A place where thoughts are analyzed in two dimensions-Tabularthought's Blog

The friends we love.

tabularthought — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:23:00 +0000

In her book Alone Together, Sherry Turkle discusses the emergence of “robots” and how this event effects people with access to these robots. She begins her analysis by focusing on the effects of Tamagotchis and Furbies on children. Turkle plays with the idea that these first forms of robots have been impacting the way people experience relationships with other people, by modifying the expectations that people have of one another. Her study on children brings forth the idea that these types of relationships are causing children to be rooted with indifference toward the other — there is a lack of empathy. She suggests that this emphasizes the narcissistic age of the Internet by further implementing a sense of self without the other.

Though I am open to the opinions she has derived from her analysis — which is quite extensive — I find myself questioning just how much of an impact these robots could have on people’s ability to maintain empathetic relationships. Children have been seeking relationships from the inanimate long before the robot came to the stage. Before Tamagotchis and Furbies, it was Barbies and action figures — which, unlike the robots, actually embody human appearances. Young girls projected themselves onto their Barbies by dressing them the way they wanted to dress, and by creating experiences they wanted to experience. Young boys had similar behaviours with their action figures. Is this not the definition of narcissism? In these relationships, are children not just using their toys for one-sided, undemanding, and temporary companionship?

Taking this into consideration, it is questionable whether or not there is actually something to fear for today’s children. Adults and seniors who are seeking out relationships with robots due to their inability to form relationships with other people are not doing so because their ability to form relationships has been damaged by the onset of robots. The robotic toys used in Turkle’s did not exist at the time of their childhood, and yet, they still developed with this lack of empathy, this narcissistic urge. So, are relationships really that different in light of the robotic moment? There are a number of obvious differences, which Turkle does address; however, the core of these relationships, the things that people are actually seeking from them, they are not so different. I believe the majority of people will continue to seek human relationships despite the robotic moment; though there will always be the few who are simply born different.

Sources:

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. 2011. Basic Books: NY

Intensification. Enabler to what facilitates us.

tabularthought — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:18:38 +0000

In his book Watching YouTube, Dr. Strangelove addresses a number of effects of new media on society. In the chapter The YouTube Wars, he discusses the notion of intensification and how this affects global societies. With the emergence of the Internet comes a new level of globalization. Anyone with access to an Internet connection becomes part of a network of mostly unregulated and instant communication through blogs and other media-sharing websites, such as YouTube. In some ways this notion is beneficial in providing experiences through which people can learn about the world and it’s many cultures. The term “pen pal” is redefined and has actually become obsolete within the younger generation. Now, people around the world are connecting through Skype, MSN Messenger, and Xbox Live. These tools have the potential of providing a rich learning experience for people around the world.

As with any new phenomenon, the benefits accompany the drawbacks. Alongside the notion of intensification stands the problem of intolerance. Intensification is a result not only of the global community, but also of overpopulation and extreme consumerism. The world’s population has been growing exponentially and we can only assume it will continue to do so. The world only contains so much space for people to live comfortably. When people can no longer find comfort, negative emotions are projected onto the “other.” This is already happening on a smaller scale and the Internet provides the ideal platform for laying blame on the “other” without accountability. Not only is the scarcity of space becoming a growing concern, so is the scarcity of resources. Advertising is becoming more and more invasive, especially through the Internet. One cannot journey through any site without having to view annoying advertisements and deal with obtrusive pop-up windows. This is only increasing consumerism and prolonging the problem. Not only are we extensively consuming and producing waste, but we are consuming more and more resources which we can do without.

Intensification is a problem which was brought on by the emergence of the global community and the notion of intolerance, but it will continue to get worse as we continue to multiply and consume more than there is space or resources for. At the rate we are going, world chaos is no longer something we can dismiss as “it would never happen in my lifetime.”

Sources:

Strangelove, Michael. Watching YouTube: Extraordinary Videos by Ordinary People. University of Toronto Press. 2010. Toronto.

And Karel Čapek would say what….?

tabularthought — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:46:39 +0000

The question is before us of how our model of interactions with technology will evolve based on our current trend of connection. Will there be a devaluing of current relationships, as our contact with technology increases? The context of new media is the reoccuring theme and battle for authenticity. As Sherry Turkle discusses in Alone Together, many people may have begun their online life in a spirit of compensation, that is, what is lacking in their current situation, and any dissatisfactions that may exist in the realm of reality are compensated for in the virtual world. The question looms before us however of what will it come to when the ability of technology will diminish our interest in reality, a time which many argue is definitely apparent.

As more people become connected, the degree of technological advancement becomes normal. To clarify, in different periods of civilizations progress, there becomes placements that subconsciously become part of sociey’s way of at first thinking about then with time, normalizing, and further advancement making what was, “now” not new in comparison. Thus what value is placed on, and what begins to be enveloped into our view of what existence and being part of society morphs over time. What makes this so riveting, is that it happens at such a rate, or more specifically we are so caught up in the goings on that we don’t even realize it. I can think of two people that are both gregarious, interesting and in their way, sociable that both have given me insight as to what our relationship with technology has been patterned into. The one friend has lost his phone and didn’t have enough money at the time to replace it, relying on his apartments’ house phone to contact people. Not only has he found that people don’t call his house phone often, but that he is not part of forwarded mass texts asking to hang out, but that he has dropped of the radar of many people that he now considers fairweather friends, when hanging out with people, they ask him where he’s been, and didn’t even know that his phone has been gone for months. His value has been placed on his reprocity and his connect-ability. My other friend who is an excellent artist, deleted his facebook account after finding out that pictures he take and posts are owned by facebook now. When I mention him in social circumstances people don’t connect who he is, and ask who I’m talking about and have pulled out their phone to search him so they put a face to the name and there is none. His value is not apparent now by this standard from a further extrapolation that people aren’t aware of him, his doings, thoughts and activities based on his presence on their newsfeed. The trend that we are rapidly following is that technology even more so now is part of our subtle unconscious thought pattern, and that we will not value, appreciate or bother spending effort on interactions that are not facilitated in the esteem of virtual enablement.

References:

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. 2011. Basic Books: NY

Karel Čapek, R.U.R. Rossumovi univerzální roboti, the beginning of usages of artificial human-like beings in art and literature and were manufactured by biotechnology not mechanics. He made the usage of the term robot.

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/capek/karel/rur/

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13083/13083-h/13083-h.htm

The H word.

tabularthought — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:57:18 +0000

There are many blogs with themes surrounding what I’m about to talk about. It being a subject that is so intertwinned with blogging and social media itself, to the point of convolution. But in an attempt to gain objectity while talking about a cultural phenomena that people love to hate, I’ll give my take on it based on what I’ve learned in this class. Hipsters in and of themselves are not the issue, the reasoning for the antimosity is the hypocrisy; how a cultural group supposedly abhors the mainstream and patriarchy of corperate culture and lives in a green friendy way, but recives most of it’s enjoyment out of “things”, and any identifier of a hipster includes having in their possession Starbucks, Apple products and any other myriad of status symbols that people use that are in fact master symbols by the re-use of them re-enforcing their legimacy.

As I discussed in the previous blog that referenced yuppies from the 80′s and their life being a dedication to capitalism and concumer patterns being almost one and the same with their identity formation, it is important to note that every generation has had some sort of “hip” group of people. From the Bright Young Things of the 1920s, rich offspring of the Edwardian era with a lust for the avant garde, to the beatniks of the 1950s, the playing out of identity as a show is nothing new. The difference is that instead of “doing art” the cool kids are now, in Mark Greif’s words “doing products”. As a New York English professor he had analyzed hipsters and post 2000 culture on many levels. He states that the “hip consumer”: the smart shopper, is one who understands that some consumer purchases, such as the right vintage T-shirt, might even be regarded as a form of art. They even split the term, drawing a distinction between the trucker-cap-wearing New Yorkers of 1999-2003, and a more recent type of cool kid, keen on such low-tech status symbols as typewriters, fixed-wheel bikes, and the kind of outdated instrumentation used on records by Arcade Fire, Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear.

“What is meaningful about the hipster moment, 1999 and after,” says Greif, “is that it seems to be an effort to live a life that retains the coolness in believing that you belong to a counter-culture, where the substance of the rebellion has become pro-commerce.”

“In the 50s and 60s, there are five people at the centre working very hard, miserably trying to write a book and around them there are 95 people more or less having fun,” Greif explains. “In the hipster culture the people at that centre aren’t necessarily producing art, they’re actually working in advertising, marketing and product placement. These were once embarrassing jobs. Now it’s meaningful in this world to say that you sell sneakers, at a high level.”

Part of why this cultural cliche is different is based on the facade of bohemian but this is facilitated by proper and careful of certain fashion following, opinion sharing and conduction of your life in a way congruent to the style. The evolution of hipster from 1999 onward follows an interlaced trend with the unfolding of new media. Perhaps it’s the natural evolution on narcism. The more connected, knowledgeable, having the look, and being know you are, most specifically while making it seem like you spend no effort, and most specifically, like you don’t care, the more you are regarded. The ability to say i’m better than you is still there, just for different reasons.

References:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/14/hate-hipsters-blogs

The cause or a catharsis?

tabularthought — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 01:43:23 +0000

Often in the age that we are caught up in, the question is tossed forth of how our Identity and way of living is effected by technology, it being a cause and effect relationship. We live in a time now where there is a whole influential generation who has no memory of being no Internet. Arguments of technological advancements making issues come forth are found from many schools of thought. The statement of the generation of emerging teenagers have little multitasking skills and possess short attention spans is often given in with little argument for otherwise. What must be examined is the thought that like any relationship, technology exaggerates our pre-existing behavior and personality traits that effects our outcome.

I think of an example that involves a friend of mine where I wonder what his sociability would have been like if he was born a hundred years previous. His personality of disliking being put on the spot, issues following through, and having an aversion to accountability are all accommodated and unchallenged based on the help of technology. He will not answer cell phone calls, only responding to texts, and at his own time, using reception issues as an excuse for not getting back to me. He is younger than me and I have observed friends with comparable personalities that instead grew up in a time of not owning their own cell phone and due to the lack of accommodating technology were forced to get over their fear of cold calling and being held liable at certain periods to give answers. His comfort zone has not been shaken thanks to the shelter of his cell phone.

Anakin Skywalker with his friend R2-D2. His inability to change led to his downfall.

In her book Alone Together, Sherry Turkle mentions a case of a man with historical issues with relationships discussed his opinions and feelings when he was proposed with the idea of having a robotic partner. In his mind an A.I. as a partner would be a good relationship for him as the intricacies that in his mind wear away at relationships are now a non-issue with the accommodation of a technology. He cited the case that he disliked having the pressure of his former partner caring about his issues and having to live with that “stress”. He has issues relating and human relationships require him getting out of his comfort zone, similar to the case of my cell-phone friend. The argument at hand is not that technology creates these issues, but it brings out and is the ultimate accommodator to our flaws. While some people have used technology for their life’s advancement, alteration, change and furtherment, others manifest their innate behavior that much more apparently.

References:

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. 2011. Basic Books: NY

Molding of Identity.

tabularthought — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:21:36 +0000

The presence of media in modern society has affected a number of ideologies embedded in our culture, including our ways of viewing each other. This change has been noticed by feminists and has lead to the progression of feminism in its third-wave. This new feminism’s core argument encompasses women’s “empowering” identity, and wether that identity is created by women themselves or by media corporations. What feminists do not discuss (for obvious reasons) is that men also struggle to understand their identity outside of media corporations. Corporations of any kind are driven by one goal, and that is to make money. Corporate media is not aiming to produce ideals for women, but in fact creating a consumer culture that does not discriminate based on gender.

New theorists are starting to build ideas that acknowledge that both men and women are affected by new media, be it through corporate cultural control or other means. Pendergast, for example, wrote a book analyzing the significance of magazines in constructing masculinity through the 1920s to 1950. In his analysis, Pendergast documented how articles, editorials and advertisements in middle-class men’s magazines go from promoting an inner-directed masculinity centered around character, hard work and integrity (1900-1920s) to an outer-directed masculinity dedicated to improving one’s appearance, personality, and personal life through enlightened consumerism (1920s-1940s). Since advertising has only become more intrusive with the arrival of the Internet, one might argue that this movement from a masculinity based on character to one based on appearance and consumerism has only increased. Men are just as likely to be victims the grasp of new media giants as women are, and Pendergast confirms that this is not a phenomena exclusive to the age of the Internet.

A 2005 study was conducted which researched the male body and the drive for body modifications. After interviewing 140 men, they identified that “there is widespread agreement that … men’s bodies as bodies have gone from near invisibility to hypervisibility in the course of a decade. This change is regarded as so significant that a number of anxieties have been raised about its impact on men (particularly boys and young men), including concerns about health, self-esteem, body image and eating disorders” (Gill). So, the male’s concern for his appearance and what is perceived as “masculine” transgresses onward through the 1930s until the early 21st century, and in the age of third-wave feminism, women are not alone in fighting media giants for the ability to create their own identities.

Sources:

Gill, Rosalind, Karen Henwood and Carl McLean. “Body Project and the Regulation of Normative Masculinity.” Body & Society (March 2005), 11(1), pg. 37-62.

Pendergast, Tom. Creating the modern man: American magazines and consumer culture 1900-1950. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2000.

Sincerity out of vulnerability.

tabularthought — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 01:50:46 +0000

Evolution is a global process. As societies evolve, technologies evolve, cultures evolve, and with that we see media output start to evolve. Traditional tendencies still have their place in modern society, but they are adjusted to suit the culture of their time. With the emergence of the Internet, many activities which were once private have become public. Toilets, barfing, and the act of disciplining one’s children are a few examples of the shift from what was once private to what is now socially acceptable. In particular, the confessional process has a history that is thousands of years old. Western societies have been built on the importance of religious confession. This process was once imperative to attain normalization; to be accepted by the church and the society on which it was founded.

New media have affected the confessional process in many ways. Traditionally, children would learn about the church from their parents or from schools. With knowledge at our fingertips, these traditional tools have become unnecessary, though not obsolete. YouTube is a haven for How to videos and one may find just about anything from how to kiss to how to shuffle cards. Even the church has it’s place.

The confessional process is not only addressed in amateur film video, but in corporate media as well. Popular culture addresses the traditional confessional process in less of an educational way than amateur video. Gabriel Solice, a leading character in the popular television show Desperate Housewives, regularly goes to “confession” but rarely handles it in the traditional way. A process that once was anonymous, fulfilling and normalizing is starting to be portrayed in today’s popular culture as open and not very conforming of the traditional methods. Corporate media is creating idiosyncrasies in the confessional processing, and these idiosyncrasies are acting as cues to amateur filmmakers. YouTube has been a breeding ground for video bloggers, the new confessional process, with lonelygirl15 pioneering the trend. The linked video is a perfect example of idiosyncrasies showcased in confessional YouTube videos. Our culture has shifted to a society which seeks to attain idiosyncratic statuses, and this has affected the confessional process. It remains to be determined whether or not that culture was formed by amateur video bloggers, or if it was guided by corporate media.

Identity as a reproduction of Culture.

tabularthought — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:52:27 +0000

The relationship between culture and communication is often hard to define because the terms are so involved, intertwined and convoluted together. The very fabric of our social identity is contested for by a commercial market. Consumption patterns are as specific and diverse as our personalities individually communicate values. Culture is a communication of values, and this concept is now being taken and marketed as a means for a consumer to find empowerment and self expression based on how one dresses, eats/where and enacts their lifestyle.

Patrick Bateman from American Psycho showing off his stereo.

Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho not only describes this occurrence, but the very fabric of the writing and it’s style encapsulates this.

“The three of us, Todd Hamlin and George Reeves and myself, are sitting in Harry’s and it’s a little after six. Hamlin is wearing a suit by Lubiam, a great-looking striped spread-collar cotton shirt from Burberry, a silk tie by Resikeio and a belt from Ralph Lauren. Reeves is wearing a six-button double-breasted suit by Christian Dior, a cotton shirt, a patterned silk tie by Claiborne, perforated cap-toe leather lace-ups by Allen-Edmonds, a cotton handkerchief in his pocket, probably from Brooks Brothers; sunglasses by Lafont Paris lie on a napkin by his drink and a fairly nice attaché case from T. Anthony rests on an empty chair by our table. I’m wearing a two-button single breasted chalk-striped wool-flannel suit, a multicolored candy-striped cotton shirt and a silk pocket square, all by Patrick Aubert, a polka-dot silk tie by Bill Blass and clear prescription eyeglasses with frames by Lafont Paris. One of our CD Walkman headsets lies in the middle of the table surrounded by drinks and a calculator. Reeves and Hamlin left the office early today for facials somewhere and they both look good, faces pink but tan, hair short and slicked back.” (Ellis)

The way Patrick and the other yuppy characters see each other, the world and their interaction in it is simply an exaggeration (under the influence of their social sphere in the 1980s, high income demographic and work environment) of how our society frames meaning. All of the book’s characters are obsessed with these status symbols, what they consume depicts their success in the continual game of one-upmanship that they are caught up in. While this apathetic addiction to capitalism is not so caricatured in our standard society out of most of us lacking money, the association of meaning with objects from a personal status to a master symbol is indeed predominant. Our identities are subject to the market and how it shapes reflects on our self objectification. Beyond the point of one person having a shinier toy than another, the very process of how we not only see each other, but how our own internal lenses of perception, thought pattern and evaluation is externalized in this inaction of value and meaning. This is not a simple discrediting argument that our society is superficial but an acknowledgment that our values, determinants, respect and meaning are placed in the context of what we do, buy, date, educate our children at, eat, and drink on the way to the office.

American Psycho: a novel, Bret Easton Ellis, Random House, 1991

http://www.crimeculture.com/Contents/Articles-Winter09/baker.html

When the amateur becomes a source.

tabularthought — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:58:58 +0000

The most important thing to consider when undertaking a study of any phenomenon is where that phenomenon originated and how it came to be. This is even more true when the phenomenon being studied is as chaotic and unstructured as the effects of new media on culture-making, and the role of corporations in the culture-making process. Dr. Strangelove breaks it down into three stages of evolution, starting with the dominance of home movies in the 1950s. He describes the first stage as being one which was based on simplicity and which was largely controlled by corporations, and dominated by the white male. Strangelove identifies the second stage, ranging from the 80s to the 90s, as being encompassed by complexity. This stage sees the rise of the amateur filmmaker, challenging the power of the corporations over the formation of culture. The argument is that we are moving toward a third stage of culture-making; this stage is founded on the interrelationship between corporations and amateurs in the culture-making process.

The amateur filmmaker today has been granted access to many platforms for expression, due to the Internet. YouTube has seen an explosion of amateur filmmakers rising to a nearly celebrity status. When this happens, it is difficult for corporations to ignore the amateur filmmaker, as was once so easily done. Take Debbie, who with over 16 million views after just four months, she had everyone trying to figure out whether or not her video was an actual eHarmony Video Bio, or if it was just acting. “Corporate filmmaker” FOX News saw an opportunity for a story and debunked the Video Bio. The confirmation that the video was fake came from an email from an agency — another corporation. So we see corporations hiring actors to make films which are amateur in appearance, post them on YouTube and then corporations are again involved when these videos reach “YouTube celebrity” status.

YouTube can also been seen making a presence in popular television shows. Mythbusters, for example, takes on the task of busting a video that garnered over 10 million views. The video depicts three men developing a new sport they call Liquid Mountaineering. Essentially, they are learning to run on water. The viewer-base of this video seems unsure as to wether or not the video is legitimate, and when Mythbusters finds out about it, they decide to invest in either proving or disproving it.

In response to the viral Antoine Dodson’s Bed Intruder video that was a news cast where he made himself famous came 100s of people revlogged their own parody of the interview he gave. There was an Autotune the News version which made light of the ridiculousness of the original. This was taken to a whole new level of remake when established and signed artists Hayley Williams from Paramore, Jordan Pudnik from New Found Glory and Ethan Luck from Relient K did their own remake of Bed Intruder. The irony in this is that there is no longer a simple acknowledgement from established commercial media of viral videos, but a near celebration of their hilarity and appeal.

A perfect example which analyzes this third stage in the commercial and internet interaction is seen in the T.V. show The Office when Jim and Pam get married only to have their co-workers sabotage it by enacting the viral video JK Wedding Entrance Dance. Before hand Jim and Pam respond to the stress they’re feeling and go off and have their actual wedding vows on a boat away from everyone and to come back to have a public ceremony which they find themselves thrust into. Jim ends the show with “I bought those boat tickets the day I saw that YouTube video.” This quintessentially illustrates how a studio produced successful television show used a user generated video to base their episode’s climax around and generate a connection with the audience as the actors are now the ones trying to copy an amateur idea.

This established a whole new level in this third type of relationship where the amateur takes on an auspiciousness in being the original and as reproduction is made, becomes immortalized.

Sources: http://www.billboard.com/news/paramore-s-hayley-williams-puts-rock-twist-1004111539.story#/news/paramore-s-hayley-williams-puts-rock-twist-1004111539.story

The irony of Parody.

tabularthought — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:21:12 +0000

The concept of parody has been part of society, expression and a means of evading censors since ancient times. As a challenge to authority from religious to political, parody has been a primary means of criticism long before the internet was ever formed. Comedic Parody was popularized in T.V. Shows from prime time Rick Mercer to the late night Jon Steward. The majority of voters often form opinions based on the ‘reporting’ from these shows more so than of the actual debates. This erosion of socially constructed regard for certain people, the shaking of the legitimacy of power with the bringing down to earth action in combination with the allowance of obscenity makes new media now a perfect venue for parody. From webcam rants to entire channels such as BarelyPolitical which is based out of nothing but parodies, online videos provide a immense amounts of parodic content. While one of their series, The Key of Awesome parodies celebrity, another series started with the Crush on Obama video which was named by Newsweek a top 10 meme of decade and the Webby’s a top internet moment of all time and the Obama Girl videos comedy influenced the campaign. Often a means of parody is playing out a sketch in which the famous subjects are played by actors that immitate their mannerisms and bring out the worst in an exaggeration of them. Saturday Night Live popularized this, but amateur youtubers with a green screen and dress up gear are now making this a norm. In the case of nicepeter there is the concept of Epic Rap Battles of History featuring such videos as John Lennon vs. Bill O’Reilly, Sarah Palin vs. Lady Gaga, and Hitler vs. Darth Vader where users comments help him make the next video.

Parody has transversed to the realm of news and information. The Onion, for example, is a “news” corporation with a newspaper, website, and a YouTube channel. In its entirety, it parodies the news. Being an entire channel founded on parody, The Onion will report on whatever they believe is fit to be parodied. It is a channel parodying the news, and creating videos which parody a vast variety of elements in popular or political culture. Here is an example of The Onion’s political parody: .

Videos such as these are critical to society. The political race is no longer a sport for the privileged, but the common people now play a part as well. YouTube provides a platform for announcing the opinions of the many, and for sharing and discussing among other common people. In many cases, it is these forums, these videos that are seen as more trustworthy than those being produced in corporate media.

Auto-tune the News is another example of news parody. Their video Bed Intruder depicts a news report which takes the voices and auto-tunes them into a song. The parody was once again parodies when Hayley Williams, Jordan Pundik and Ethan Luck made a punk version of the auto-tuned report. Auto-tune the News also ventures into the realm of the political . In this case, the healthcare debate was popularized through comedic parody. Parody not only provides a forum for political (and other) discussion, but also draws the attention of many through comedy. Without a video such as the one above, the number of people who would have engaged in watching a healthcare debate would have been, arguably, minimal in comparison.

Where people are constantly having concepts thrown in their faces, channels such as The Onion and Auto-tune the News are critical in maintaining a sense of reality. Parody provides a means of realizing just how ridiculous some concepts are. Politics and popular culture need to be “debunked,” if you will, to bring back a sense of acknowledgement that there are “fake” concepts on the Internet. One may even argue that this use of parody to expose the fake also acts as a tool for legitimization. Parody is providing a sounding board for modern society to discuss important social topics and to form opinions based on non-corporate and unfiltered (to an extent) information. Parody has the potential to affect some of the most important decisions societies will make, possibly even affecting the current direction of the world.