Poster - Postmodern Virtualities

For tomorrow's class we were instructed to read both Poster's 'Postmodern Virtualities' and Jenkkins' 'Commentary Supplants'...I chose to post about Poster's work partly because I understood it more but also because I thought it can relate to a lot of the stuff we've read so far in the semester. From the very start of his essay I thought it was interesting how Poster wrote "New communications systems are often presented as a hopeful key to a better life and a more equitable society." This made me think of cell phone commercials and how they show happy, talkative, active families without the aftermath of the massive bills and other negative aspects of having a cell phone. Poster believes that what's in stake in these technical innovations, is a broad and extensive change in our culture and the structure of individual identities. I liked Poster's notion of the Communications "Superhighway" and their ability to transmit units of information (what speed, what distance, how many locations, etc). We take all the pieces of communication that we use in our everyday lives for granted, which Poster proves when he talks about how information used to be sent before the internet really 'boomed' (wiring photos, mail, telegram, cable).

Poster also used a term in his writing that I think sounded like a 'cmc key word': virtual reality (which kind of made me think about Jenks and all of his architectural phrases). The word 'Virtual' was used by computer jargons to refer to situations that were near substitutes (simulacra)...virtual reality is a dangerous term because it suggests that reality may be multiple or take many forms.

Lastly, I wanted to see if I understood Poster's notion of The Postmodern Subject:  I kind of got confused with this theory and thought that the subject was these new technologies that he had been discussing but now i'm thinking maybe our use of these methods of communication comes more into play here. I think Poster backs this up when he states, "The technical characteristics of the information surperhighway and virtual reality are clear enough to call attention to their potential for new cultural formations."If i'm not mistaken I'd say that Poster is in favor of the Public Interest policies that we're talking about in my economy of the media class which refer to the media and our use of new technologies in regards to actual markets. All in all, I probably need to make sure I have Poster's 5 main ideas: The Communications "Superhighway", Reality's Problematization, The Postmodern Subject, Narratives in Cyberspace and Multiculturalism and the Postmodern Media Age.

on my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this post.