For this week’s blog post, I interviewed a 29 year old friend of mine, Jason, my mother (54), and my grandmother (80). Jason’s responses were similar to how I would have responded. He uses the internet, which he accesses through his iPod Touch using whatever Wi-Fi access he can find for a variety of reasons: work, news, music, games. Jason runs a warehouse for a sporting goods company, so he often uses the internet to send emails, check stock from vendors, setting up shipments or checking tracking numbers on shipments to customers or from vendors, and scheduling deliveries. For pleasure, he uses the internet to send emails to friends, participate in fantasy sports, read news, watch sports highlights, and download music/games/apps from iTunes. I say that his answers resemble mine because they are what I would consider balanced. He uses it for various work functions as well as a source for the information he enjoys (music, sports, games, news, communication). Jason feels that he is very comfortable with the internet and it has changed his life for the better, making once tedious tasks much simpler.
The second person I interviewed was my mother. She responded that she primarily uses the internet for research, email, and news. My mother falls into the next age category and its interesting to note that her uses, while mostly for pleasure, are more limited than Jason’s. She doesn’t surf the web for music, games, movies (general entertainment). Instead she seeks out other sources to fill those voids. She may rent a movie, read a book, or listen to a cd. I’m pretty sure if I were to ask her to define what iTunes is she would give me the same look a five year old would after being asked to explain the Iran-Contra affair. While she does use email to communicate with family and friends, her preference is to talk to them on the phone. My mother could talk for hours uninterrupted. A typical phone conversation for her would take months to have via email.
The final person I interviewed was my grandmother in Minnesota (she turns 80 later this year). To her credit, she has been using email for many years now, although it took a little teaching for her how to use it. In addition to email, she said she also uses the internet for “searching for information” and, two things that really surprised me, internet shopping and banking. I say this surprises me because my mother has always been skeptical of putting any kind of personal information online, regardless if it’s under a “secure connection.” This surprises me because her comfort with banking and shopping is an interesting juxtaposition to my mother. However, the more I though about it, being 80 years old and in a place where the state flower is snow, it makes sense. The older we become, the less mobile we are creating a bigger role the internet can play in making up the difference. When asked if the internet had changed her life, her response was that all technology has changed her life and that it “probably” had changed her life for the better although her general feeling about the internet was that she wasn’t addicted to it and that she didn’t need to use the internet on a daily basis. Even though she wasn’t prompted about internet addiction or the need to use it on a daily basis, her answer reflects what I assume is a general reflection by older generations that the internet has become some what too pervasive and in that sense has contributed negatively, in some ways, to younger generations.
The responses I received from my three interviewees, I think, aptly define our culture. The younger someone is the more likely they are to use the internet in a variety of manners. In general, younger people are more comfortable with the internet and because of this they are more likely to use the internet to seek out different forms of pleasure. Just like with my mother, I highly doubt my grandmother understands the importance of things like iTunes or Facebook on my generation. My mother and grandmother both appreciate immediate, unmediated communication and therefore are less likely to use the internet in those capacities. Postman believes “computer technology has served to strengthen Technopoly’s hold, to make people believe that technological innovation is synonymous with human progress” (117). My mother and grandmother’s mild skepticism about the internet may be their way of rejecting Technopoly’s hold on our society.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Virtual Community - Clutchfans
I decided to join the Houston Rockets’ fan site, Clutchfans.com. I had heard of the site from a couple of friends but, until two weeks ago, my role was nothing more than a lurker. Clutchfans.com reposts news articles about the basketball team and also has a forum section for Rockets fans to participate in discussions. The language on the site was pretty easy to pick up; no weird abbreviations. The biggest social context cue I had to learn was the general netiquette for posting to “threads” or topics. For instance, if I wanted to say something about the team that was a little off topic, then I would need to start a new thread. Tangents are typically frowned upon.
People are identified by their labels on the left hand side of their posts. The labels include their “handle” or pseudonym, how long they have been a member of the site, how many posts they have made since joining, and a green status bar that increases the more they post and the more people respond to their posts. The label also includes ones rank. Ranks increase from “rookie” to “member” to “contributing member.”
Another feature of this particular forum is the general use of proper grammar. A few posters, usually “rookies,” will use “texter slang” (i.e. “lmao”) but for the most part people tend to write as though they are sending an email. The site has monitors too, which look out for people trying to start flame wars or are just belligerent in general. They act as a virtual bouncer, kicking people out of the forum who are socially unsavory.
Wood and Smith, in citing Jones’ “Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication” (1997), lists four qualifiers in defining a website or forum as a virtual community: minimum level of interactivity, variety of communicators, common public space, a minimum level of sustained membership. Clutchfans.com’s BBS is a common public space which allows people to post anything they want (minimum level of interactivity). The site has over 40,000 registered members (variety of communicators) with about 1,000 members who post on a daily basis creating a level of sustained membership. Thus, Clutchfans.com is without a doubt a virtual community.
From my experience in radio, I know that many teams and organizations tend to look down upon sites like Clutchfans.com. Athletic Directors, General Managers, coaches, players, etc. view them as overzealous fans with a tendency to be overly critical (I suppose they want them to be lap dogs who accept anything an organization says as gospel). They are referred to as “superfans” but thought of in the same light as bloggers: overweight, thirty- to forty-somethings, living in mom’s basement. The truth is, however, their cultural impact is far more positive. They provide an outlet for like-minded individuals (in this case, fans of the Houston Rockets) to come together and discuss their team as though they (we) are in a virtual bar with friends, having a beer and talking sports.
Truth be told, had it not been for this assignment, I never would have joined the site and most likely would have stuck to my role as a lurker. I have a pretty good group of friends who enjoy hanging out and talking sports, so that void in my life is fulfilled. However, since joining, I have enjoyed the outlet to voice my opinions with potentially 40,000 other Rockets fans. In fact, some of the topics discussed in the forum have given me things to discuss with my friends offline thus helping my social status within our sports conversations.
People are identified by their labels on the left hand side of their posts. The labels include their “handle” or pseudonym, how long they have been a member of the site, how many posts they have made since joining, and a green status bar that increases the more they post and the more people respond to their posts. The label also includes ones rank. Ranks increase from “rookie” to “member” to “contributing member.”
Another feature of this particular forum is the general use of proper grammar. A few posters, usually “rookies,” will use “texter slang” (i.e. “lmao”) but for the most part people tend to write as though they are sending an email. The site has monitors too, which look out for people trying to start flame wars or are just belligerent in general. They act as a virtual bouncer, kicking people out of the forum who are socially unsavory.
Wood and Smith, in citing Jones’ “Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication” (1997), lists four qualifiers in defining a website or forum as a virtual community: minimum level of interactivity, variety of communicators, common public space, a minimum level of sustained membership. Clutchfans.com’s BBS is a common public space which allows people to post anything they want (minimum level of interactivity). The site has over 40,000 registered members (variety of communicators) with about 1,000 members who post on a daily basis creating a level of sustained membership. Thus, Clutchfans.com is without a doubt a virtual community.
From my experience in radio, I know that many teams and organizations tend to look down upon sites like Clutchfans.com. Athletic Directors, General Managers, coaches, players, etc. view them as overzealous fans with a tendency to be overly critical (I suppose they want them to be lap dogs who accept anything an organization says as gospel). They are referred to as “superfans” but thought of in the same light as bloggers: overweight, thirty- to forty-somethings, living in mom’s basement. The truth is, however, their cultural impact is far more positive. They provide an outlet for like-minded individuals (in this case, fans of the Houston Rockets) to come together and discuss their team as though they (we) are in a virtual bar with friends, having a beer and talking sports.
Truth be told, had it not been for this assignment, I never would have joined the site and most likely would have stuck to my role as a lurker. I have a pretty good group of friends who enjoy hanging out and talking sports, so that void in my life is fulfilled. However, since joining, I have enjoyed the outlet to voice my opinions with potentially 40,000 other Rockets fans. In fact, some of the topics discussed in the forum have given me things to discuss with my friends offline thus helping my social status within our sports conversations.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Letters of Thanks
I decided to write letters of appreciation to my mother and my father for inspiring me through out my life. What wasn’t so easy was deciding in which form to write them. My mother communicates with family quite often through email and rarely ever through written “snail mail.” My father, however, spends a great deal of his life reading and responding to emails through work. He claims he receives around two hundred emails per day. That being said, I decided to write to him via handwritten snail mail. Unfortunately though, he is on his honeymoon in Canada and thus I will not receive a response for another week or so.
Knowing that my mom likes to communicate via email, I decided to send my letter of appreciation in the form of an email. In my Writing in Business course (WR 214) a great deal of time is spent discussing when and what forms of communication is appropriate. Email is generally viewed as an informal form of communication, so this route would generally be viewed as inappropriate; however, knowing my mother as I do, I am confident that an email would be equally accepted as a handwritten letter.
Sitting down to write my father’s letter reminded me of why I don’t hand write notes anymore. I am so accustomed to writing using some sort of technology (Microsoft Word, email, etc.) that in doing so I have sacrificed my handwriting abilities. It’s pretty horrendous and has caused me to write several drafts. My tone is somewhat less formal than if I were writing to him in an email. It takes more time for me write my thoughts out on paper and unlike email or Word, it is more difficult for me to correct my writing. Although, the informality of my letter created a tone much more sincere than had I wrote it through some sort of computer mediated communication.
My mother’s email of appreciation, compared to my father’s handwritten letter, was far less time consuming and much easier to write. Since I was able to write it using CMC, it was more detailed (and longer) and more formal. The tone and language was sincere but not as sincere as my father’s handwritten letter. Since it was sent as an email, she received it almost immediately. Her response was made definitely made the email worth it. She was extremely touched by it and, as expected, a little emotional. Thanks Dr. Goodnow for the months’ worth of brownie points I have now earned!
One area I ran into trouble with was recalling exact events which gave me inspiration. That is not to say my parents weren’t deserving of my appreciation or hadn’t inspired me but, sadly, my mind tends to work better in the here and now. Reflection is difficult for me at times; unless I have told a particular story often or been reminded of one recently, it is hard for me to recall. I anticipated this problem from the beginning. While reading chapter 5 of Postman’s Technopoly, one particular passage jumped off the page. “Without defenses, people have no way of finding meaning in their experiences, lose their capacity to remember, and have difficulty imagining reasonable futures” (72). Reading that sentence, I felt like he was writing specifically about me.
Knowing that my mom likes to communicate via email, I decided to send my letter of appreciation in the form of an email. In my Writing in Business course (WR 214) a great deal of time is spent discussing when and what forms of communication is appropriate. Email is generally viewed as an informal form of communication, so this route would generally be viewed as inappropriate; however, knowing my mother as I do, I am confident that an email would be equally accepted as a handwritten letter.
Sitting down to write my father’s letter reminded me of why I don’t hand write notes anymore. I am so accustomed to writing using some sort of technology (Microsoft Word, email, etc.) that in doing so I have sacrificed my handwriting abilities. It’s pretty horrendous and has caused me to write several drafts. My tone is somewhat less formal than if I were writing to him in an email. It takes more time for me write my thoughts out on paper and unlike email or Word, it is more difficult for me to correct my writing. Although, the informality of my letter created a tone much more sincere than had I wrote it through some sort of computer mediated communication.
My mother’s email of appreciation, compared to my father’s handwritten letter, was far less time consuming and much easier to write. Since I was able to write it using CMC, it was more detailed (and longer) and more formal. The tone and language was sincere but not as sincere as my father’s handwritten letter. Since it was sent as an email, she received it almost immediately. Her response was made definitely made the email worth it. She was extremely touched by it and, as expected, a little emotional. Thanks Dr. Goodnow for the months’ worth of brownie points I have now earned!
One area I ran into trouble with was recalling exact events which gave me inspiration. That is not to say my parents weren’t deserving of my appreciation or hadn’t inspired me but, sadly, my mind tends to work better in the here and now. Reflection is difficult for me at times; unless I have told a particular story often or been reminded of one recently, it is hard for me to recall. I anticipated this problem from the beginning. While reading chapter 5 of Postman’s Technopoly, one particular passage jumped off the page. “Without defenses, people have no way of finding meaning in their experiences, lose their capacity to remember, and have difficulty imagining reasonable futures” (72). Reading that sentence, I felt like he was writing specifically about me.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Facebook and Myspace
While social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace create an atmosphere where one's self-presentation or avatar has the potential of being anonymous or pseudonymous, for me its not. 95% of my "friends" on Facebook are people I know such as friends, family members, or coworkers. In fact, I try very hard to exclude people from associating with me on Facebook, unless I know them or have known them at some point personally. Spammers quite frequently try to use pseudonyms featuring attractive men or women in order to "friend" as many people as possible and then spam them or steal their identities or worse.
Wood and Smith explain how the internet and face-to-face communication can be defined as specialized channels in that "people choose them to fulfill particular needs" (73). For me, Facebook fulfills a need to keep in touch with friends and family. Some of my friends use Facebook or Myspace to meet new people or find relationships. For them, communicating online hides certain nonverbal traits, making it easier (or more comfortable) to control their communication. Nervousness, shyness, and a certain amount of self consciousness are hidden when communicating over the internet. It also provides an ability to think out what to say (or write). In this scenario, my friends have a better control over their self-presentation and they feel more comfortable with their telepresence.
Even though I try hard to keep my profile (or avatar) private, I am still in constant fear that the wrong person (a coworker, family member, or current or future employers) may come across something on my Facebook or Myspace pages which presents me in a negative light. Social context cues, as Wood and Smith point out, "serve as indicators of appropriate behavior" (73). A picture of me holding an alcoholic beverage may be seen as appropriate behavior amongst my friends, however it may not amongst potential employers. Another example is if the wrong person comes across a picture of me passed out drunk, they would believe that my self-presentation is that of low moral character and thus they believe that I am someone of low moral character even though my "social group" my view it as humorous. Most pictures of me or comments I make online are relatively tame. In this respect, I "exert greater control over [myself] in order to meet social expectations" (73).
Wood and Smith explain how the internet and face-to-face communication can be defined as specialized channels in that "people choose them to fulfill particular needs" (73). For me, Facebook fulfills a need to keep in touch with friends and family. Some of my friends use Facebook or Myspace to meet new people or find relationships. For them, communicating online hides certain nonverbal traits, making it easier (or more comfortable) to control their communication. Nervousness, shyness, and a certain amount of self consciousness are hidden when communicating over the internet. It also provides an ability to think out what to say (or write). In this scenario, my friends have a better control over their self-presentation and they feel more comfortable with their telepresence.
Even though I try hard to keep my profile (or avatar) private, I am still in constant fear that the wrong person (a coworker, family member, or current or future employers) may come across something on my Facebook or Myspace pages which presents me in a negative light. Social context cues, as Wood and Smith point out, "serve as indicators of appropriate behavior" (73). A picture of me holding an alcoholic beverage may be seen as appropriate behavior amongst my friends, however it may not amongst potential employers. Another example is if the wrong person comes across a picture of me passed out drunk, they would believe that my self-presentation is that of low moral character and thus they believe that I am someone of low moral character even though my "social group" my view it as humorous. Most pictures of me or comments I make online are relatively tame. In this respect, I "exert greater control over [myself] in order to meet social expectations" (73).
Monday, July 5, 2010
"Wall-E" and Cybercommunication Dependency
I chose to watch the movie Wall-E in which there are two different types of characters: the robots who seem to talk to each other through immediate communication and the humans who seem to talk to each other through mediated communication.
During the first half of the movie, the earth seems desolate; the only forms of “life are a roach and a robot. Then “Eve” appears and communicates with Wall-E through direct unmediated contact. However, during the second half of the movie, when human characters are introduced, their communication is completely mediated. At one point a human character (human A) is floating down a hallway, speaking to another human (human B) via a cybercommunication-like device. As the scene develops, the audience is shown that the human B is also floating in a chair, down the hallway, right next to human A. Even though they are right next to each other, they choose to only communicate through cybercommunication. This speaks to our potential for cyber communication. The fear of most, myself included, is that if cybercommunication (and technology for that matter) goes unchecked, we will eventually end up stuck in a chair, in a life void of physical activity or interactions.
What Wall-E shows to its audience is the worst-case scenario of a technopoly, which Neil Postman describes as “the submission of all forms of cultural life to the sovereignty of technique and technology” (52). Postman goes on to state one reason for the rise of a technopoly is “the success of twentieth-century technology in providing Americans with convenience, comfort, speed, hygiene, and abundance” (54). This reasoning is evident in the human life aboard their ship The Axiom in that they live in a society driven by what Wood and Smith call technological determinism. “Technological determinism assumes that our growing ability to alter or replace nature provides a central reason for most personal and social trends” (27). The humans have completely surrendered their personal freedom or independence from technology. Everything is controlled by “Buy n Large,” a company that offers the latest technology which is required in order to live their lives. They have robots which brush their teeth and comb their hair for them; they spend their entire life in a floating chair; they play sports by virtually controlling robots that perform the physical activity for them. Their form of culture has been replaced by one that is consumption/consumer oriented. At one point during the movie an announcement is made on their ship declaring the newest and latest technology in clothing is “Blue” because, “its the new red” and everyone digitally changes their clothing color from red to blue only because, as it seems, its new.
Ultimately, the humans, led by the captain of the Axiom, rebel against the control of their technological culture, returning to Earth with the hopes starting over. Their rebellion has shades of a “Luddite” movement, however, it was still dependent on the help of robots. Ultimately however, the final message was that while technology is important, we can not sacrifice basic functions like walking/eating/breathing (living) to cybercommunication and its subsequent dependency.
During the first half of the movie, the earth seems desolate; the only forms of “life are a roach and a robot. Then “Eve” appears and communicates with Wall-E through direct unmediated contact. However, during the second half of the movie, when human characters are introduced, their communication is completely mediated. At one point a human character (human A) is floating down a hallway, speaking to another human (human B) via a cybercommunication-like device. As the scene develops, the audience is shown that the human B is also floating in a chair, down the hallway, right next to human A. Even though they are right next to each other, they choose to only communicate through cybercommunication. This speaks to our potential for cyber communication. The fear of most, myself included, is that if cybercommunication (and technology for that matter) goes unchecked, we will eventually end up stuck in a chair, in a life void of physical activity or interactions.
What Wall-E shows to its audience is the worst-case scenario of a technopoly, which Neil Postman describes as “the submission of all forms of cultural life to the sovereignty of technique and technology” (52). Postman goes on to state one reason for the rise of a technopoly is “the success of twentieth-century technology in providing Americans with convenience, comfort, speed, hygiene, and abundance” (54). This reasoning is evident in the human life aboard their ship The Axiom in that they live in a society driven by what Wood and Smith call technological determinism. “Technological determinism assumes that our growing ability to alter or replace nature provides a central reason for most personal and social trends” (27). The humans have completely surrendered their personal freedom or independence from technology. Everything is controlled by “Buy n Large,” a company that offers the latest technology which is required in order to live their lives. They have robots which brush their teeth and comb their hair for them; they spend their entire life in a floating chair; they play sports by virtually controlling robots that perform the physical activity for them. Their form of culture has been replaced by one that is consumption/consumer oriented. At one point during the movie an announcement is made on their ship declaring the newest and latest technology in clothing is “Blue” because, “its the new red” and everyone digitally changes their clothing color from red to blue only because, as it seems, its new.
Ultimately, the humans, led by the captain of the Axiom, rebel against the control of their technological culture, returning to Earth with the hopes starting over. Their rebellion has shades of a “Luddite” movement, however, it was still dependent on the help of robots. Ultimately however, the final message was that while technology is important, we can not sacrifice basic functions like walking/eating/breathing (living) to cybercommunication and its subsequent dependency.
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