For this week’s blog post, I opted to read “Comparative Textual Media” by Rita Raley. This reading really stuck out to me because it highlighted issues that really irk me in regards to technology and media. I never understood why, when texting, A texts B, but because it seems “difficult” to text out all the words so the message is shortened. Whenever I see that, my image of the communication process is lessened, or weakened, because I feel that the communication isn’t what it could be. I see that form of communication in technology a way of weakening our minds, and intelligence. It kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth when someone responds that way to me. I see our words and way of communicating, so much more crucial and vital,  now more than ever, with the future “Skynet” around the corner. How we speak, how we talk, how we learn, and read, we need to hold onto it, and the ways of the “old”, because technology wouldn’t existed without its’ foundation. We need to make sure not to lose ourselves to the future that is technology,  and it could start with how we text each other. That’s how I see it at least.

I chose to upload this photo because I found it extremely relatable to my story as well. While the story has great ending, and it is a light story, the setting is somewhat dark. My great- grandparents were both coming out of the war, having lost most, if not everything, and coming together with nothing. It was a dark, turning to light, quiet, not-so-sure-what-is-happening-next kind of time, and I think this picture represents that. It’s calm and peaceful, eerily quiet, coming into light.  This photograph represents the beginning go my great-grandparents story perfectly. For as we all know,  at the end of a dark tunnel, there is always a light.

“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light”- Albus Dumbledore.

 

 

Q: Raised in class: What does computer technology do for you ? 

Computer technology allows me to post this blog post. It allows me to get my homework done, keep track of my everyday life and feel like I have it together even If I may not. Computer technology provides a sense stability for people in today’s society. When we think about everything we have access to on  computer Ex: a Calendar, When we clock in and out of work, ordering food from our hands, shopping online, keeping yourself organized, emails, ideas, videos, books online, music apps on computers , the ability to share your computer screen to your tv screen. It’s instant, its effective, it’s efficient. It allows our lives to run a lot smoother. 

I focused my oral history project on a transcript interview with a young lady named Brittney Maya. Brittney discussed the struggles of being a young woman with disabilities and being a relationship with a partner with disabilities. Brittney also talked about her future with her boyfriend.  Translating the transcript at times was a bit hard. Due to the fact some of the phrases or words were incomplete. I wasn’t sure in which direction the conversation was going. There were moments I had to read the rest of the conversation to make sure I was interpreting what was being said accordingly enough to re-phrase it. There were times where it felt as if during the conversation they couldn’t finish there thoughts. Even at times where they were cutting each other’s sentences off. Verifying was easier for me. Due to the fact, I could just simply pick which options I felt would sound best in certain sentences. Also Some things indivisuals already transcribed, I felt as if the other person didn’t make sense. I wanted to go back in and edit it but I was unable too. The process felt easy at first and became a little difficult because If I transcribed something or even verified it, I thought about how someone else might come and interpret the sentence or what if they were to get confused. 

The Reading I decided to go For was Cyborg Manifesto By Donna Haraway. I found it interesting the points this article touched  Post gender in a Feministic world, and transgression in the boundaries between human and animal connection. Between humans and living creatures in the worlds. Haraway gets more depth the boundary between physical and non physical and how electronics devices are everywhere. I enjoyed how the cyborg embraces technology and tries not to Categorize it by exploring different boarders between the two non physical and physical. A Question that I raise though is How do we decide that her theory creates open mind to what it means to be human and machine ?

For this week’s blog post, I am choosing to respond to Ana María Ochoa Gautier’s “Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia”. In the reading, Ana María Ochoa Gautier shows how listening, writing, speech, and music were important to the constitution of modern individuality in the nineteenth century. Using Colombia as her central point because she is Colombian and talks about the many artists that are from Colombia. Ochoa states “listening appears as the nomadic sense par excellence and the voice as highly flexible, an instrument that can be manipulated to position the relation between the body and the world in multiple ways,” (Ochoa, 1). This made me think about the study of anthropology listening to other people culture. Listening is a product of ethnographic encounters; it involves layers of interpretation and observation. Anthropologists use ethnography to better understand as much as possible about a culture. You have individual methods which helps ethnographers which includes participants, observation, interviews and surveys. All of these ethnographic methods play a major role in gaining a deeper understanding of different cultures. I think it’s importance to study other people culture and learn something new.

Work Cited
Ochoa Gautier, Ana María. Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia. Duke University Press, 2014.

The story I chose to focus on, was Winston’s “Wireless and Radio”. Why reading the first couple of pages, all I kept thinking to myself was “wow, a lot of people have ‘invented’ the radio.” But then as I continued to read, I couldn’t help but think to myself how far we’ve come with technology; more specifically wireless products. On page 70, Winston writes “Wires attached to kites would probably allow for messages to be sent transoceanically.” Although headphones don’t send messages transoceanically, it still does the job. I, along with many many people, have thought to myself so many times how it is that with just a little wire on our headphones, sound from the digital source its connected to circulates. Or for anyone who now has airpods. We connect it to bluetooth, but how is it exactly we’ve been able to create this kind of stuff? Cellphones can be thought about in the same context as well. Growing up, of course people had cell phones (like my mom did) but I was always used to seeing those home phones that connect to the wall and the wire to the phone part itself. As time progresses we see constant changes and never sit back and think about how exactly these type of things happened; we just kinda go with the flow and let it be.