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Isaac Espinoza Blog Post 5

For this week I’ve decided to reflect on “Media, Technology, and society” by Brian Winston. Throughout the reading, Winston drives home the point that Western Civilization has not undergone this “information revolution”, but instead has slowly evolved into what it is today. He argues that our society did not change all at once when it comes to communication and technology but rather continuously and will continue to do so. Many people are blinded by the “storm” that is progress and tend to focus on the result rather than the process. We are so in awe of what we have accomplished that we forget how we even accomplished that in the first place. Take the current state of the cell phone for example. The cell phone has become a pocket computer in many ways. It allows us to communicate in ways we could have only dreamt of 10 years ago. It was only through continuous progress and innovation that we arrived at the cell phone that most of us have today.

Works Citied
Winston, B. (2006). Media Technology and Society: A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet. London: Routledge.

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Alassane Diop Week #6

I have read a article titled “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet” by Lisa Nakamura. While I was reading the article I thought about numerous topics that were brought up. One big one was the meme of a dog that pretends to be a human while browsing the internet. It speaks on the idea that anyone that you may get in contact with online could be dog as ridiculous as it sounds. The notion is the internet can hid your physical self from the rest of the world and you can be what ever person you want to be. The internet is one of the greatest forms of self impression due to you being able to portray any character you want.  In Online MMO games you can pick your online physical form and change your gender, nationality, or even species.

The articles also made me think about the idea of us humans being about to change our physical appearance in real life. Not just body modifications like adding silicon or wearing a wig. But maybe changing your genes to make yourself taller or give your self a different eye color. We gave that to an extent nowadays with the possibility to change DNA for babies. The process is called designer babies. As cool as it may sound it brings up ethical and moral concerns. Critics of the project say it messes up how nature intends for humans to naturally be and how it may effect children later on in life.

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Milagros’ Illustrate Wikipedia 10/1

I decided to add a picture to my high school’s wikipedia page. I had a photo of my high school in my camera roll and I was hoping that there wasn’t a photo so that I could easily just add a picture of my own to it. Luckily, nobody had added a photo so I decided to upload the photo of the front of the school. I think we choose photos to accompany descriptions based on what it is and how can it relate to the description. For instance, a description of a Starbucks coffee can be accompanied by a picture of a Starbucks’ coffee because that it was it is describing. I think pictures add the real part to something because its one thing to just read about something, but its another thing to see it for yourself. I decided to add a photo of the front of the school because I think that seeing the school gives the page more character and shows the readers know what the school looks like. I chose to represent the beginning part of the page, basically the introduction. I chose this part of the article because I noticed that it did not have a photo and that is the first thing that people see when they look up this article. I think that if there is a photo in the beginning, then people will be more interested in reading about this certain thing and have an image in their mind related to this certain thing.

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Carolyn Pena Blog Post Week #5

In this week’s blog post, I decided to write about “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin. On page 3, Walter Benjamin wrote: “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be … This includes the changes which it may have suffered in physical condition over the years as well as the various changes in its ownership”. I like this quote a lot because I feel like this fails to cross a lot of peoples minds. We all know that art is unique and historical but what we don’t really think about is how it got where it is now. When we go to a museum, we are surrounded by so many pieces of art and right next to it will be a brief description of the piece of art. All of those pieces of art all ended up in the same museum but where were they before that? I also consider communication as a sense of art and the variety of changes there has been to communication throughout the years. This makes me think about the process of communication and how it ended up where it is now.

 

Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1936. German philosopher Benjamin’s aura

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Anthony Dyce Blog Post 10/1

For this week’s blog post, I decided to respond to Brian Winston’s “Media Technology and Society: A History from the Telegraph to the Internet”, which I found to be interesting because it explains how technology changed us. Winston writes the technology development of new media forms, from the telegraph and the telephone to computers, satellite and virtual reality, it follows a pattern. Winston provide examples of ways in which technology, human behavior and society are interconnected. Technology has been very beneficial, but it made us lazy as people. We tend to rally and depend on the use of technology. It makes our lives easy and comfortable. Technology has reduced our physical activity which is making us lazy.
Winston states “such an historical consciousness reveals the ‘Informative Revolution’ to be largely an illusion, a rhetorical gambit and an expression of technological ignorance” (Winston, 4). This quote stands out because it shows the way people are using technology it is hindering our knowledge. For instance, we no longer need to carry books if we don’t want to. Smartphones, tablets, and e-readers have made it easier for us to carry our books around without breaking our backs.

Works Citied
Winston, B. (2006). Media Technology and Society: A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet. London: Routledge.

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Frida Barolli Week #6

For this weeks blog post I will be focusing on Lisa Nakamuras Race In/For Cyberspace. This article basically talks about social media and how people “label” themselves when they sign up for group chats or different social medias. How people describe themselves, their gender, birthdays, the way they write is all classified by race whether your black, white, Spanish, Asian etc. You can literally be talking to anyone and it could all be a lie. People of all races and genders are basically stereotyped. People create there own identities based on who they want the world to know, this person can basically “catfish” you. My younger sister was harrased on social media by a man who presented himself as a women on social media. The person had a profile that made you believe they were very social and active, had mutual friends. When people started noticing weird activity they began reporting him and they blocked the persons account. People create fake profiles for many different reasons, it can be to fool people, to just follow people, to harras, to just to active, there are many different reasons.

Lisa Nakamura, “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet” in Works and Days, Volume 13, 181-193, 1995

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Marisa Brincat’s Post for 10/1/18

“Users of the Internet represent themselves within it solely through the medium of keystrokes and mouse-clicks, and through this medium they can describe themselves and their physical bodies any way they like; they perform their bodies as text. On the Internet, nobody knows that you’re a dog; it is possible to “computer crossdress” (Stone 84)” (Nakamura 1)

This quote really stood out to me because it made me come to the realization that people really are able to disguise themselves or in essence “be whoever they want” over the internet. The computer can be used as an escape but it can also be dangerous when it comes to those who “computer crossdress”. There have been instances where people who have dangerous intentions hide behind their computer or phones to lure others into a harmful trap. I know it is inevitable when it comes to the internet that people are able to disguise themselves, but there are ways to avoid falling into a “computer cross dresser’s” trap such as staying off of dating sites, or talking to strangers through the internet.

Source: Stone, Allucquere Rosanne. “Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?: Boundary Stories About Virtual Cultures.” Cyberspace: First Steps. Ed. Michael Benedikt. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994.

 

 

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Clary, Week #6 Blog Post, 10/1

This weeks blog post I chose to to write it on Lisa Nakamura’s peice,“Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet”. Throughout this reading, Nakamura touches on several aspects of role playing sites on the internet such as LambdaMOO and focuses on the problematic issue of race and stereotyping on these sites. However the quote that stood out to me the most is when she states “The technology of the Internet offers its participants unprecedented possibilities for communicating with each other in real time, and for controlling the conditions of their own self-representations in ways impossible in face to face interaction”(Nakamura 1). With that being said, the internet allows for various ways of communicating with one another. Sending an receiving messages only takes a few seconds, it’s instantaneous. The internet also allows for one to alter and present themselves as they please. This made me think of social media and how people depict themselves and “controlling the conditions” in which to display.

Refrences:

Nakaruma, Lisa,“Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet” in Works and Days, Volume 13, 181-193, 1995

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week 6_StClair

In this week’s post,  I will discuss Lisa Nakamura’s article,  “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet”. In this article, she begins with talking about a dog that is pretending to be a human on the Internet. This may be a silly cartoon, however, it speaks volume about the kind of people that are willing to lie and deceive others for their own amusement. Nakamura explains this by writing “The technology of the Internet offers its participants unprecedented possibilities for communicating with each other in real time, and for controlling the conditions of their own self-representations in ways impossible in face to face interaction(Nakamura, 1995). She is proving my point that people use the internet in any way they can and that people sometimes will use it to their advantage to manipulate and put on a facade in front of others. For example, this show “Catfish” explains how this is done. People pretend to be other people online and get into relationships with people for years although they are lying about who they actually are. The show continues on with the “catfish” being exposed for their lies. This is a modern example of Lisa Nakamura’s quote about how the internet provides opportunities for people to lie about themselves.

Lisa Nakamura, “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet” in Works and Days, Volume 13, 181-193, 1995

 

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Anthony Sierra Week #6 Blog Post

For this weeks blog post, I’ve decided to reflect on Lisa Nakamura’s “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet.” This reading dives in depth on how people are able to change or alter their identities online in ways that they seem fit. “The technology of the internet offers its participants unprecedented possibilities for communicating with each other in real time, and for controlling the conditions of their own self-representations in ways impossible for face to face interaction (Nakamura 1).” This quote stands out because it shows how people are able to change the way they are represented in ways that is not possible to do physically.  In present day society, this revolves around the use of social media and how we have the ability to create a whole different persona. This may seem like an escape from reality for some, but majority has used this as to “Catfish” others.

Work cited

  • Lisa Nakamura, “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet” in Works and Days, Volume 13, 181-193, 1995