Are We Becoming Cyborgs?

Are We Becoming Cyborgs?

         I came across this video when I was looking up one for my last post on the future. I heard about 3D printers recently, but these ideas are on a whole other level. Manipulating the environment around us and wearing technology is one thing, but actually physically changing our bodies!?...I couldn’t help but find it creepy. We have already been wondering how much technology is having an affect on us in areas such as personal relationships, so who knows what these advances would do to us. While I’m sure it’s possible, I can’t imagine what it would be like if people were even more “connected” than they are now. While you could say, “who hasn’t thought about being superhuman?” I think there is a line (I know this would definitely be too far for many religious people). Using these types of technologies is one thing when you’re talking about saving someone’s life, but beyond that I’m not sure if altering our bodies is a good idea- even if some of the ideas may seem really “cool”.

         I also came across this article that I found really interesting about different ideas for the future of wearable technology

http://www.zdnet.com/wearable-tech-6-future-tech_p2-7000002331/#photo.

This one is probably the most "out there". It's an implant that would sit under the skin like a tattoo, but it's really an interactive screen.

Online Communities

Online Communities

         I wanted to make a quick post about my opinion of online communities back when we were looking into them, but I never got around to it. SO, here it is…

         When we first went to LambdaMoo, I couldn’t believe that anyone could enjoy it. Part of this might be because I didn’t really understand what I was doing, but it still seemed really boring. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think I could enjoy something that only shows a dull black screen with text- I need visuals. I came across this video that is perfect for this topic because it’s the same Hitler video meme that we watched in class, but it’s a parody about the LambdaMoo incident and in this case Hitler was raped in LambdaMoo.

                 

         As far as online communities like the ones we explored for our ethnographies, I can actually understand why people would want to be involved in these. Sometimes we have a hard time finding people in our lives that we can connect to about certain things or maybe there are things that we don’t want to share about ourselves with the people in our lives (such as a young person who thinks they might be homosexual). For example, I did mine on a vegetarian community- I hardly ever meet other vegetarians. They can also be good resources for information such as new mothers who are having a hard time figuring things out they can join http://www.cafemom.com.

Cyberculture#Social Media Trends#Hashtagging

Cyberculture#Social Media Trends#Hashtagging

Before starting my research for the final project, I wanted to write a little bit about my opinions and what I know about it (I meant to post this right after doing so, but I forgot). So, here’s what I came up with…

Personally, I’m simple and don’t get into all the new gadgets and services as technology evolves. I have Facebook that I use to see what’s going on in everyone’s lives, but I never really do any interacting myself (I haven’t even changed my profile picture since I created my account). I had MySpace before Facebook emerged, but I have never had Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumbler or any of the other popular social media outlets. I’ve always been fascinated with the phenomena of trends and how quick people are to jump on the newest bandwagon. Since we’ve become attached at the hip with our cellphones, social media can be at our fingertips in a matter of seconds, and we’re always connected. I don’t know whether all of this is good or bad, bringing us together or pushing us apart, annoying or interesting, making us more individualistic or making us all the same, but I’m curious to see what others are saying- whether right or wrong…I think it’s too early for anyone to really know for sure. Different trends are always popping up such as TBT (throwback Thursday), WCW/MCM (woman/man crush Wednesday/Monday), truth is, etc.

The hashtag phenomenon has seemed to be one of the first and most widespread trends. Its purpose has seemed to evolve with its popularity (used in other realms than just for personal enjoyment such as political/social awareness). I think it’s easy to forget that social media is used globally because most people just add the people that they know. So, it’s also interesting to see how other parts of the world are affected differently and how things such as the hashtag connect us.

Once I actually started doing research, I was shocked by the amount of information out there about this topic. Originally I was going to do social media in general, with a focus on trends, but I found out that because of the vast amounts of information, it was too broad. I couldn’t believe how hard it was to encompass such a narrow topic as hashtagging.

After doing research, I also realized that there is a lot more to hashtagging than I realized (part of this might have to do with the fact that I’ve never been on Twitter). I just thought that it was used as a different way for people to express themselves like emoticons (kind of like last minute thoughts or things related to the main topic of the post). And while it appears that this is partially true and not everyone uses it for its intended purpose- the true purpose of the hashtag is more interactive, it is basically an organizational/search tool that groups topics together. 

The Future

The Future

Topics that have been brought up in this class have made me ponder about what the future of media and technology will be. I was talking to my boyfriend about what we thought would be the next step with social media and we both had the idea about 24-hour live video streaming. I think the problem people would have with that is that it wouldn’t be as easy to filter themselves (only showing what they want people to see about themselves). But, on the other hand, it would probably be less permanent.

This topic also makes me think about what would happen if there ever was an apocalypse- especially if in the future the world is ever all “futuristic” like we portray it to be in movies. As things become more and more dependent on technology and people learn less and less how to do things themselves, if things were to crash, people would panic. I think one way that we are starting to see this push is with wearable technology such as the Google glasses and cell phone watches. It will be interesting too see how long it takes for these types of items to expand and for them to become more ubiquitous as people get more comfortable with the idea.

I did a Google search to see what others are saying about this topic and I found one interesting article that was done this March by USA Today. It talks about another Harvard student who came up with a new idea for social media called Spayce. It revolves around the idea that people are always interested about what's going on around them or as he put it, "'capturing the moment.'" He had this to say about it, “’We want to show you wherever you are, what’s happening around you and who’s around you.’”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/personal/2014/03/11/harvard-social-network-spayce/6299307/

As many interesting things as there are that we can imagine, I’m definitely skeptical like many people about the horrible things that could happen. (I was just thinking last night about how much better I could sleep if I could transform my room into any scene such as a rain forest- this happened in a scene in the Hunger games). My boyfriend was one of those people who took a while to get a smart phone and ever since he upgraded it seems like he’s always on it. What’s especially frustrating is that he will be so wrapped up in whatever he’s reading or doing that I often can’t get him to pay attention when I need to tell him something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOjqtLWEu3s

Too Many Options

Too Many Options

The idea of there being just too much “stuff” out there in the world and the problem that creates when trying to make decisions is an idea that I have pondered over for some time. By “stuff” I’m not just referring to in the media (for example, the fact that I can immediately name several popular social media sites such as: Facebook, Tumbler, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, SnapChat, and Myspace- if you have and actually contribute to this many at a time I would imagine you have a lot of free time). 

I personally get major anxiety over choosing and making decisions, which is probably why I only have Facebook and rarely ever post or do any interacting other than looking at other people’s stuff. While this approach of keeping things simple avoids anxiety, it can also be limiting because I realize that there are many things I miss out on because of this. It’s interesting that we say we like options and we’re all about customization and yet studies find that too many options actually make people less likely to choose. I know I try to avoid shopping as much as possible for this very reason (It will take me hours usually because I am always so indecisive). Today in class something was brought up in one person’s final project that I found really interesting- the jam experiment.

http://www.columbia.edu/~ss957/articles/Choice_is_Demotivating.pdf

I’ve never really thought about how many other people might experience this anxiety and how that could affect things such as marketing, so I found the research to be really interesting. This topic also makes me think about what it must have been like way back in the pioneer days when “stuff” was extremely minimal. I feel like if I were to take my boyfriends cellphone away, he wouldn’t know what to do. Whether or not the plethora of stuff has brought on more good or bad, I’m not sure, but I’m interested to see how things pan out in the future.