If you were here on Friday (12/10), you'll probably remember that Mr. G showed us a comic strip with a stick figure who wishes for a human-sized hamster ball. And, if you can remember the first day of class, there was a "map" of the internet (http://xkcd.com/256/) on the board. Both of these are from a webcomic: xkcd. xkcd usually offers humorous (and nerdy) takes on situations that relate to our modern, technology-filled lives.
I found one that seemed good to share on this blog, entitled "Seismic Waves." (http://xkcd.com/723/)
While I agree that it is a bit extreme to make it more humorous, I think that the point it's trying to make is relevant. People become so involved with "living online" that it becomes a higher priority than focusing on what's happening in real life right now. Twitter and Facebook alter the meaning of "living" and how we're doing it. They're not necessarily terrible things, but they are undeniably changing the way people go about their lives.
Why else would the xkcd updated version (2010) of the map of online communities have an extremely large landmass labeled "Facebook"? The land areas were based on "volume of daily social activity" on the internet.
(This is better viewed in a larger size: http://xkcd.com/802_large/)
It's also difficult to ignore the fact that in the land of Facebook, there's a relatively large region separated and labeled "Farmville." I don't know if it's just me, but I think that craze seems to have died down a bit. However, it's still alarming to see that people spend so much time playing pointless (sorry any Farmville fans out there) games on their computers. As a society, it seems as if we've been gravitating towards the trivial, frequent status updates, tweets, pretend farming, etc. instead of real life. People get sucked in by the mechanics of Twitter and Facebook, posting to post (because that's what they're for, right?) instead of using them to augment and improve their real lives.
On a side note, since we're focusing on White Noise in class, and we're on "Waves and Radiation," it seems natural to point out the connection with "Seismic Waves." Other than the obvious reference to waves in the title, there are also the waves transmitted by the humans to communicate with each other. It's interesting to note that the human-made ones outstrip the natural, earth-made waves. Artificiality is clearly winning the battle and affecting the characters, probably less than they realize, if they realize at all, since they turn first to twitter when they feel the earthquake, suggesting that it's an integral part of "living" to them now.
This article was incredibly well written and the points in it are so crucial. I completely agree that artificiality has been and seems to be continuing to trump reality, both in the book and in real life. I do believe that the stance against games such as Farmville and other Facebook applications may have been a little too harsh. I believe that people just wanted to play the game because it seemed like fun, but there are always addicts that will turn a game into a priority. Whenever a new Halo, Call of Duty, or Grand Theft Auto game comes out there are many people who will chose it as a priority over school and other real life experiences. I believe that it has become easier to move towards the pointless and unnecessary with Facebook and Myspace and that people naturally want to explore the unimportant. This, I feel, is a fault of human nature, and not of technology. Still, the complete reliance on technology despite an emergency presents a very important matter and is one that is representative of our new society.
ReplyDeleteTwitter and facebook aren't really altering the meaning of living, they are changing the way people live. Everyone, facebook user or not, is living, but the people who understand facebook's limits are the ones who know the definition of living and intend to hold it up. The true definition of living must stick in our heads, as a guideline for ourselves. If the definition of of living is changing for avid facebook users, how can we communicate effectively as a society.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about artificiality taking over reminded me of a reason some people may be so dedicated to Twitter (or Facebook): following celebrities. Many stars of Hollywood have jumped on the social bandwagon and made profiles of their own. People love to be close to stardom. Now they can be just a computer screen away. Even though thousands of people are seeing the same brief message, it seems as if a connection is being made between an ordinary person and their idol. This celebrity aura is now further enhanced through the influence of technology.
ReplyDeleteI agree that people concentrate more on Facebook and Twitter than on their real lives. They don't live in the moment or appreciate what's going on around them. The comic mocks people who waste their lives in front of their computer or on their phone. Although the circumstances are a bit extreme, the point is that people are more consumed with their "online life" than with what is actually happening. Virtual reality is becoming more important than reality. The artificial worlds of Facebook and Twitter are replacing the real world we live in.
ReplyDeleteI think an interesting thing about "Waves and Radiation" is that waves and radiation are invisible and radiation breeds mutations, or change. We are constantly connected and whether we realize it or not this constant connection is affecting how we live.
ReplyDeleteI found the two maps of online communities to be both amusing and important to analyze. Looking at it from a distance, what comes to mind is that the online community really has become a world of its own. There are reference within that world that would make no sense at all when taken out of context. For instance, the word "Facebook" itself held no meaning years ago and is simply a word we have invented in order to discuss our online social networking. The creator of this map is making an obvious point that Facebook is taking over the online world, and in many ways our own world. Like the cartoon about the earthquake demonstrates, we are becoming more and more a part of the world shown on the map and less aware of the things that are actually going on around us. How long will it take until the things around us don't matter any more, and all that is important is how well our tomatos are growing on Farmville or how many comments we've gotten on a status?
ReplyDelete-- Nicole Schoenbrun
Before I (re)start this post, I would like to express my frustration with technology. As I was typing a response to this post that I was rather proud of, my screen froze. I pressed some keys, shook the mouse, looked at the clock to make sure that time hadn't frozen on me and then reluctantly pressed the power button. Technology is fallible.
ReplyDeleteI guess it was a good thing to acknowledge that, though, because the people (stick) depicted in the cartoon would probably freak out more if they couldn't connect to Twitter or to Facebook fearing that they might be out of the loop and miss some "vital" news or messing with their FarmVille. Technology truly has changed the way we go about our lives and many, our priorities have changed.
A recent article reported that when Bill Nye the Science Guy passed out during a lecture at USC, rather than coming to his aid, the students' first reaction was to take out their phones and within minutes, tweets about his fall hit the web. I was going to use that as my post at first, but further reports indicate that this was not the case and that the students thought that it was part of the act at first and were not quite sure how to react. It is, however, somewhat believable to me that this could happen, but how devastating would it be to see our society succumb to technology.
As for the map, I spent a good five minutes "exploring" its little intricacies and I must say that the tiny speck marked "Privacy Controls" in the Lava Pool, behind the Duckface Mountains in the land of Facebook really speaks volumes about technology. A part of our life (also known as personal life also known as private life) is dedicated to social networking, yet we have little privacy. If it were a really room, we'd all probably be claustrophobic by now and ask to kindly exit the premises. It has, indeed, become pretty artificial.
I found the comic extremely amusing, and it reminds me of a certain someone from our class. This relates to an article I saw over the summer where a couple of teenage girls became stuck under the sewer grate (I don't know how). They both had phones with them. If you were in this situation, who would you call? Your parents? 911? These girls chose to ask for help...on Facebook. They put up status updates such as "Help me, I'm stuck in the sewer". This is another example of how when something happens, our first course of action becomes letting others know through social networking.
ReplyDeleteSocial networking has done more than just affected our initial reactions: it has also affected the way our minds function. During the summer at art camp, I conducted an little survey with my friends. We went around the camp and asked any individual, "what's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words 'time killer'"? Sure enough, a majority of the campers we asked answered along the lines of Twitter, Facebook, AIM, Mafia Wars (a game on Facebook), etc. The most shocking this I received from this experience is the fact that even the ten year olds we asked answered with the name of some sort of social network site. It's just scary to see how much social networking has spread its influence to even kids who haven't gotten out of grade school.
ReplyDeleteWhile social networking has impeded on the way we communicate with one another, and it can be shown in a humorous light, I agree with the map in the way that social networking has only taken a small portion of communications. Sure kids spend way too much time on facebook, but they spend even more time on cellphones and actually talking. But why isn't the affect of cellphones on minds discussed? Because even though we don't like to admit it, technology is affecting our minds as well. Instead of talking of older technology, we automatically go to the newest thing. This relates to one of our various in-class discussions: the more aware you think you are of the affects of certain things, the less aware you actually are to its subliminal affects.
ReplyDelete