The Oscars

Hello again! Hope all my readers have had a good week and hopefully watched the Oscars last night! It was, at least from my view, the best Oscar show I have ever seen in my twenty years of being alive. I bring up the topic of the Oscars because this year they incorporated technology into the program to interact with the audience in a new and innovative way.

The first innovative way I noticed was when Justin Timberlake used the iPhone to change the screen’s background behind them to change it to the right images. Now apple, I must say pulled a smart move by compromising with the Academy to place that small skit into the program, it’s a great source of product placement for the product while simultaneously creating humor because it is known by everyone that there is nothing the iPhone can’t do. The Academy framed this skit by the screen image in the background was a “mistake” and someone had to fix it fast. Thanks to technology though, Justin Timberlake was able to fix the problem right on the spot with a simple app the iPhone has. While watching the skit, I realized how this can be interpreted as conveying an underlying message illustrating how technology has come to fix the problems people have done. How in order to function in society and to put on a workable showcase, technology has become a main worker to make sure all parts function properly. Basically in simple words, technology has become something we hate but can only love it the more we hate it.

The second innovative aspect of the show was the teleprompter with Bob Hope. Now this part blew my mind! The Academy has Billy Crystal come out as a host and he explains how he has hosted the Oscars many times in his life but not as many as Bob Hope had done. After his speech, the stage lights darken, and a teleprompter with Bob Hope appears with Bob Hope in it. The stage is quickly decorated in Bob Hope’s decorum and the electronic Bob Hope says hi to Billy Crystal and then goes on to announce the next award. Now Bob Hope passed away in 2003, so I was shocked when his electronic self interacted with human beings.  This skit has taken interaction with technology to a whole new level. Its demonstrated how today, we have gained the ability to manipulate old footage to interact as if they were alive and social with us today.

These two innovative skits involving technology to interact with the audience and the hosts of the Oscars were mind blowing. To know our society now has the ability to use technology as if they were people is a huge step forward. Who knows what we will see next year at the Oscars and in general what the future holds for technological developments. With that said, what do you guys think about what I have discussed? Are there any other examples you guys can think of? If so, post them in the comments below! I would love to read what you guys have to say! Until next time!

A Personal Story

 Helllooooo again! So today I want to share two stories of mine with all of you.

The first story involves a friend of mine named Chelsea. Chelsea calls me whining a couple days ago about how her EX boyfriend Garrett is acting sketchy. ( let me stop there for a moment and make sure you know I am emphasizing the word EX!) Being the good friend that I am, I of course ask her how he is being sketchy? Her answer to me was… “his facebook profile picture is of him and this random ugly girl! Ashley I told you he cheated on me!!! I am so going to write him a message on facebook and rip him a new one and message her saying how she is such a slut!” Honestly I didn’t give her an answer, I hung up the phone before I laughed in her ear because all I wanted to do was tell her she has become this crazy psycho jealous stalker!!!!

Now people only become jealous when their loved one starts acting sketchy or paying more attention to another girl; and that jealousy is acceptable in our society. However, Chelsea’s jealous behavior is completely unacceptable because she is becoming jealous about an EX BOYFRIEND! And this crazy behavior of hers would have not happened if Facebook did not exist. Her interaction with Garrett changed from a civil one where jealousy was not present to one where all Chelsea wanted to do was rip his head off due to jealous rage erupting from a picture she saw. If that picture was not available for Chelsea to find, that relationship would still be civil today. Its sad because of this social network, Facebook, she gave into her jealousy and let herself act inappropriately which resulted in an ending of a friendship.  

Now the second story is about my other friend Courtney, but her story does not deal with facebook but with text messaging. One day Courtney received a text from an old boyfriend of hers wanting to hang out, and since she drops everything for a boy, she obviously said yes. Later that day her ex, named Brian, came over and they hung out and watched a movie. After Brian left he texted Courtney saying, “ It was great seeing you! You look amazing! Lets hang out again soon!”. From what Brian said in that text, do you think that means he wants to start going out again?... Ya didn’t think so!! For Courtney though, she read that text message as if Brian wanted to get back together, which resulted in her sending him a text back saying. “ Brian I am not going to sit around and wait for you like I use to, if you want to be with me your going to have to work harder because I am not easy”. I FLIPPED OUT when she told me that story. I was like Courtney!!! You are seriously ridiculous!! He just wanted to hang out you cant read that much into a text message like that!  

Sadly, Courtney is not the only one who has this problem. Since the obsession of texting started, many people have developed the habit of reading too much into a text message. People will read a text by what they personally believe how the other person meant to say it. When in reality, the other person had other intentions for that text message. By texting instead of picking up the phone to call, has created many problems when it comes to communicating. Statements in text messages can be taken the wrong way and can either start a fight between two people or create an awkward situation, like Courtney’s situation. Honestly to avoid this problem, all we need to start doing is pick up the phone or talking face to face to avoid this communication complication.

I hope you guys take what I have said seriously. If not take a couple of days and, pay attention to your life with technology and the people around you and I assure you, that you will see the same problems corrupting with you and your friends. Well that’s it for this week until next time!

Hey there Del.icio.us!

Del.icio.us I can say has become my new favorite online friend! By searching keywords such as technology, anthropology, digital, and social network on this site, I have been able to find sources that relate to my blog. This site cut my searching time online in half and in the process I have found some people who have tagged the same articles as me and who might turn out to have some of the same interests as I do.

While searching through the results after typing in my keywords I stumbled upon Sherry Turkle’s website. For those of you who do not know, she is a sociology professor at MIT and a renowned author who writes about the interaction between technology and people. What I admire about her website is the fact she places links to websites of her articles, books, reports, and even chapters of her books so people do not have to waste their time searching. However, the best part I believe about her website is the fact that she has certain chapters of her book available to download for free. I looked at one of the chapters titled “Always on/Always on you”. It talks about how we always have this need to have our communication technologies on and how we believe the people we are connected to only matter most is if we communicate with them over technology. To touching upon how games allow people to live multiple aspects of themselves and since adolescence is all about experimenting, teens can reinvent their lives online

Danah Boyd is another researcher whose website intrigued me. She is a researcher at Microsoft Research New England and examines the interaction between people and technology but in a different way than Sherry Turkle does. On her site she has a post titled “Digital Self-Harm and other Acts of Self- Harassment”. In this article I was surprised when I realized the post revolved around the dangers of formspring. Formspring for those who are unaware, is an anonymous question and answer service that facebook has for anyone to answer or ask anything about the person who has that formspring. When she mentions how it has become a way for people to attack themselves I was literally in shock. I thought, why would someone actually want to cyber bully himself or herself? I read on and discovered that there are three reasons why this happens: either to get attention, a cry for help, or actually become popular. Its scary how technology has not only become a way for others to bully others but also for those others to bully themselves.

What I didn’t expect to find in my search was how technology is changing the relationship between people and the educational system. While reading through some websites about how the education system is changing I learned something new thought!  I read about this new kind of library mixed together with technology called Youmedia. I found out about Youmedia on Mimi Ito’s website who is a cultural anthropologist studying new media’s involvement with youth culture. It’s a library experience unlike any other that is loud, sociable and hip while still remaining a place for learning about our world and society whose employees have high IQ’s. Youmedia takes the BORE out of the word library and has replaced it with FUN! By doing this, kids will actually want to spend time at the library and learn because its an environment that attracts them. 

 

The Trilogy

Hello World Post!

Did you ever think that one day, you could possibly have a relationship with someone without actually meeting the person? Or lets say have sex with a robot named Roxxxy who has five different personalities? If your shaking your head saying no, then we are on the same page. Thanks to new technology vehicles that have recently appeared such as facebook, online games, online dating, twitter, text messages (and the list can go on and on) our way of interacting with each other has drastically changed. I am not saying I am anti technology; I have a facebook, a cell phone, and an email. And yes I love the fact I can keep in touch with so many of my friends and family through out the day by texting and still get my stuff done. I mean lets face it, we could not function today without technology. I do believe and agree with Sherry Turkle (author of Alone Together) that people are letting technology take over the social parts of our lives that requires physical intimacy.

         For those of you out there who think I am making a big deal out of nothing, let me briefly tell you about Rhonda Lilie and Paul Hawkins four-year relationship. They met in Second World, an online game, where you can represent yourself as either a digital representation or an avatar. Rhonda and Paul were avatars and within the first couple of minutes that their avatars met, they fell in love (please love?). Anyways, they got married in Second World without ever meeting each other in real life. From that point on they have been “inseparable”, well they spend hours on end at the computer each day talking to each other over Skype. The creepy part is they have their avatar characters engage in sexual acts on the game and at night they have their headsets on so they can hear one another sleeping…. Ya now if that didn’t convince any of you that this is a big deal than I don’t know what to do for you.

Now that is the short version and only one example of how people have begun to hide behind a screen. Yes I have read that it’s a way for people who are shy to get past their shyness and actually engage with the world, but if you think about it, they are NOT engaging with the world but engaging with a VIRTUAL world. And on that note, this is where I come in. I am going to blog about what kind of technology exists out there that is changing the definition of relationships and social interaction; to share with you guys the stories and the dangers that are related to this issue. Living a life hidden behind technology needs to STOP! Treating technology as if they are people and actually have feelings is absurd. If we keep going down this path, we are going to find ourselves lonelier than ever in an anti social world where reality comes second to a virtual world. So please STOP letting technology take over in your relationships! We need to start going out and interacting more with people face to face and learn how to balance the virtual world with the real world in a healthy way. That being said think about it, try it out maybe…and until next time!

Profile Post 

So a little guilty pleasure of mine is to wander through the internet. And yes wander NOT STALK. So the other day I was wandering through the Internet searching for people who share my same views, I stumbled upon this blog called Anthropology Media. The title I thought was different so I decided to click. What bothers me though is this blogger is so secretive, the only information I could find about this blogger is his “name”(Anthofmedia), the title of blog and the fact he has started blogging in October 2010 and ended in November 2010 posting multiple blogs every day within those months. And since there is no short description about the subject matter, I am simply going to say it is a blog about studying the essence of the media. While wandering through this blogs posts, I found two interesting ones I want to share.

The first one is called Clawson- Simons Internet 3 (weird title I know). It explains how social networking sites are HARMFUL to a relationship and in order to prove this, the focus is on Facebook. Facebook has, lets just say, KILLED face-to-face bonding by letting people post on their “about me” section their entire life story. This being a great example of a way we have changed our social skills. Having a facebook profile allows people to put online all the important facts they believe others should know, so it mirrors their ideal personality leaving all the bad stuff out of the picture. What most people forget though is the posts that can show up on your wall, can let out all the little secrets you never wanted leaked. Anthofmedia goes on to say how Facebook has changed the meaning of friendship of being based on quality to now focusing on quantity. What I read in this post that bewildered me was the fact businesses are now investigating our profiles online to get to understand who we are before and after they employ us. I am sorry but that to me is SO not right. What happened to an interview and getting to know each other in the office?

The second post (also with a weird name) is titled Batgos- Virtual Life 3. It says how “technology is artificial but artificiality is natural to human beings”, interesting because I never believed that artificial is natural? Anyways the post continues with how our world is now a written culture, thanks to text. Couldn’t agree more with Anthofmedia because text is a major force in the changing definitions with relationships and social interaction. What boggled my mind was the fact this guy named Boellstorff said that Facebook and Myspace are not considered what has become a “virtual world”. Boellstorff says how a virtual world is not tied to anything that is related to the actual world. Anthofmedia, being as confused as I, lets his audience marinate on the issue and asks them what they believe the definition of a virtual world is.

Now you may be wondering why I am commenting on this blogger. Well Anthofmedia makes some valid points that correlate with my blog. It shows how Facebook is changing the way we interact and get to know each other, and how we have started to define our friends by numbers instead of who they are. The second article reinforces the fact that we have turned into a written culture. We have invested all our energy in becoming a culture obsessed with text in order to socialize with one another.

I give the blog credit, because Anthofmedia did a great job blogging with detailed examples and being respectful to the scholars/researchers he mentions by siting them correctly in his posts.  Giving a lot of information about my subject matter while also adding to the list of scholars and researchers who are interested in this field. While at the same time, Anthofmedia keeps his blog in a professional/formal voice that is understandable to everyone no matter their vocabulary span; by that I mean the posts do not focus on the “big” words we all hate.

To wrap this blog up I am happy to know that my blog will, for the time being, remain unique. And by unique I mean, I am not going to only focus on the anthropology of the media. I also plan on talking about how dangerous technology is becoming for our future social skills with romance and friendship if we don’t learn how to balance a healthy relationship with the virtual and real. On that note, marinate on this issue, and until next time!

Voice Post

Hello again! Today I want to introduce you guys to Anna Miller, the anti-social network. Yup that’s right, there is actually someone out there who honestly despises social networks with a passion and lets her hate run free in her blog titled The Social Network Reject. Anna focuses mainly on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, but tells how she is not limiting her hate to just these three social networking sites. Her character is so strong throughout her blog that it only took one post for me to understand who she is and her opinions about this topic. For those who have not had the pleasure yet of seeing her distinct personality, it can be explained like this: she is the woman who is stuck in a non technology era where she sees all these social media networks as being a waste of time, spam infested, annoyance. She believes she is above these networks and only blogs to share her aggressive blunt bitch manner in her posts (excuse my language). Or I guess in a nicer way her character can be described as: I-cant-believe-you-idiots- spend-time-on-dumb social-networks. get a life! kind of attitude. If that doesn’t explain to you who she is then all I can say is read her blog because I don’t think I can explain her any differently. However, I think the cool thing about Anna is that she isn’t a blogger who is unsure of who they are or what their stand is on a subject; she knows exactly what her opinions are and complements her subject matter brilliantly as her character shines through.

I read two posts of hers the first one is titled The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers. She begins by saying

Then there are the other people, the ones who make you cringe when you see them coming. This article is about those people. 

Right off the bat you see the annoyance begin to emerge, hope none of you are those people that make her cringe. Now that was only a little hint of her character, once she begins describing the 12 most annoying types of Facebook users, she lets her mouth run. Just so I don’t end up writing forever, I will only name two of them but if you want to find out the other 10 check out her blog! the link is on my page. The first one is called 

THE LET-ME-TELL-YOU-EVERY-DETAIL-OF-MY-DAY BORE, this person will post statuses like “I’m waking up” or “ I had Wheaties for breakfast”.

 O man does this one tick her off, she says 

 Just because you have 432 Facebook friends doesn’t mean we all want to know when you’re waiting for the bus.

Yup, she holds back no sympathy for these attention seeking whores and bluntly states how they are wasting their time on these networks by telling us information we don’t need to know. Another one is called 

THE BAD GRAMMARIAN, which involves someone’s status for instance saying “ So sad about Fara Fauset but im so glad its Friday yippe”. 

Anna from my point of view seems speechless because all she writes about that one is that there morons.

 The second post is titled Ashton Kutcher is a Twit. So this article is about that competition that started between Ashton Kutcher taking on CNN. For the part of the audience who are just clueless about this stunt, Anna posted the youtube video to let all the uninformed people out there understand what this post will be about. The first sentence

  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’m sure you’ve heard about the Twitter battle royale between CNN and Ashton Kutcher. 

Here she gets a little out of hand where she starts insulting the readers by inferring that your stupid if you don’t know about this stint and its obvious none of us have been living under a rock… we are reading her blog on a computer… I think that says enough .Then comes,

Disappointingly, Kutcher was crowned King Twit. 

Her sarcasm is illustrated by insulting the article by crowning Ashton Kutcher King Twit. Anna lets her aggressive, blunt attitude let loose and says this in the nicest insulting way possible.

Anna definitely has nothing positive to say when it comes to these social networks, but hey everyone is entitled to their own opinion. More power to her! On that note I am going to say, Until next time!