In the third episode of the British TV show Black Mirrors, the director brings us to an early future scenario. In this environment technology has a really important role in people's life. A chip called "grain" is installed in their skin and allows them to reproduce past memories at any desired time with the simple click of a button. In this episode, the main character, Liam, leaves a interview from a possible future job and he is not happy about how it went. During the ride back, he decides to go over his interview and analyze every single aspect of it. Once he arrives to his destination, he joins dinner with his wife and a couple of friends at a friend's house.In order to remember some of the names of the people at the house, he decides to go over his memories with them to learn their names. Once he arrives he tells his wife and the people at dinner that his meeting didn't go as well as he though. People ask him to reproduce his memory on the big screen so they can talk about it and exchange perspectives, he refuses to do it because he doesn't want them to see it. During dinner, a discussion about the chip is brought up. Everyone around the table has one except a girl who decided to take it off her skin. Most people agreed that the "grain" is a great advantage and it is really helpful; but, this one girl argues that she would rather have her own memories in her head, than rely in that chip to reproduce them. During the rest of the TV show, Liam uses the chip to try to learn more about his wife's relationship with one of the people that were at the house. After going thru memories and memories of him, his wife, and the other guy ( by forcing them to show him the memories), he finds out that his wife has been cheating on him during their marriage, and that the kid they had together wasn't actually his. The episode ends with Liam deciding to eliminate the chip out of his body forever.
This episode brought us to a fiction world not too far away from the reality that we live nowadays. Technology has become such an important part of our lives that, to a certain point, it is taking full control over us.
As Liam and the rest of the characters experienced during the episode, their lives were exposed to the rest of the world taking away from them any type of privacy or intimacy desired. Because the "grain" was attached to their lives, they were fully dependent on it for whatever they wanted to do. Memory wasn't an important skill anymore. Cheating or lying wasn't an option because everyone would be able to find out the truth at some point. Memories would be recorded forever and it was up to the character to reproduce them or not. This situations are still far from what we see in our day a day lives; but, there are also a lot of common points and similarities between both situations. Nowadays technologies and apps like text messages or Facebook bring us to the same spectrum as the chip does with the characters of the episode. Text messages controls our communication in so many different levels, giving us the option to save and replicate messages for as much time as we want. They also make our memory useless in some case because with text messages you have now the capacity to retain information that doesn't need to be in your head anymore. Finally, apps like Facebook have the same impact in our lives. A timeline of pictures, posts, and events is saved there for the rest of our lives. Privacy and intimacy become useless because of the social and cultural impact of Facebook, people can know what we are doing or what are we up to at any given time. In other words, technology has always been an important part of our lives; but, in the past years, the situation has become extreme. We are at a point in our lives that technology has taken power over us and over some of our skills that distinguish us as humans, skills like memory or privacy. If this situation keeps getting worse and worse, in a couple of years we also will be talking about "grains" and repruction of our memories.
domingo, 25 de septiembre de 2016
miércoles, 21 de septiembre de 2016
Nancy Baym: "Making new media make sense"
The second chapter of the book "Personal Connections in the Digital Age" has as a main topic new media and the impact it has in our lives. Nancy Baym drives to the conclusion that new media has such an impact in our lives that it is starting to take control over us, mainly because we don't know how to properly use it. The author of the book talks about this technology from a social point of view, trying to understand what it brings to our society from a cultural and historical perspective. Also, she makes reference to how new technologies, new media, affect us in a personal way. Finally, she states, indirectly, that these new technologies are replacing what we know as personal relationships, or face-to face as she refers to, instead of being an addition to it.
From a personal point of view, I fully agree with Nancy Baym and her perspective on new technologies and how they affect us on our day a day basis. New media is making us more independent from each other, separating us from the rest of the world, especially with people that we used to spend most of the time with.
In order to back up this statement I want to use examples text messages and Snapchat. First, text messages have grown to limits that might seem impossible in the last couple of years. Nowadays, text messages are such an important level in our lives that we wouldn't be able to survive without them. Text messages aren't only good to communicate daily messages and share information, they are also really important nowadays in order to communicate important information. In other words, information that a decade ago would only be given face-to-face. For example,being in the same building and asking someone what their plans and if he wants to hang out, nowadays you can do it with a simple click on your phone. Text messages have changed our lives, making it much easier in some ways, but also converting us in 'machines' that we weren't suppose to be. On the other side, Snapchat has also changed us in a drastic way. People are nowadays more focus on showing themselves to other people, than actually focus on their actions and activities. What in the past would be a great moment hanging out with friends and having a good time, nowadays is a perfect scenario to be on our phones taking pictures of a moment that could be but never will be because of our addiction to our gadgets.
miércoles, 14 de septiembre de 2016
The Victorian Internet
During chapters 8 and 9 of the book The Victorian Internet the author talks broadly about the telegraph and specifically about some stories or anecdotes related to it. In chapter 8, the author focuses on the story of love and telegraph. While most times we hear that telegraph was used mostly for spies and war, love was also an important and interesting piece of it. The author talks about two specific stories related to love and telegraph. The first story talks about how the telegraph, and the operators, were witnesses and fully participants of a wedding happening between a girl in New York and guy in Boston via telegraph. The other story, showing the down side of it, talks about telegraph stations built in the middle of the frontier between Scotland and England, preventing, unintentionally, runaway couples for marry because of the marriage of declaration differences between both countries. During this chapter the author also makes references to the telegraph operators and how important they were in making this revolution possible. There were, as in any other job, different levels of operators. The really good ones, called "bonus men", would be in main telegraph offices receiving and sending an incredible amount of messages per day. Other operators, with less skills, would be established in rural areas with few or none messages per day. Women were also an important part of telegraph operators. They were known as "admirable manipulators of instruments," and their skills and soft hands were really useful in the offices. The author also refers to Thomas Edison as the fastest operator and a person who always would be trying to find ways to make communication faster. In chapter 9, the author focuses more on how telegraph make people's life easier and was an improvement to what people had seen until that date. Before telegraph, there were a lot of problems in communication. As an example, newspapers could only report local news, and international news would only be reported weeks or months later because of how slow communication was. Telegraph changed life for communication, news, sales, wars... And people were now forced to instant reaction.
As we can see in the book The Victorian Internet, telegraph had a drastic impact in our life. Telegraph was the concept, the word that was used to talk about this revolution; but, the real machines, what made this revolution possible, were the operators. We, humans, were the machines; and, to a certain point, still are nowadays. We are the machines who make improvements in technology possible.
In other words, the telegraph was an invention designed and created by us, as we do nowadays with new Iphones, Laptops, Tablets.... So, aren't we the machines then? we create them and we make the possibility of faster communication become a reality. Our DNA are in those machines, we are the parents of technology. In the case of telegraph, this definition is even more obvious. Telegraphs are just the device in which you send a combination of 'beeps', a code, which doesn't make any sense in our heads. That combination of beeps is sent to to the telegraph operators, the real medium, who transform those beeps into an understandable human message, which is sent to us again later. We are the medium, we are the operators of the telegraph who make possible the communication between point A and point B. I like how the author of this books spends a good amount of her time talking about the operators and what they used to do in their day a day, their routine, and what the differences where between the good and the bad operators. By reading this chapters I understood that the author of the book also thought that the key to the success of the telegraph wasn't the device itself, but the people behind it making sure the message was transformed and delivered.
As we can see in the book The Victorian Internet, telegraph had a drastic impact in our life. Telegraph was the concept, the word that was used to talk about this revolution; but, the real machines, what made this revolution possible, were the operators. We, humans, were the machines; and, to a certain point, still are nowadays. We are the machines who make improvements in technology possible.
In other words, the telegraph was an invention designed and created by us, as we do nowadays with new Iphones, Laptops, Tablets.... So, aren't we the machines then? we create them and we make the possibility of faster communication become a reality. Our DNA are in those machines, we are the parents of technology. In the case of telegraph, this definition is even more obvious. Telegraphs are just the device in which you send a combination of 'beeps', a code, which doesn't make any sense in our heads. That combination of beeps is sent to to the telegraph operators, the real medium, who transform those beeps into an understandable human message, which is sent to us again later. We are the medium, we are the operators of the telegraph who make possible the communication between point A and point B. I like how the author of this books spends a good amount of her time talking about the operators and what they used to do in their day a day, their routine, and what the differences where between the good and the bad operators. By reading this chapters I understood that the author of the book also thought that the key to the success of the telegraph wasn't the device itself, but the people behind it making sure the message was transformed and delivered.
sábado, 10 de septiembre de 2016
Personal Connections in the Digital Age
Nacy K. Baym is the author of the book Personal Connections in the Digital Age. In the first chapter of this book, the author talks about social media and how nowadays there are more ways to interact with people than ever. Baym strongly thinks that people react in two different ways to new media. Some people see new media as a new opportunity to interact and connect with people, and also a way to build new relations. On the other side, other people see new technology as a threat to their privacy and freedom, seeing it as something not helpful at all. Baym states that new technologies give us the opportunity to interact with people without having to be there in person, something that would be impossible to think about a couple of decades ago. This situation creates a lot of questions and problems. As an example, Baym talks about a couple eating dinner in which one of the people of the couple is constantly on his/her phone. She/He is still there physically, but where is she/he actually mentally? The author also makes references to the privacy and freedom that we loose by using most of the media we use nowadays. Finally, she states that there are seven key concepts to differentiate digital media and how each should be used. This seven concepts are: interactivity, temporal structure, social cues, storage, replicability, size of audience or reach, and mobility. In order to help understanding this seven concepts in a better way, the author uses the internet and mobile phone as examples.
At the end of the chapter Baym asks the readers a question, which later she will also try to answer: who uses social media? The answer, from my point of view, is everyone. Everyone nowadays is aware of social media and uses it to a certain extension.
In order to back up this statement I can use examples by generations. It is obvious that the new generation, up to 25, uses social media almost every day, seven days a week. Technology and social media are involved in our day a day life. Whether you are doing homework for class, seeking information, or as a form of entertainment in our free time. Adults are also nowadays used to social media. A new world of opportunities has been opened in the last decade in terms of work in social media. People now use social media to find jobs, hire new people, create and introduce new companies to the world. Adults are involved in social media to an extend that in some cases their lives are the way they are because of it. Finally, older people are nowadays also exposed to social media. In their case social media is new and something they haven't use since they were born, so their level of comfort or attachment to it is not as extensive as for other generations. Older people are using TV as a source of communication to be updated of what is going on in the world, which makes it a social media. Also, most people nowadays have a smartphone, no matter if they know or don't know how to use it. A mobile phone is a form of social media that allows us to communicate with other people instantaneously. Finally, email is also a tool that most people have, no matter the age. Although email doesn't allow an instantaneous communication , it connect us with other people and is considered a form of social media.
At the end of the chapter Baym asks the readers a question, which later she will also try to answer: who uses social media? The answer, from my point of view, is everyone. Everyone nowadays is aware of social media and uses it to a certain extension.
In order to back up this statement I can use examples by generations. It is obvious that the new generation, up to 25, uses social media almost every day, seven days a week. Technology and social media are involved in our day a day life. Whether you are doing homework for class, seeking information, or as a form of entertainment in our free time. Adults are also nowadays used to social media. A new world of opportunities has been opened in the last decade in terms of work in social media. People now use social media to find jobs, hire new people, create and introduce new companies to the world. Adults are involved in social media to an extend that in some cases their lives are the way they are because of it. Finally, older people are nowadays also exposed to social media. In their case social media is new and something they haven't use since they were born, so their level of comfort or attachment to it is not as extensive as for other generations. Older people are using TV as a source of communication to be updated of what is going on in the world, which makes it a social media. Also, most people nowadays have a smartphone, no matter if they know or don't know how to use it. A mobile phone is a form of social media that allows us to communicate with other people instantaneously. Finally, email is also a tool that most people have, no matter the age. Although email doesn't allow an instantaneous communication , it connect us with other people and is considered a form of social media.
miércoles, 7 de septiembre de 2016
The Question Concerning Technology
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger is the author of the article The Question Concerning Technology. In this article he talks about human beings and the relation they have with technology, he is also concerned about what type of behaviors technology causes on us. With technology as the main point of the article, he proclaims two definitions of the word at the beginning of it. He argues that "technology is a mean to an end," and also that it is considered a human activity. Heidegger promotes that this two definitions are attached to each other.
In my opinion, this two definitions explain really well the attitude that Heidegger has towards technology. By saying that technology is a mean to an end I think he tries to emphasize the fact that we are always trying to go further and further with technology, exploring things that were impossible to even think about a decade ago, trying to reach a limit that also keeps getting further because of the unlimited opportunities we have. It is an end that we are trying to reach by creating all this technologies, but that we will never be able to accomplish. This definition makes even more sense when it is combined with the other one: technology is a human activity. We create technology and work to improve it. It is attached to us because it has our DNA, is part of us, we are the 'parents' of technology. These two definitions also go along with the point he makes about he being worried about us going too far with it and how that can end up affecting us to a point we loose control over it.
Finally, in order to explain in a better way what Heidegger is trying to display in his article, we can use cars and Facebook as examples of technologies. Cars could be considered a positive example of what Heidegger is trying to say because they are helping us connect with other people easier and faster. We are trying to go beyond the limits trying to reach perfection that would make them and us safer. On the other side, a negative example could be Facebook, which started with the same purpose as cars, trying to connect people faster; but, little by little, has been taking control over our life (and still does) making us more insecure and taking privacy away from us.
In my opinion, this two definitions explain really well the attitude that Heidegger has towards technology. By saying that technology is a mean to an end I think he tries to emphasize the fact that we are always trying to go further and further with technology, exploring things that were impossible to even think about a decade ago, trying to reach a limit that also keeps getting further because of the unlimited opportunities we have. It is an end that we are trying to reach by creating all this technologies, but that we will never be able to accomplish. This definition makes even more sense when it is combined with the other one: technology is a human activity. We create technology and work to improve it. It is attached to us because it has our DNA, is part of us, we are the 'parents' of technology. These two definitions also go along with the point he makes about he being worried about us going too far with it and how that can end up affecting us to a point we loose control over it.
Finally, in order to explain in a better way what Heidegger is trying to display in his article, we can use cars and Facebook as examples of technologies. Cars could be considered a positive example of what Heidegger is trying to say because they are helping us connect with other people easier and faster. We are trying to go beyond the limits trying to reach perfection that would make them and us safer. On the other side, a negative example could be Facebook, which started with the same purpose as cars, trying to connect people faster; but, little by little, has been taking control over our life (and still does) making us more insecure and taking privacy away from us.
lunes, 5 de septiembre de 2016
Black Mirrors
Black Mirrors is a British TV show focused on a science-fiction argument. The show is directed by Charlie Brooker and was created in 2011. Each episode has a length of 40 to 70 minutes. This TV Show is a great representation of the power of media in our day a day life. Technology and media are what drive this show and makes it different from many others.
During the 1st episode of the season, a group of 'terrorists' kidnap the princess of England and send YouTube video directed to the Prime Minister in which the princess explains what he has to do in order to break her free. The task for the Prime Minister is to have live sex with a pig on TV. The situation just described already shows us how media interferes in our life and how much the society has changed over the years. Terrorists now send videos via public networks so everyone can see them and feel insecure; also, people now look forward to public humiliation of other people. The video goes viral within the first minutes of being posted on YouTube, allowing people to copy it or download it; making the government's attempt to delete it impossible. Again, we have an example of how media impacts people's life, taken control over their life. The video got viral in a time lapse of 10 minutes, which also explains how impossible is to delete something from the media once it is already there. After the video gets viral, TV channels are trying to be the first ones to publish the video on the News; while the government is trying to stop them from doing that. This is a great example of competition between channels and the manipulation that sometimes can be shown in the media, in this case the government trying to protect the Prime Minister image while the entire population was wondering why the TV Channels weren't talking about it. The video at this point is posted in every media, which also creates a lot of different reactions, comments, and opinions among people. This situation affects the Prime Minister and his family, being exposed to any type of comments. Finally,, technology also affects the back up plan of the government if they are not able to find the princess before the video has to be send. Their back up plan is to create a fake video while using Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other type of program made to manipulate images. This back up plan would be a big relief for the Prime Minister, who wouldn't have to actually do the task he was asked to do.
It is really difficult to know what the actors could have done differently in order change the outcome of the show. To be honest, the situation is already difficult enough by itself to be able to radically change its outcome. One of the things that they could have done differently would be to try to delete the video from YouTube earlier. The problem of the situation starts with the fact the video is going viral. In order to stop that they should have deleted that video sooner than they did. Other way to change the outcome would be to convince the TV channels not to use the video in the news until they are able to gather more information and try to find the terrorists without having to also deal with media, society... One last thing characters could have done differently is to try to use media as a tool to find the terrorists. Media connects everyone of us to each other and by using media we can't hide from the world. There are many ways to track down someone because of his or her use of media. I think they could have done a much better job by using media as a tool.
Finally, this TV show brings us a really dystopian world and society. In an utopian society the princess wouldn't be kidnapped and the terrorists wouldn't use media as a tool to humiliate the Prime Minister. Also, citizens of England wouldn't have made that video viral so the government could have more time to just worry about finding the terrorists instead of also worrying about dealing with the media and the society. After all, society has the tools to make something a big deal or not. In an utopian perspective, every citizen would understand that and wouldn't help the terrorists by making that video be everywhere in the world.
During the 1st episode of the season, a group of 'terrorists' kidnap the princess of England and send YouTube video directed to the Prime Minister in which the princess explains what he has to do in order to break her free. The task for the Prime Minister is to have live sex with a pig on TV. The situation just described already shows us how media interferes in our life and how much the society has changed over the years. Terrorists now send videos via public networks so everyone can see them and feel insecure; also, people now look forward to public humiliation of other people. The video goes viral within the first minutes of being posted on YouTube, allowing people to copy it or download it; making the government's attempt to delete it impossible. Again, we have an example of how media impacts people's life, taken control over their life. The video got viral in a time lapse of 10 minutes, which also explains how impossible is to delete something from the media once it is already there. After the video gets viral, TV channels are trying to be the first ones to publish the video on the News; while the government is trying to stop them from doing that. This is a great example of competition between channels and the manipulation that sometimes can be shown in the media, in this case the government trying to protect the Prime Minister image while the entire population was wondering why the TV Channels weren't talking about it. The video at this point is posted in every media, which also creates a lot of different reactions, comments, and opinions among people. This situation affects the Prime Minister and his family, being exposed to any type of comments. Finally,, technology also affects the back up plan of the government if they are not able to find the princess before the video has to be send. Their back up plan is to create a fake video while using Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other type of program made to manipulate images. This back up plan would be a big relief for the Prime Minister, who wouldn't have to actually do the task he was asked to do.
It is really difficult to know what the actors could have done differently in order change the outcome of the show. To be honest, the situation is already difficult enough by itself to be able to radically change its outcome. One of the things that they could have done differently would be to try to delete the video from YouTube earlier. The problem of the situation starts with the fact the video is going viral. In order to stop that they should have deleted that video sooner than they did. Other way to change the outcome would be to convince the TV channels not to use the video in the news until they are able to gather more information and try to find the terrorists without having to also deal with media, society... One last thing characters could have done differently is to try to use media as a tool to find the terrorists. Media connects everyone of us to each other and by using media we can't hide from the world. There are many ways to track down someone because of his or her use of media. I think they could have done a much better job by using media as a tool.
Finally, this TV show brings us a really dystopian world and society. In an utopian society the princess wouldn't be kidnapped and the terrorists wouldn't use media as a tool to humiliate the Prime Minister. Also, citizens of England wouldn't have made that video viral so the government could have more time to just worry about finding the terrorists instead of also worrying about dealing with the media and the society. After all, society has the tools to make something a big deal or not. In an utopian perspective, every citizen would understand that and wouldn't help the terrorists by making that video be everywhere in the world.
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