl in my lecture and we talked about the midterm we had coming up in that class and discussed our study habits for it and what we thought it might cover. This challenge made me realize how much technology has changed society and limited our interactions with other people.

The Day "Without" a Phone......

Yeah..... I couldn't handle it. I am a failure. I guess I'm a prime example of society's technology-consumed youth. Ever since this assignment, I have been waiting for the perfect day to go without my phone, but it never came and I've finally realized it probably never will. It's not like I'm a texting addict. I don't freak out if I can't use my phone. It honestly doesn't bother me all that much. It bothers other people, and in turn that bothers me. I feel like it is my responsibility for my friends, family, and boyfriend to be able to reach me, in case of a "crisis." Whether it be my best friend's boyfriend of two years broke up with he and she needs support, or my boyfriend flipped his car four times and fractured his spine (both of which have occurred since I've been here), I can't stand the feeling of not knowing what's going on. I couldn't imagine a time when people were not able to immediately reach each other, from nearly any location. Even my parents seem to have forgotten life without cell phones. My boyfriend doesn't have a working cell phone so when he wrecked he had to push his way through an overgrown field to the nearest house to call 911. When my Mom heard this, she became enraged and yelled, "That's what cell phones are for! It is inconceivable for him to not have a cell phone! Totally ridiculous!" But cell phones have really just become "necessities" in the past ten years.

I don't think this need to be reachable 24/7 is just me. Most people I know sleep with their cellphones on and are used to getting texts or calls in the middle of the night, something my parents find ludicrous. If forgot my phone in my parent's room once. When my friend called at one, my Dad dashed in to my room as if there was a fire, assuming something must be wrong if someone was calling so late. I think it would be a lot easier for me to have completed the "no phone" assignment if I didn't have a long-distance boyfriend. We're used to talking to each other on a daily basis, and if I didn't pick up all day, he would go in to panic mode. Even if I warned him ahead of time, it would still cause friction and he would encourage me to "cheat" and talk to him. If I still lived at home, or if he lived here, than the no phone deal would have been a piece of cake... I think.

Cyber Images

The cyber image that I found to be the most striking was that of the bald, naked woman watching television while attached to technological cables. This image is full of meaning and can be interpreted and connected to modern society in various ways. Firstly, I believe the image represents the way technology is blurring the distinction between humanity and technology. The cables, or whatever they are, attached to the woman are a part of her. However, the foreign, metal objects attached to her body seem to be of no concern to the woman. To her and the society she lives in, they're accepted and considered normal. She is essentially blending with technology, and it is a part of her as much as her arm or leg is. Secondly, the image is representative of the way that technology can reduce individuality and make people all the same, with the same thoughts, wants, and expectations. I think the fact that the woman is bald and nude was a deliberate choice for the creator of the image. The woman has no individuality anymore - it has been stripped from her. She has no privacy - the technology took that away as well. Instead of being her own, thinking person, she is just part o a community. She is gazing at the television with complete concentration, as if she has no thoughts of anything else. The technology has become her life, and is more real than anything else. It is her whole life, and there is no conceivable way of her functioning without it.

Online Communities

I don’t believe physical proximity is what constitutes a community. A community to me means a group of people interacting and supporting each other, and this can certainly be found on the Internet. Communities on the Internet may consist of people that have never even laid eyes on each other. However, the relationships between members of the online community may be stronger than those between neighbors, coworkers, or families in real life. This is most likely because of the way a person on the Internet is unafraid to express their true feelings, especially if they are interacting under an anonymous identity they created for themselves. These identities are usually idealized versions of people, meant to give them confidence. People are more willing to open up about their problems or ideas online because they don’t have to worry about other’s judgments affecting their lives permanently. Interacting online also eliminates concerns that the person could be rebuffed or rejected in person for what they say. Members of an online community offer support for one another. People in online communities tend to have common interests which gives members a sense of belonging that may be just as strong as being part of a physical community.

The Virtual World vs. The Real World

In their work, Chester and Breterton (2007) conclude that “cyberspace is not a virtual world without connection to the rest of people’s lives. What we do and who we are online are shaped consciously and unconsciously by who we are offline. The Internet is, after all a part of our real life…”

I couldn’t agree more with Chester and Breterton. People sometimes feel that once they enter cyberspace, they are in an alternate reality. However, the web is not some sort of other world – all the people we interact with online are real individuals and they have thoughts and feelings like everyone in our actual lives. People often create alter-identities online or act in ways they normally wouldn’t, but they are still the same person. The Internet simply brings out facets of people's personalities or how they wish they could be in real life. It's as if they are living vicariously through their Internet personas. It’s all part of a person's personality; they may just normally hide or suppress some aspects of it. Of course how people are offline is going to affect who they try to be online, because they're not really changing. Likewise, how they behave and interact with people on the Internet can have an effect on their lives in the real world.