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New Media & Digital Culture - Coggle Diagram
New Media & Digital Culture
History of the Smartphone
Alan Lightman states that much of our contact with the world today is not an immediate, direct experience, but is instead medicated by various artificial devices such as televisions, cell phones, iPads, chat rooms, and mind-altering drugs.
Carr believes that our technologies can be divided into four categories: 1) physical strength, 2) range or sensitivity of our senses, 3) reshape nature to better serve our needs or desires, and 4) intellectual technologies.
Google-Knowing--knowledge acquired online.
Michael Patrick Lynch states that the Internet is the fountain of knowledge and Google is the mouth from which it flows.
Lightman also states that it is an irony that the same science and technology that have brought us closer to nature by revealing these invisible worlds have also separated us from nature and from ourselves.
The technological progress, seen as an autonomous force outside man's control, has been the primary factor influencing the course of human history.
Human beings put all their attention into a disembodied voice coming from a small box instead of focusing on the scene in front of them.
Every technology is an expression of human will.
Introduction of New Media
Marshall McLuhan spent most of his career time understanding the effects of technology as it related to popular culture, and how this in turn affected human begins and their relations with one another in communities.
New Media is a 21st century catchall term used to define all that is related to the Internet and the interplay between technology, images and sound.
The term "new media" seems to escape its very definition. Loosely, new media is a way of organizing a cloud of technology, skills, and processes that change so quickly that it is impossible to fully define just what those tools and processes are.
Technological Determinism seeks to show technical developments, media, or technology as a whole, as the key mover in history and social change.
The term technological determinism is believed to have originated from Thorstein Veblem (1857-1929) an American sociologist and economist. Technological Determinism is a reductionist theory that assumes that a society's technology determines the development of its social structure and cultural values.
Social Shaping of Technology is the counterargument to Technological Determinism. SST is a theory that believes that society and technology work together with society influencing the technology made.
Marshall McLuhan, the man who coined the term "global village" and the phrase "the medium is the message".
Marshall McLuhan believed that human beings extend themselves. He referred to extension when an individual or society makes or uses something in a way that extends the range of the human body and mind in a fashion that is new.
Film Theory & Criticisms
Four Levels of Meaning
Explicit: Moral of the story. Obvious events/actions in the film.
Implicit: Less obvious. An inference into the growth, change of characters in the film.
Referential: Most basic analysis. Describes things that happen in the plot.
Symptomatic: Complete interpretation about the broader context in society. Relates film to prevalent themes in culture.
Film Criticisms
The Formalist Approach examines the narrative structure and form of the film (characters, plot, development, mise-en-scene). Discusses the effects of techniques (camera angle, cinematography, editing, sound) on the viewer.
The Realist Approach examines how a film represents reality. Discusses cinematic techniques and how they represent the reality the filmmaker wants the audience to experience (insanity, love, panic, etc.).
The Contextualist Approach considers the film as part of a broader context. The particular time, place in society that influenced this film. Includes sub-criticisms such as Feminist, Marxist, or Dualist.
Marvel App Project
The new media project asks students to design a mobile app that will benefit the CCU student population. The purpose of the app was to identify a problem and then be able to come up with a solution to the problem by creating an app.
For the Marvel App Project, I created an app called "CCU Friends". "CCU Friends" allowed for CCU students to locate and communicate with other CCU students. It is an easy way to get more involved with the community and allow students to reach out and meet new people.
Going Dark
As frequently as we drift into our own thoughts, a new study suggests that many of us don't like it. It is proven that some people would even shock themselves over being left alone with their own minds.
All participants previously stated that they would pay money to avoid being shocked with electricity. However, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to inflict it on themselves rather than sit there quietly and think.
We rely on our phones to keep us entertained and help fill the void of “being bored”.
Sandy believes in order to not using our phones for boredom, people should step out of their comfortable zone and stepping away from the Internet once in a while because it will allow us to discover more about ourselves that we did not realize or know before.
Max Stossel believes that technology needs to be more useful and informational. Stossel states that the way people use technology in today’s world is extremely negative when there could be beneficial ways, technology needs to be different in the future. Stossel wants people to understand that the future is not all screens, it's humanity enhanced.
Her: Film Analysis
As I analyzed the film,
Her
, I used the formalist approach. One of the things I mentioned in my analyzed is the growth/change of the character Theodore. In the beginning of the film, Theodore was very heartbroken and stopped going out, however later in the film Theodore falls in love again. That love brings him happiness and also made him want to go out and explore the world more.
The purpose of the film analysis was to allow students to provide insightful criticism and analysis of the film using terms and techniques we learned in class.
Technology Mindfulness Project
In order for students to monitor their smartphone usage, students were given the option to use the app called Moment or something similar if they did not have an iPhone. This app allowed for us to collect data such as our screen time, number of times we pick up our phones, and how much time we've spent on an app.
The purpose of the Technology Mindfulness Project is to increase students awareness of our personal dependence on our smartphones and possibly spark a change for better device usage. During the project students to use the website Medium, where we were required to blog entries each week that reflected on our smartphone usage and provided reasoning behind the smartphone usage data.
The Technology Mindfulness Project was extremely beneficial and turned out to be an eye opener for us. It allowed me to see how dependent I am on my phone. Due to this project I am more aware of things I never would have paid attention to and helped me realize that I need to start making changes to better my device usage.
Digital Socialites
The social debate centers on the effects of mobile technology and social media, online and off. As well as debating if technology is making people less sociable.
Keith Hampton believes that relationships are being enhanced, not replaced. He states that in his studies with his students and collaborators, Internet and cellphone users, and especially the ones who use social media, tend to have a more diverse and a larger number of close relationships. Communication technologies have made many of our relationships more persistent and pervasive.
Larry Rosen, a research psychologist, has studied the impact of technology for 30 years. During those 30 years, three major game changers have entered the world: portable computers, social communication and smartphones. He believes connecting virtually is not like real world bonding. The time and effort we are putting into our virtual worlds is taking time and effort we put into connecting and communicating deeper in our real world.
Outsourcing Memory
These days, critics of digital reading worry that serious literature sort of can't be adequately read on high-tech devices.
Clive Thomspon stated that Baron found that 85% of young people reported multitasking while reading on a digital device.
Naomi Baron has performed her own experience, she surveyed the research and concluded that digital screens are pretty lousy environments for deep, immersive reading.
In Rumsey's article "Mastering Memory", she asked the question "how do we master memory in the digital age of abundance?" She continues on by saying it will start with retooling literacy for the digital age and updating public policies to ensure investment in long-term institutions capable of securing memory into the future.
Rumsey believes what is important in the digital age, as it has been for the print era, is that we maintain an equilibrium between managing our personal memory and assuming responsibility for collective memory. In today's world that means building libraries and archives online that are free and open to the public to complement those that are on the ground.
The Internet Debate
William Poundstone believes the Internet isn't making us dumber. It's making us more "Meta-Ignorant"-- less cognizant of what we don't know. According to Poundstone, ignorance is playing a bigger role than the Internet. Poundstone believes we are not paying enough attention to things that are actually important and that today's media is not providing much guidance.
Nicholas Carr believes that the Internet is making us dumber. According to Carr, the longer we spend our time on the Internet, the more risk we are at of losing our mental discipline. When we are constantly distracted and interrupted, our brains are unable to forge the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our thinking. Only when we pay deep attention to a new piece of information are we able to associate it "meaningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory".
Clay Shirky believes that the Internet is making us smarter. The resources we have had throughout life has evolved into being digital which allows the access for it to be easier for those seeking such information. Shirky states that now it's our turn to figure out what response we need to shape our use of digital tools.