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!