Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Pre-Post for 10/14
Mark Poster’s “Postmodern Virtualities” really intrigued me. He pays special attention to the development of communication through internet and how it affects society. I was especially interested because I am not a person obsessed with technological advances like most people are. When we discussed in class the notion of the “bigger, better, faster” and used the cell phone example I was put off. I am horrible with technological things, I can’t even get a DVD player to work, I know for the 21st century it is pathetic. Like Poster who is concerned with what technology advances will do and do do to society I am also concerned. I agree with Poster in the sense that I believe some sort of government should be in place to regulate the freedom of the internet and the aftereffects. It really worries me about what could potentially happen. In my opinion the internet is just as powerful a weapon as any of the other well known ones. Even now, people use the internet for things such as harassment and stalking and hurt the people they are targeting. Internet laws are hardly present within our Nation at this point. Even if someone drives someone else to suicide through the internet and it is proven, the person who does the taunting is not responsible for murder. In addition to the power of the internet as far as harmful ways I also feel like the internet as means of communication is much less personal than actually communicating face to face. For some people who used to communicate face to face now only communicate via internet. What happened to catching up over coffee and Sunday dinners with friends? I think a lot of this change in the way we communicate or rather lack of communication is due to the internet. In addition to being harmful it also obviously useful, but it still should be regulated by the government.
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Mark Poster’s “Postmodern Virtualities” had similar effects on me. I agree that the government should regulate what occurs over the internet. These days, people have no reservation with what they put on the internet. Facebook is a prime example showing that people do not care what is posted on the internet when it comes to pictures, links, and what is being said. I have been told that employers now look on the internet to see what has been posted about potential employees. They use this as a tool of determining whether or not the potential employee should be hired. I try to be careful about what I post about myself but what concerns me even more is the fact that others can freely post pictures of me and I cannot delete them since I am not the one who posted them. As a generation, we are losing control and privacy as technology advances. People constantly post and check what is posted about them on Facebook and search others to find out more about them. I agree that this relates to the notion of bigger, better, faster which also relates to the idea of hyperstimulated sensitivity that the theorist Habermas discusses. Everyone wants to stay connected and in doing so post more information on themselves and post on what other people are saying about themselves. I can see someone’s status and know how they are feeling today. I no longer have to call them or see them in person to do so. There is far too much freedom on the internet. We are now participants in culture through media which has become more of a challenge than a positive change of communication. Technology has been moving forward so fast that it has disregarded the negative consequences and importance of restraint. In relation to Poster’s views, Facebook is only one of the many examples of our new participatory culture and how it helping to create and stabilize this Postmodernist Era.
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