One semester, 5 books, and a whole lot of technological mumbo jumbo. We're gonna see if one electronically impaired individual can maneuver her way through what is cyberspace.
Im sitting in front of my dorm room on the grass. Birds are chirping just a few feet away while bugs keep leaping into my face causing me to swat and bat at them periodically. What makes this better or more real than a virtual lawn or simply a virtual world. Well for starters there is just something about the feeling of grass on your skin and the wind bustling around you that you can't describe, it cannot be compared to anything in a virtual world. I feel as though these two activities serve two extremely different interests. The Internet and virtual worlds, primary purpose is for fun or entertainment. I don't feel in this moment sitting outside surrounded by nature I am having fun. I don't don't feel this is the point of the activity. Its not that Im not enjoying myself, the very act of being outside is relaxing and Im content but not many people I know choose to go sit and be alone with nature for the sake of having fun. However I do think it is something we should all do more. Being more in touch with the outside world, I feel allows us to slow down and appreciate our time more. Online, the main objective is for game advancement which breeds anxiety and competition. There is no competition to be found in the courtyard just outside Robins. However that is just my view on the situation. This first year seminar has taught me how to appreciate the other side to the argument. I can now understand better how other people feel when they choose the life style of a virtual world and the merits it brings. Being able to see both sides has made me even more confident in my decision and views in choosing nature and real life experiances over cyberspace. I am no longer ignorant in saying how can people spend hours online, I now know why and I now know that it is not the life style I want to lead. Not saying that its bad for all people its just not for me. I think it could have been interesting in the class to contrast more the difference in real life experiences and virtual experiences. We could have benefited from not only going online but also as a class seeing what it was like to be without technology. I think this final post exemplifys what I mean. I have learned to broaden my horizons and I now know what I dont want for the future and every chance I have to prevent that future of all encomppassing technology I will take. It has lead me to want to fight for the future I want for me and my future children and grandchildren and try to prevent our inevitable decline into a complete virtual world.
Starting Exodus to the Virtual World by Edward Castronova I found myself astounded by what I read. Castronova’s claims throughout the book are frightening to say the least. He discusses how these virtual worlds may lead to a complete change to our culture and in the end we could end up solely online. While I can see his points in many areas, such as the advancement of technology and how it will make life easier for many, I personally cannot imagine making this transition. What he describes is something so artificial and unnatural. There are many gamers out in cyberspace right now who want to escape their
lives and transform into something they are not, however I am not one of them. The main issue is of
avoidance and denial. When you assume these fake identities then you are essentially in denial of your
own life. I don’t think its healthy not to deal with the issues present and escape to a virtual world. Many of the people have greater problems that they need to deal with and instead of developing their social skills and putting themselves out there they hide behind an avatar. While yes there are people whose issues are so extensive and social skills so poor that the only way they would be able to function is through their online personality, this isn’t the case for many of people. Many simple want to take the easy way out and instantly make themselves into the people they really want to be. Isn’t that what the
Internet promote though, ease and simplicity. Instead of working for a couple of months on self-improvement and getting into shape many simple escape and double click to get these dream bodies. I don’t know if this is the best way to be teaching our community how to deal with issues and problems. If children grow up thinking that anything is a mouse click away who is going to teach them self control and discipline. While virtual worlds may fill a need for a small majority of people today they are only masking the issue, many need to put in the effort and deal with the root of the problems in their lives.
Email is fast becoming one of the most disruptive technologies of this century. This innovative technology, as well as ones similar such as Skype and online chat rooms, has taken over language and the development of rhetoric by adding specific terminology that is now commonplace within many communities such as the college campus. Email is changing the way that we communicate with each other, not only in the business arena but in areas of personal contact as well. Email has altered the way we relate to one another and has changed business practices that are now simplified and made easier. Through the development of email, it has changed not only communication practices but also social norms throughout the United States and much of the developed world, within the confines of romantic as well as professional relationships.
Letters have been in use throughout history and as technologies evolved the letter’s grandchild emerged: the email. Many of the characteristics that were attractive in the letter remain desirable for email as well. These included the need for people to be in constant communication with each other and the desire to feel close to another human being. In the article “Journalism History”, we see this point clearly as Stephen Siff writes, “essentially the idea is that correspondence can make people far apart feel close physically and/or psychologically/emotionally, or remind them how far apart they are”(Siff, 188-9). It is interesting to note that while email provides people a link to their family and friends, it does make the user painfully aware of the fact that they are not with that particular person. It is emotionally straining knowing you cannot experience everything they are experiencing and be there for everything that is taking place in the other person’s life. Long distance relationships are a key example because while the relationship may fulfill a need at the time, such as companionship, in the long run it has been my personal experience the couple ends up yearning for more intimate physical contact and break-up.
The postal service was developed around 1775 creating a more cohesive system for Americans to communicate. The letter, which is similar to email in the way that it eliminates physical contact among people, has changed how we communicate. There is the feeling of connectedness associated with sharing an email and how it allows you to become linked with that person. However, we also have to examine the effects that sending this email is having subconsciously versus the holistic process of sitting down to write a letter. Logging on to your email account, you are often bombarded with ads for name brands and subtle propaganda regarding public safety; these advertising slogans can take over your home page. In the book Letters, Postcards, Email, by Esther Milne this point is brought up directly “during the course of writing an email a Gmail user might discuss plans for an overseas trip which could prompt the display of a series of advertisements concerning particular airlines” (Milne, 156). This leads us to pose the question how much of that email and, in the end, the potential trip you could be taking, is your own original thought and how much is it influenced by the media culture we are surrounded by today. In “When the Machine Stops” by E.M Forster, we see a fictional community where machines control every aspect of the characters lives we see how the overwhelming presence of technology the ability to form a thought is to be diminished. “When the Machine Stops” the main concern of the lack of ideas as exemplifying by Vashti, the main protagonist, “Masses of black rock hovered below her, and merged indistinctly into grey. Their shapes were fantastic; one of them resembled a prostrate man.’No ideas here,’ murmured Vashti, and hid the Caucasus behind a metal blind” (Forster). From this technology overload, Vashti is unable to appreciate the majesty of the mountains and deems it to be unworthy. This shows the frightening depiction of what could happen if we grew increasingly so accustomed technology so that we could not form thoughts without being connected to some form information highway.
As a result of email’s presence, we have developed a dependency not only on the mail system but on the information system of the Internet and email as well. If the Internet were to break down, it is likely that our communities would find it to be exponentially harder to gather information and stay connected with others. Email is ingrained in everyday practices in the corporate world as well as educational communities. This reliance on email can be seen throughout campuses in Greek organizations and student groups. The Internet helps the fraternities and sororities with their recruitment process and helps to gives them publicity. Overall, email helps these organizations to grow and expand through new forms on communication. However, this new expansion may breed increased dependence on the technology. It is safe to say that if email or the Internet were to break down, many of these groups would fall into chaos and turmoil.
One of the largest advantages present in the use of these new communication technologies is the ability to connect to more people than you may not have had the chance to remain in contact with. However, with this change in communication also comes a change in the practice and vocabulary involved. This is seen when people engage in online relationships, a large catalyst for which is email. There are several studies including one entitled “Getting Hyper-Personal”, in which this is the central theme was involved in their research. The research shows that some people claim that the visual anonymity and lack of co-presence adds to the magic of online relationships. The study goes further, claiming “letter writing and thus emails and text messages are an important social practice in terms of modern relationship maintenance” (Tonkin). This new medium is allowing relationship, romantic or otherwise, to exist and gives a select group of individuals the aspect that may have previously missing out of their past existing relationships. While for many people this illusive element cannot be pinpointed, for others, what has been missing is constant attention and displays of affection that can be represented in electronic messages. On a more academic basis, many in the college atmosphere find it easy to collaborate and share ideas via the Internet, which allows them access to trade and swap data when it would have otherwise been much more difficult.
We have seen a new type of relationship emerge from the development of technology that has come about since email, such as Skype and Facebook Chat. We see this new type of social relationship displayed in Julian Dibbell’s book Play Money. In the book the readers observed how virtual worlds was the cause of the deterioration within several relationships, including in the end, a cause of great controversy within the author’s own. The reasoning behind the issues in Dibell’s marriage was reality become a parallel life”(Dibbell, 7). This new way of communicating allows the players of Ultima Online, a virtual game, a way of breaking away from their real lives and in a sense merging those lives with their new one found online. The medium used by the players to interact and communicate other than MMORPG, defined as multi-player online games, chat room is through email. This new form of communicating and connecting was also part of the basis for the movie, “Second Skin” which follows several MMORPG players. In a clip shown on BBC news we see a particular a couple who happen to meet through the Internet, goes through the trials and tribulations of an online relationship.
In several moments from the above clip one can see how couples’ relationship evolved and changed as a result of online communication. Not only their social skills and their ability to meet a partner the natural way, but also appears to breed volatile and complicated relationships. However these relationships may have been born from online role-playing communication, which is a branch off of email, and this new advancement in technological communication has provided us with many new mediums in which to interact.
Changes in the formation of romantic relationships is not all that has evolved since the use of email and the Internet became a forum for communication. There is an increasingly present issue of the deterioration of the English language, which, many say, has emerged from the use of electronic mediums as a way of broadcasting our thoughts. The Gutenberg Elegies is a prime example of how many fear that from the use of improved electronic telecommunications we may eventually see the downfall of eloquent language. The author, Sven Birkerts, believes that even transcribing the same words from a paperback book to a computer screen degrades the quality of the language and takes away from the eloquency of the words. Birkerts writes “Words read from a screen or written onto a screen…have a different status and affect us differently from words held immobile on the accessible space of a page” (Birkerts, 154). In an interview, Birkerts again voices his concerns when posed a question regarding increased writing on blogs and through email. He responds, “my intuition is that there will be much more TYPING, and much less writing and the effect of all this communicating will be the depreciate the stylistic and rhythmic qualities that are the very soul of communication”(Is Cyberspace Destroying Society?). Birkerts shows us his dark prediction of the fate of the English language. Email is just the medium he is critiquing, voicing his opinion that the more we communicate than the less we actually have to say.
Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, gives relatively solid advice, which supports many of Birkerts’ claims. While many of the two men’s ideas are not directly related, the opposition to technology is at the core of both arguments. Kaczynski’s argument relates to the creation of technology with the waning of the private self, which in most cases has proved to be true. The Internet and email are both about connecting to each other and spreading of ideas. The development of all communications in the past has served this purpose the purpose of allowing ourselves to have that connection with someone else. Whatever effects this constant need to communicate is will not be known in these next few decades, but will seen centuries in the future.
Still, it appears that Bikerts and Kaczynski are not being critical without observing such behaviors. Almost every college student who communicates on the Internet has seen the phrases “LOL” or “BRB.” These acronyms may not have originally represented much but were eventually out into everyday language, something which I have personally witnessed. This new vocabulary marks a change in linguistic patterns and what people deem acceptable jargon to use in a social setting. In the article, “Global Englishes and the Sociolinguistics of Spelling”, researchers examine the differences in Jamaican language through blogs and email by translating the Creole dialect to the common English dialect. We see through increased communication with blogs how people are exposed to new language and new spellings of the same words. This shows how culture within in the Jamaican community has changed as a result of their increased use of the Internet and email. Email has made it so they are able to communicate within their own people as well as communities around the world. This change in the dialect of the Jamaican culture represents a shift in cultural attitudes and changes within the structure of their speech, which is due in part to the increased knowledge and exposure to the Internet.
It is still unclear what the effects of this new technological age will have on the spoken and written word will be, but we cannot dismiss the assertion that this deterioration we are laying witness to may be part of a natural cycle. When thinking about the evolution of language, there is no denying that, overall, we do not speak with the same eloquence that was prevalent in the seventeenth century. However, it is important to note, a significantly fewer people had the means or resources to write at that time. Now, many more people in the contemporary world have the opportunity to express themselves and their opinions, which could, according to Birkerts lead to the deterioration of written eloquence. It is unfair, however to assume that every person with a Blogger account or any person drafting an email would input the same attention to detail that was used while drafting the great literary works of the past.
It is hard to determine what the best solution would be in regard to email and the innovations that may come with these new communicated technologies. On one hand, email does help our communities stay connected and interact on a new level, allow relationships to occur where would have otherwise not and they create a medium for the easy distribution of ideas and information. On the other hand all of this progress could not occur without paying a price, the price being the deterioration of the English language and of our increased dependency on technology in general. What may carry the most weight the fact is that these technologies are here to stay. It is unlikely that we will be eliminating email and the Internet in the near future. Our communities have become so dependent on the use of email and other developing communication technologies that it would break down most of the organizations that rely on them today. While we should look towards the positive, we should also be wary of the effect email is having on the emerging generation and attempt to make it have the least negative impact on future generations.
Citations:
Milne, Esther. Letters, Postcards, Email: Technologies of Presence. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Tonkin, Sarah. "Getting Hyper-Personal." Global Media Journal 4.1 (2010). Print.
Siff, Stephen. Journalism History 36.2 (2010): 118-19. Print.
Forster, E. M. "THE MACHINE STOPS ..." NCSA Web Archive Bounce Page. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html>.
Dibbell, Julian. Play Money, Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot. New York: Basic, 2006. Print.
Funk, John. "Review: Second Skin." Rev. ofSecond Skin.The Escapist7 Aug. 2009. Print.
Kaczynski, Ted. "The New Civility: Union Thugs Target Ann Althouse." Big Government. 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2011/03/17/the-new-civility-union-thugs-target-ann-althouse/>.
Hinrichs, Lars. "Global Englishes and the Sociolinguistics of Spelling: A Study of Jamaican Blog and Email Writing." English World Wide 32.1 (2011): 46-97. Print.
"Digital Culture - Is Cyberspace Destroying Society?" The Atlantic — News and Analysis on Politics, Business, Culture, Technology, National, International, and Life – TheAtlantic.com. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/aandc/trnscrpt/birkerts.htm>.
Parker, Philip M. Email Webster's Timeline History. San Diego: ICON Group International, 2009. Print.
Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: the Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. New York: Faber and Faber, 2006. Print.
Sundqvist, Anett. "A Qualitative Analysis of Email Interactions of Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication." AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication 26.4 (2010): 255-66. Print.
Email is fast becoming one of the most disruptive technologies of this century. This new technology, as well as ones similar such as Skype and instant messenger, has taken over language and the development of rhetoric adding specific terminology that is now commonplace within many communities such as the college campus. Email is changing the way we communicate with each other, not only in the business arena but in areas of personal communication as well. Email has altered the way we relate to one another with rhetoric and has changed business practices that are now simplified and made easier through the use of this new medium. Through the development of email, it has changed not only communication practices but also social norms throughout the United States within the confines of romantic as well as professional relationships.
Letters have been in use throughout history for hundreds of years and with the evolution of technologies comes the letter’s cousin: the email. Many of the characteristics that were attractive in the letter remain desirable for email as well. These included the need for people to be in constant communication with each other and the want to feel close to another human being. In the article Journalism History we see this point brought to our attention with the passage, “essentially the idea is that correspondence can make people far apart feel close physically and/or psychologically/emotionally, or remind them how far apart they are”(Journalism history). This is interesting to note that while yes, email allows people a link to their family and friends however, it does make the user painfully aware of the fact that they are not with that particular person experiencing everything they are experiencing and everything that is taking place in the other person’s life. Long distance relationships are a key example because while it may fulfill a need at the time, such as companionship, in the long run it has been my experience the couple ends up yearning for more intimate physical contact and break-up.
The existence of letters is something relatively new in the form of communication. It was near impossible to have a mass transportation system with the ability to deliver mail up until recently in 1775. The letter, which is similar to email in the way that it eliminates personal contact among people, has changed how we communicate. There is the feeling associated with sharing an email and how it allows you to become linked with that person however, we also have to examine the effects that sending this email is having subconsciously versus the holistic process of sitting down to write a letter. Logging on to your email account, you are bombarded with ads and subtle propaganda; these advertising slogans take over your home page.In the book Letters, postcards, Email, by Esther Milne this point is brought up front and center “during the course of writing an email a Gmail user might discuss plans for an overseas trip which could prompt the display of a series of advertisements concerning particular airlines” (Letters, Postcards, Email, 156). This leads us to ask the question how much of that email and in the end the trip you will be taking, is your own original thought and how much is it influenced by the media culture we are surrounded by today. In the scary sci-fi short story about a fictional community with machines controlling every aspect of their lives we see how from this overwhelming presence of technology the ability to form a thought is hampered. “When the Machine Stops” the main concern of the lack of ideas as exemplifying by Vashti “Masses of black rock hovered below her, and merged indistinctly into grey. Their shapes were fantastic; one of them resembled a prostrate man.’No ideas here,’ murmured Vashti, and hid the Caucasus behind a metal blind” (When the machine stops).From this technology overload Vashti is unable to appreciate the majesty of the mountains and deems it unworthy of her. This shows the scary depiction of what could happen if we got so accustomed to the use of technology that we couldn’t form thoughts with out being connected in to some form of information highway.
From email’s presence we have developed a dependency not only on the mail system but on the information system of the Internet and email as well. If the Internet were to break down then our communities would find it to be exponentially harder to gather information and stay connected with family and friends. Email is ingrained in everyday business practices in the corporate world as well as educational communities. This reliance on email is seen throughout campuses in Greek organizations and student groups. The Internet helps the Greek system with their recruitment process and gives them publicity. Overall email helps these organizations grow and expand through new forms on communication. However, this new expansion does breed dependence on the technology and it is safe to say that if email or the Internet were to break down then many of these groups would fall into chaos and turmoil.
One of the largest advantages present in the use of these new communication technologies via the Internet is the ability to connect to more people than you would have otherwise had the privilege of getting to know or stay connected to. However, with this change in communication also comes a change in the practice and rhetoric’s involved.This is seen when people engage in online relationships and a large catalyst for this is email. There are several studies including “Getting Hyper-Personal” where this is the central theme involved in their research. The research shows that some people even claim that the visual anonymity and lack of co-presence adds to the magic of online relationships and it goes further claiming “letter writing and thus emails and text messages are an important social practice in terms of modern relationship maintenance” (Getting Hyper-Personal). This new medium is allowing relationship, romantic or otherwise, to exist and it gives a select group of individuals something that was previously missing out of their past existing relationships. While for many people this allusive element can not be pinpointed, for some what has been missing is constant attention and showing of affection that is represented in each message. On a more academic basis many in the college atmosphere find it easy to collaborate and share ideas via the Internet and it allows them access to trade and swap data when it would have otherwise been impossible.
We have seen a new type of relationship spawned through the development and the technology that has come about from email such as Skype and Facebook Chat. We see this new type of social relationship through Julian Dibbles book Play Money where we saw, in several cases, how these virtual worlds was the cause of the deterioration within several relationships, including in the end a cause of great controversy within his own. The reasoning behind this was “it was a parallel life”(Dibbel, 7). This new way of communicating allows the players of Ultima Online, a virtual game, a way of breaking off from their real lives and in a sense merging it with their new one found online and the medium they are using to interact and communicate apart from MMORPG chat room is via email. This new form of communicating and connecting was also part of the basis for the movie “Second Skin” which follows several MMORPG players and in particular a couple who happen to meet through the Internet.
In several clips we see how the couples’ relationship evolved and changed via online communication and how it impacted not only their social skills and their ability to meet a partner the natural way but also it seemed to breed volatile and complicated relationships. However these relationships may have been founded through online role playing communication this is a branch off of email and this new advance technological communication has allowed us many new mediums in which to interact.
Changes in the composition of relationship is not all that has evolved since the use of email and the Internet as a forum for communication. There is the ever-present issue of what many people feel is the deterioration of the English language through the use of electronic mediums as a way of broadcasting our thoughts. The Gutenberg Elegies is a prime example of how many fear that from the use of improved electronic telecommunications we will eventually see the down fall of eloquent language, even if such eloquent language was transmitted through the computer instead of a paper backed book. Sven Birkerts states, “Words read from a screen or written onto a screen…have a different status and affect us differently from words held immobile on the accessible space of a page” (Gutenberg Elegies, 154). Even in an interview Birkerts again voices his concerns when posed a question about the increase in writing prevalent on blogs and through email. He then responds “my intuition is that there will be much more TYPING, and much less writing and the effect of all this communicating will be the depreciate the stylistic and rhythmic qualities that are the very soul of communication”. Birkerts shows us his wary prediction of the fate of the English language and email is just the medium he is critiquing voicing how the more we communicate than the less we actually have to say.(Is cyberspace destroying society?).
Ted Kaczynski gives relatively solid advice supporting many of Birkerts’ claims. While many of their concepts are not directly related, the opposition to technology is at the core of both men’s arguments. Kaczynski uses the argument relating the creation of technology with the waning of the private self and in most cases this is true. The Internet and email are all about connecting to one another and the spreading of ideas. Nothing involved with electronic communication deals with the individual: the sole purpose is to connect to others. The development of all communications in the past has served this purpose. It has filed the void missing in sending information. Whatever the effects of this constant need to communication is will not be known though in these next few decades it can only be seen throughout hundreds and hundreds of years.
Still in the same realm discussing changes dealing with linguistics almost every college student with some way of communicating through the Internet has seen the ever present “LOL” or “BRB.” These meaningless phrases might not represent much but when they are carried out into everyday language which I have been witness to, it does though mark a change in linguistic patterns and what people deem acceptable jargon to use in a social setting. In the article Global Englishes and the sociolinguistics of spelling the researchers examine the differences in Jamaican language through blogs and email from the Creole dialect to the common English dialect. We see through increased communication with blogs how people are exposed to new language and new spellings of the same words. This shows how culture within in the Jamaican community is changed as a result of their increased involvement with the Internet and email. Email has made it so they are able to communicate within not only their dialect and people but also be affected by communities around the world. This change in the dialect of the Jamaican culture represent a shift in cultural attitudes and changes within the very structure of their speech due to the increase knowledge and increased exposure to the Internet.
It is still unclear about the effects of this new technological age will have on the spoken and written word but we cannot dismiss the assertion that this deterioration we are laying witness to is a natural cycle. When thinking about the evolution of language there is no denying we do not speak with the same eloquence that was prevalent in the seventeenth century however, we have to note that a great deal less people had the means or resources to write back then. Now so many people throughout our community have the opportunity to express themselves and their opinions, which in the end could lead to the differing level of intelligence embedded in everyone’s writing.It is unfair to assume that every person with a blogger account or any person drafting an email would put the same attention to detail that was used in drafting the great literary works of the century.
It is hard to decide in the end what the best solution or outcome is when it comes to email and the innovations that comes with these new communicated technologies. On one hand they help our communities stay connected and interact on a different level, they allow relationships to occur where they would have otherwise not and they create a medium for the easy distribution of ideas and information. However, on the other hand all of this progress can’t occur without a price, the price being the deterioration of the English language and of our dependency on technology in general.Whichever concept might carry the most weight the fact is that these technologies are here to stay and it is unlikely that we will be eliminating email and the Internet any time in the near future. Our communities have become so dependent on the use of email and other developing communication technologies that it would break down many of the organizations that rely on them today. While we should look towards the positive, we should also be wary about the effect email is having on our generation and try to make it have the least negative impact on future generations.
Citations:
Milne, Esther. Letters, Postcards, Email: Technologies of Presence. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Tonkin, Sarah. "Getting Hyper-Personal." Global Media Journal 4.1 (2010). Print.
Siff, Stephen. Journalism History 36.2 (2010): 118-19. Print.
Forster, E. M. "THE MACHINE STOPS ..." NCSA Web Archive Bounce Page. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html>.
Dibbell, Julian. Play Money, Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot. New York: Basic, 2006. Print.
Kaczynski, Ted. "The New Civility: Union Thugs Target Ann Althouse." Big Government. 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2011/03/17/the-new-civility-union-thugs-target-ann-althouse/>.
Hinrichs, Lars. "Global Englishes and the Sociolinguistics of Spelling: A Study of Jamaican Blog and Email Writing." English World Wide 32.1 (2011): 46-97. Print.
"Digital Culture - Is Cyberspace Destroying Society?" The Atlantic — News and Analysis on Politics, Business, Culture, Technology, National, International, and Life – TheAtlantic.com. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/aandc/trnscrpt/birkerts.htm>.
Parker, Philip M. Email Webster's Timeline History. San Diego: ICON Group International, 2009. Print.
Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: the Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. New York: Faber and Faber, 2006. Print.
Sundqvist, Anett. "A Qualitative Analysis of Email Interactions of Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication." AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication 26.4 (2010): 255-66. Print.
Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14 1984 in White Plains New York. Ever since his early childhood he was viewed as a computer prodigy all throughout his early years. He began to develop software and even had a software designer David Newman tutor him privately. He even developed what was called “ZuckNet” which was a primitive version of Instant messenger and a music player called the Synapse Media Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user’s listening habits. Once graduating from high school Zuckerberg then enrolled in the prestigious Harvard University. It was where he would make the software program that would forever change the lives of millions of people around the world and alter the way we communicate forever. Zuckerberg launched the social networking site Facebook from his dorm at Harvard on February 4, 2004. Facebook has turned into a national phenomenon currently with more than 600 Million users to this day and growing every second. On this new social networking site users can create a profil and communicate with friends and family members around the world. They can upload pictures and communicate their taste through online forums and the “like” button. Facebook has now become the leading social networking site over myspace and Face book has changed how teenagers interact with each other instead of email or calling the common phrase now is “I’ll facebook you”. Facebook has allowed people to connect where they would have otherwise have lost touch in terms of lost classmates and family members who live thousands of miles away. Facebook has also had a tremendous political impact and as seen with the previous presidential election users could take part in debate, register to vote and helped measure the strengths of certain candidates. However the glory of Facebook has always been below the shady cloud of accusations and allegations of a stolen material. On March 28, 2004 three Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for a social networking site after promising to help set up their new site later known as ConnectU. Zuckerbergs character, integrity and creative genius came under attack when these accusations spread. While this has hampered the image of Face book slightly in terms of public relations facebook has rebounded and is no worse for the wear to this day. Face book is continuing to grow and thrive and become one of the most influential pieces of technology on the market today.
While beginning to read Feed by M.T Anderson, it made me realize how scary our future could be depending on the route that technology takes. The basic concept to Feed is neural implants placed in humans and essentially the wealthier you are the smarter you are by having the ability to purchase a more advanced feed. It is frightening to think that this could ever be a possibility for the future of our country. The whole so-called “American dream” would disintegrate and evaporate into nothing if this were to come about. There would be no hope at rising to the top based on your abilities or what you were best suited for, everyone would be engineered based on the amount of money your family makes. Now many of you may think to yourself how likely is this really that people would allow neural implants placed in their brains and to a certain extent yes this is true that method probably wont come about if at all until
hundreds and hundreds of years from now. But we have to think about the other ways this could come to be more specifically technology that is already present within the scientific community today, genetic engineering. It is already possible to pick the sex of your baby from the womb and to edit the genes searching for genetic mutation, how far off are we from hand picking the traits our children receive? The fact is that this selective process is a pricey endeavor as well and so if the technology came about where we were able to hand select how smart our children would become based on their genes then there is no doubt the wealthier classes would get an advantage. This advantage would be a repeated process where the rich would stay at the forefront of developments and at the top of the academic sphere and those from more humble means would have no chance to get ahead in the world. So the question that is presented is should we continue on in developments and hope we don’t end up in a society similar to the one found in Feed or should we place restrictions and enforce rules to keep these developments in check making it a fairer environment for everyone and ensuring the American Dream.
Email is fast becoming one of the most disruptive technologies of this century. It has taken over language and the development of rhetoric adding specific terminology that is now a staple within many communities such as the college campus, to this day. Email is changing the way we communicate with each other, not only in the business arena but in the areas of personal communication as well. Email has altered the way we relate to one another with rhetoric and has changed business practices that are now simplified and made easier through the use of this new medium. Through the development of email, it has changed not only communication practices but also social norms as well prevalent within many households through out the United States.
One of the largest advantages present in the use of these new communication technologies via the Internet is the ability to connect to more people that you would have otherwise had the privilege of getting to know or staying connected to. However with this change in communication also comes a change in the practice and rhetoric involved. People are coming around to the online relationship and a large catalyst for this is email. There are several studies including “Getting Hyper-Personal” where this is the central theme involved in their research. The research even shows that “some people even claim that the visual anonymity and lack of co-presence adds to the “magic” of online relationship” and it goes further claiming “letter writing and thus emails and text messages are an important social practice in terms of modern relationship maintenance” (Getting Hyper-Personal). This new medium is allowing relationship, romantic or otherwise exist and it gives a select group of individuals something that was previously missing out of their past existing relationships.
Letters have been present through out history for hundreds of years and with the evolution of technologies come the letters cousin the email. Many of the characteristics that were attractive in the letter remain a draw for email as well. These included the need for people to be in constant communication with each other and the need to feel close to another human being. In the article Journalism History we see this point brought out front and center “essentially the idea is that correspondence can make people far apart feel close physically and/or psychologically/emotionally, or remind them how far apart they are”(Journalism history). This is interesting to note that while yes it allows people a link to their family and friends however it does make them painfully aware of the fact they are not with them experiencing everything that is going on.
From this presence we have developed a dependency not only on the mail system especially on the information system of the Internet and email. If the Internet were to break down then it would be exponentially harder to gather information and stay connected with family and friends. Email is ingrained in everyday business practices in the corporate world as well as educational communities. This reliance on email is seen through out campuses through Greek organization and student groups on campus. It helps them with their recruitment process and gets their name out on campus. Overall email helps these organizations grow and expand through new forms on communication. However with this new expansion does breed dependence on the technology and it is safe to say that if Email or the Internet were to break down then many of these groups would fall into chaos and turmoil.
The existence of letters is something relatively new in forms of technology. It was near impossible to have a mass transportation system with the ability to transport mail up until recent centuries. The letter, which is similar to email in the way that it eliminates personal contact among people, has changed how we communicate. The point was already made about the connected feeling associated with sharing an email however we also have to examine the effects that sending this email is having subconsciously versus the holistic process of sitting down to write a letter. Logging on to you email account, you are bombarded with ads and subtle propaganda and advertising slogans which have taken over your home page.In the book Letters, postcards, Email, by Esther Milne this point is brought up front and center “during the course of writing an email a Gmail user might discuss plans for an overseas trip which could prompt the display of a series of advertisements concerning particular airlines” (Letters, Postcards, Email, 156). This leads us to ask the question how much of that email and in the end the trip you will be taking is your own original thought or how much is it influenced by the media culture that we are surrounded by today. In the scary sci-fi short story “When the Machine Stops” the main concern of the lack of ideas as exemplifying by Vashti “Masses of black rock hovered below her, and merged indistinctly into grey. Their shapes were fantastic; one of them resembled a prostrate man.’No ideas here,’ murmured Vashti, and hid the Caucasus behind a metal blind” (When the machine stops). This shows the scary depiction of what could happen if we got so accustomed to the use of technology that we could form thoughts with out being connected in to some form of information highway.
We also see this new type of social relationship through Julian Dibbles book Play Money where we saw in several cases how these virtual worlds was the cause of the deterioration within several relationships including in the end a cause of great controversy within his own. The reasoning behind this was “it was a parallel life”(Dibbel, 7). This new way of communicating allows the players of Ultima Online a way of breaking off from their real lives and in a sense merging it with their new one found online and the medium they are using to interact and communicate apart from MMORPG chat room is via email. This new form of communicating and connecting was also part of the basis for the movie “Second Skin” which follows several MMORPG players and in particular a couple who happen to meet through the Internet. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpvsoP6UDGM ) Second Skin Review In several clips we see how the couples relationship evolved and changed via online communication and how it impact not only their social skills and the ability to meet a partner the natural way but also it seemed to breed volatile and complicated relationships.
Changes in the composition of relationship, is not all that has evolved since the use of email and the Internet as a forum for communication. There is the ever-present issue of what many people feel is the deterioration of the English language through the use of electronic mediums as a way of broadcasting our thoughts. The Gutenberg Elegies is a prime example of how many fear that from the use of improved electronic telecommunications it will eventually lead to the down fall of eloquent language even if such eloquent language was transmitted through the computer instead of a paper backed book. Birkerts states, “Words read from a screen or written onto a screen…have a different status and affect us differently from words help immobile on the accessible space of a page” (Gutenberg Elegies, 154). Even in an interview Birket again voices his concerns when posed a question about the increase in writing prevalent on blogs and through email he then responds “my intuition is that there will be much more TYPING, and much less writing and the effect of all this communicating will be the depreciate the stylistic and rhythmic qualities that are the very soul of communication”(Is cyberspace destroying society?).
Ted Kaczynski gives relatively solid advice support many of Birket’s ideas. While many of their concepts are not directly related, the opposition to technology is at the core of both men’s arguments. Kaczynski uses the argument relating the creation of technology with the waning of the private self and in most cases this is true. The Internet and email are all about connecting to one another and the spreading of ideas. Nothing involved with electronic communication deals with you, the sole purpose is to connect to others. The development of all communications in the past has served this purpose. It has filed the void missing in sending information. Whatever the effects of this constant need to communication is will not be known though in these next few decades it can only be seen through out hundreds and hundreds of years.
Still in the same realm discussing changes dealing with linguistics almost every college student with some way of communicating through the Internet has seen the ever present “LOL” or “BRB.” These meaningless phrases might not mean much but when they are carried out into everyday language which I have been witness too it marks a change in linguistic patterns and what people deem acceptable jargon to use in a social setting. In the article “Global Englishes and the sociolinguistics of spelling” the researchers examine the differences in Jamaican language through blogs and email from the Creole dialect to the common English dialect. We see through increased communication with blogs how people are exposed to new language and new spellings of the same words. This shows how culture within in the Jamaican community is changed as a result of their increased involvement with the Internet and email. Email has made it so they are able to communicate within not only their dialect and people but also be affected by communities around the world. This change in the dialect of the Jamaican culture represent a shift in cultural attitudes and changes within the very structure of their speech due to the increase knowledge and increased exposure to the Internet.
While clearly for the vast amounts of evidence for the effects email and online communications is having on language and relationships to this day is has yet to be determined whether or not this is for the betterment of communities and is simply the natural cycle that the English language has come to. When thinking about the evolution of language there is no denying we do not speak with the same eloquence that was prevalent in the seventeenth century however we have to note that a great deal less people had the means or resources to write back then. Now so many people through out our community have the opportunity to express themselves and their opinions, which in the end could lead to the differing level of intelligence embedded in everyone’s writing.It is unfair to assume that every person with a blogger account or any person drafting an email would put the same attention to detail that was used in drafting the great literary works of the century.
It is hard to decide in the end what the best solution or outcome is when it comes to email and the innovations that comes with these new communicated technologies. On one hand they help our communities stay connected and interact on a different level, they allow relationships occur where they would have otherwise not and they create a medium for the easy distribution of ideas and information. However on the other hand all of this progress can’t occur with out a price, the price being the deterioration of the English language and of our dependency on technology in general.Even with these negatives though the benefits out weigh them entirely. Email has helped develop our communities in to what they are today and shape how we interact with each other.
Sources:
Milne, Esther. Letters, Postcards, Email: Technologies of Presence. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Tonkin, Sarah. "Getting Hyper-Personal." Global Media Journal 4.1 (2010). Print.
Siff, Stephen. Journalism History 36.2 (2010): 118-19. Print.
Forster, E. M. "THE MACHINE STOPS ..." NCSA Web Archive Bounce Page. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html>.
Dibbell, Julian. Play Money, Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot. New York: Basic, 2006. Print.
Kaczynski, Ted. "The New Civility: Union Thugs Target Ann Althouse." Big Government. 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2011/03/17/the-new-civility-union-thugs-target-ann-althouse/>.
Hinrichs, Lars. "Global Englishes and the Sociolinguistics of Spelling: A Study of Jamaican Blog and Email Writing." English World Wide 32.1 (2011): 46-97. Print.
"Digital Culture - Is Cyberspace Destroying Society?" The Atlantic — News and Analysis on Politics, Business, Culture, Technology, National, International, and Life – TheAtlantic.com. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/aandc/trnscrpt/birkerts.htm>.
Parker, Philip M. Email Webster's Timeline History. San Diego: ICON Group International, 2009. Print.
Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: the Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. New York: Faber and Faber, 2006. Print.
Sundqvist, Anett. "A Qualitative Analysis of Email Interactions of Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication." AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication 26.4 (2010): 255-66. Print.
This past week when watching the movie “The Social Network” I was amazed at the innovation and creativity of Mark Zuckerberg and how he created one of the most revolutionary applications of this century. While a good portion of the movie is devoted to Zuckerberg’s clash with ownership rights to the very idea of Facebook, there is no denying that Zuckerberg is the one who propelled the social networking site to what it is now today. Zuckerberg knew what teenagers want and that is to communicate with their friends and keep up with what they’re doing in everyday life. What really struck me from the film was how fast Facebook seemed to catch on in the college scene. I personally remember logging onto Facebook for the first time in the 9th grade of high school and I was not that impressed. I would log on at first and then I would get bored and let it idle for months. However since, I’d say my junior year, I have discovered all that people are talking about from this new medium. In the movie though there was one scene where, a college student from Stanford, who recently logged onto Facebook claimed she was already hooked and addicted to this new technology. This may say something about the age difference between myself as a 15 year old, and a 21 year old but there is no denying the great mass of people becaming addicted and entranced with this technology. This could also say something about the very nature of the way teenagers communicate. There is the well know stereotype about that once you become a teenager texting will take over your life and you will always need to be in constant contact with your friends. I think this is very true at some point we feel the need for the communication and Facebook is right there luring us in. While we may never know the real reason that so many people feel the need for constant communication it can be safe to say that it does not look like Facebook is going anywhere any time soon.
Throughout my day as a typical university of Richmond student who, before entering the FYS Cyberspace, was unaware the extent to which communication technologies are incorporated into my everyday routine. More specifically I was unaware the extent to which the use of email as a way of communicating not only with my peers but for academic purposes as well was incorporated. Personally I am very much dependent on the Internet and email as a form of communication and from this dependence would have very little reason to question the origin or the impact the Internet is having on my social life and how it is shaping the personal lives of people across many universities around the nation. This concept of our personal attachment to email arose after noticing not only how email was general the only source of communication with my professors outside of class but also through the process of joining a sorority where email is the main medium to spread vital information throughout the whole chapter. Since becoming a member of my sorority it is becoming clear how much email is ingrained in the very root of all we do. Questions that arise for me include, how did email become such an integral part of the academic and business community and to start off with how did email evolve into the communications source that it is today? How has our reliance on email changed the way in that we exchange information with one another, in the academic or social sense? From this change in how we exchange information has it made as more socially dependent and interlinked, as Ted Kaczynski would have suggested, and is this a bad thing? Sven Birkerts makes the argument about the deterioration of language through the use of technology, is this noticeable or supported that through the use of email we are witnessing the break down of the English language. In my research so far I found these questions could be hard to find evidence for because they are all relatively general and cover a broad basis of email and the Internet. I also have to note that in the sources I find people could be very biased themselves because a majority of individuals benefit from the creation of these new Internet technologies; benefit in the form of jobs and profit. So it could be safe to conclude that there will be many sources that strive to prove the merit in advancing communications technology. A tentative thesis statement that I have come about through my research so far is as follows; Email is changing society in the way that we communicate and we find that the more and more connected we are to the internet the more and more we are disconnected from our individuality as a person.
Annotated Bibliography
1) Parker, Philip M. Email: Webster's Timeline History, 1697-2007. Icon Group International, 2009. Print.
Parker introduces us to the timeline of Email and when the linguistic word first appeared it communities and its usages throughout history. My article is interested in the evolution of email as a form of technology so it could potentially be useful to be able to follow the creation of the word email in linguistic terms. Parker is a source where I can derive information of the development and creation of email and how it has become ingrained in literature and pop culture.
2) Milne, Esther. Letters, Postcards, Email: Technologies of Presence. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Milne shows us the connection between letters, postcards and email with networked communication practices. Milne concludes that the physical absence in the forms of communication through these mediums may not hinder social practices but instead promote a more intimate and spiritual connection with the other individual they are corresponding to. Seeing as how my project will focus mainly on how email is changing communication either for better or worse this would provide a source where it would counteract the claim that email is breaking down personal relationship through impersonal contact and support the idea that email is indeed making these relationships stronger.
3) Mann, Ronald A. Norfolk Fire Rescue Officers' Attitudes and Perceptions towards Cell Phones and Email. 2007. Print.
Through this source Mann presents the view from the governments perspective of the use of Cell phones and email, through the attitude of the fire department. This could be useful in my paper because it give the perspective of how the government feels about the use of these telecommunication presences and how it is either beneficial or a hindrance on their practices. My paper focuses mainly on the uses of email in the social and business arena but an opinion on the use of it in governmental practices to promote safety could be a strong claim supporting the practice of email. Also the points made opposing incorporating new technology in the everyday practices with the fire department could counter the positive feedback.
4) Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: the Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1994. Print.
In Birkerts writing he focuses on the demise of the English language through the advancement of communication technology. Birkerts predicts that through the advancement of these technologies people will become gradually become less aware of themselves as individuals and the overall quality of the writers work will suffer in the transition from letters to email. For my paper, I will focus on how email will affect the English language in university communities and business communities. Birkerts helps us to see how; email in the place of letter writing can lead to impersonal contact for all involved.
5)Sundqvist, Anett. "A Qualitative Analysis of Email Interactions of Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication." AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication 26.4 (2010): 255-66. Print.
In this study Anett aims to study how a group of six children are introduced to different forms of communication technologies and how they interact after the experiment. It claims through the study, that from the use and practice of email, the children developed new social skills and increased their social participation. This source can be introduced in relation to email within the academic environment because from the data collected we can gather how it is effecting the socialization of the youth in different communities, in this particular case, Sweden.
6) Hinrichs, Lars. "Global Englishes and the Sociolinguistics of Spelling: A Study of Jamaican Blog and Email Writing." English World-Wide 32.1 (2011): 46-73. Print.
In this study Hinrichs analyzes the linguistics from Jamaican Blogs and Email writing, in relation to the English language. He discusses the use of slang dealing with linguistic constraints and makes the connection back to the Jamaican or Creole communities. This could be useful as a source within my paper because from this study I can gather evidence of culture influencing online writing in the form of blogs and email and how the informality of these mediums allows such lenience within the English language.
During my break I was casually flipping through the newspaper and came across an article discussing the new ipad that recently appeared on the market and to my shock and delight I understood pretty much everything the article was referring to. One of the biggest issues it talked about was how the ipad is now being considered a disruptive technology for newspapers, books, and even in some cases computers. It discussed how at the very start of its release the ipad was demeaned, by the critics as useless and unnecessary but once that tablet caught on there was no stopping it for Apple. People found the ipad, a technology that they never would have imagined they needed, with such apps that include movie-watching capabilities, Internet browsing, and overall storage bank for apps. It astonished me how fast the reviewer jumped to the conclusion and called the ipad a disruptive technology; while yes it is a nifty new piece of equipment I don’t think we have seen yet the longevity of the ipad. Seeing as how the ipad was just released last year it can be assumed that there will be a mass amount of people flocking to store to check out the next great device Apple has put out. However I am still skeptical of whether or not the
tablet computer will really take hold in the technological community. I feel that the longer the tablet is out then there will always be improvements being made and the general public will ask for a smaller and more lightweight instrument to make portability easier. In this case for the ipad the smaller it were to become than wouldn’t it just become exactly like the iphone. There is no denying though that the ipad is a disruptive technology for newspapers though. Better known publications are transfer all there articles online and in the upcoming years we will see a huge shift away from paper and towards electronic copy. The question that arises from this disappearance of newspapers is the question of profit. If these companies are to remain in business than they do need some incentive to do so but when no one is willing to purchase the paper anymore and demands it will be free than how can we keep that study flow of information going? So the ipad disruptive or not that question will be answer in years to come. For now though we can bask in its newness and embrace its revolutionary new ideas for technology.
Reading today’s headlines unrest in the world is splattered across newspapers, from the New York Times to the Washington Post. Headlines, which include major complications occurring throughout Egypt and now Libya. The most interesting thing to note once you get past the shock and the horror associated with thousands of people suffering from terrorism is how these groups are functioning and communicating, through the Internet. In the communications age where we live today it is frightening to think of the way this technology can be manipulated in order to cause harm to huge groups of people. Terrorists, are now banding together through the information highway known as the Internet and organizing in order to get their fundamental issues and cause harm to innocent bystanders. In “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” we see the Internet as the only way of communication left after a huge massive nuclear strike on the entire world. We can directly relate this back to today where it is
entirely plausible to imagine people rallying through the Internet, as we see with these new terrorist groups. People today know the Internet is huge resource to the community and so if it was the only way of surviving then people in the technologic field would do about anything to keep the that medium open. With the “Machine” I feel the emphasis is more on the actual machine as related to a God, at one instance it is even pointed out “You mustn’t say anything against the machine”(The machine). This takes on a sort of human nature where we cannot even think to go against some device. This is a different contrast to Doctorow’s works where while the Internet is shown in a light of great need and a helpful resource, eventually in the end of the story the men and women have to venture out on their own with out technology. There are a few people in the computer industry who feel it would hamper our quality of life dramatically were we to take away the Internet and I feel it would be taking away the future of the world, whether good or bad, it’s a place to organize and fight for what you want.
In The Master Switch, Tim Wu tells a cautionary tale about our technological future. Through keen insight, Wu hypothesizes what’s to come in terms of corporate America and governmental policy, which deals primarily with multi-person communication. From exemplifying the viewpoint of the Mega Corporation, Wu explains how this can lead to the downfall of our fundamental rights as citizens of the United States, rights that include freedom of speech and freedom of press. Wu then presents the idea of control over intellectual property and the rights to distribute such property. In contrast William Gibson focuses on the physical control technology has over the characters in his novel Neuromancer. He shows us how technology can consume Case’s and Molly’s lives, not only in the social arena by ways of communication, but also with the very essence of being human, by altering their personalities. Both authors prove how through this technological progress, we develop a dependency on the Internet. For Wu this dependency is evident in changes of societal norms and practices while Gibson on the other hand goes one step further by claiming that these innovations will alter our actual physical being. While both arguments have merit, Wu’s claims seem to be more plausible and reflective of where the American corporation is today.
Wu explores in how dependent a majority of Americans have become on the Internet and other forms of communication technology. Look to the University of Richmond campus; you see this reliance on our smart phones and Internet connection everywhere, from the hourly updates students submit to their Facebook profiles to the prevalence of telecommunication devices seen in every corner of campus. I have even been witness to my friends exclaiming with extreme exaggeration “I would never be able to live with out my cell phone.” Through Wu’s writing he analyzes this dependence amongst the youth of America, but also the dependence that is running rampant in the upper middle class and the corporate world. Wu hypothesizes the detrimental effect this severe dependence could have on a community if these mega corporations, such as AT&T or Apple, were to get control of this medium. “This time is different: with everything on one network, the potential power to control is so much greater.” (Wu 318) From this quote we see a wary prediction that once a corporation gains control of the Internet, if used to the company’s advantage and not for the betterment of the country could present an be inconceivable dominant power.
The future that Wu predicts is already commonplace through out much of corporate America. Wu touches on the fear that once a company gains control of the airwaves then the corporation would then use this power towards their own personal gain. Wu also brings to our attention that fact that “they have to be inclined to invest time and money.” (Wu 221) Why be inclined to make improvements in the communications field if not for money? A company has to have some incentive; none of these corporations would survive unless they were turning a profit. However the way that many achieve this is to control the access to information. Apple exemplifies the idea of access control. Looking towards many of Apples products today you can see the changes, from an open and sharing medium to a closed source with a lack of originality. Apple discourages home tinkers and in general dissuades its clients from improving their apple made electronics without Apple-licensed applications. Apple has even gone so far as to block flash player, a way to view animations and movies, from iphones and ipads, making the consumer unable to access any application using this technology. This restriction, is for the most part because Flash was being developed by a rival competitor. This is taking away our essential rights as citizens of a country to access the information which we deem necessary. We have freedom of speech but then the question that arises is what if we can’t publish what we choose because it’s upsetting to a nation-wide corporation, is that in turn taking away from our freedom of speech? We see through the entertainment industry through out Wu’s writing how paramount attempted to promote only those companies associated with them in effect limiting our freedom of press. Does Apple have this right to choose what we can or cannot have access to based purely on their profit margins and whom they feel is their biggest rival of the day?
Another source which is beginning to take advantage of the power of the Internet are governments around the world. For the most part the U.S has little barriers via the Internet but countries such as China will go to extreme lengths to ensure that their citizens have limited access to this vast wealth of knowledge. While China doesn’t have a constitution as formal as the U.S, doesn’t everyone have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of press? If China is already taking these rights away and putting restrictions on what’s acceptable to post via the Internet then where do we draw the line? If Wu’s predictions are enacted then the power to the biggest information highway we have ever seen is in the hands of these complex governments and if they so desire they have the ability to shut this source down. Wu explains how through this new medium, the Internet, embodies all our communication technologies combined. “The Internet by 2010 had become a fledgling universal network for all types of data: phone calls, video and television, data, a potential replacement for every single information industry of the twentieth century” (Wu 256). This process of combining all of information technology can on one hand be extremely convenient but on the other hand it can be a dangerous amount of centralized power. In the short story “When Sysadimns Ruled the Earth” By Cory Doctorow we see this future enacted. It’s a fictional representation of what will happen if we place too much power in the hands of one medium, the Internet. In Doctorow’s work he explains, “We are in charge of the most important organizational and governmental tool the world has ever seen.” (Doctorow 22) From this recognition we see, if not used for the purpose of bettering society and improving communication barriers, just how detrimental the Internet can be.
In contrast to the future Wu envisions in The Master Switch, Gibson shows a different side to the development of information technologies. Wu deals mainly with the external rights that our dependency to electronics and the Internet has had on business practices and as mentioned above, our access to information. Gibson shows us through his protagonist Case how physically we are all dependent on a constant information source. When, early in the novel, Case looses his connection to cyberspace we see this is the worse fate he could imagine. “For Case, who lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, it was the fall…The body was meat.” (Gibson 6) Gibson lets us explore a future where our physical selves are impacted and altered in order to connect to cyberspace. In contrast to The Master Switch, where we see societal and legal rights being stripped from citizens, in Neuromancer their fundamental rights as human beings are being altered, the right to your own body.
Where we are at in the development of technology and with corporation practices in general, we can see Wu’s future beginning to form around us already. However Gibson shows a gut wrenching view of what may be to come in the far off future. For where most of the American public is at, Gibson's is a much too invasive future. The main contrast between these two claims is the idea of choice. When you alter you body, as seen in Neuromancer, you don’t have the option to reverse that decision and connect to cyberspace through some other portal; however Wu shows us that everyone has the opportunity to not purchase the iphone and then in turn to switch cell phones to ensure you receive the use of that flash player. Students on UR's campus boast their dependence on cell phones; however, most would find the idea of physically altering their bodies and essentially their personality to connect to the Internet an impractical and irrational thought. I feel that while censorship is not ideal and not wanted in any way, its more acceptable for a majority of American citizens. This might be the scariest thought yet, because if it is already accepted in communities such as college campuses, then it is less noticeable for many when more and more of our rights are taken away. We very well may wake up one day and find we have entered Wu’s world surrounded by blocks and restrictions and our lives embodied entirely by the Internet.
Work Cited:
Wu, Tim. The Master Switch: the Rise and Fall of Information Empires. London: Atlantic, 2010. Print.
Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 2004. Print.
Doctorow, Cory. "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth." Science Fiction Storys Aug. 2006. Online. Web. 8 Feb. 2011. <http://baens-universe.com/articles/when_sysadmins_ruled_the_earth>.
