In modern society with what feels like limitless
technology and ways of communicating with almost whoever you wish, we have as a
society began to rely on technology to perform daily tasks, and interact with
people. Just as it was stated in the lecture, when we are online we become the
machine version of our real self, like a cyborg. This is a very relevant point
purely because it is so true, and almost scary in a way. When I reflect on my
own use of technology I am uncomfortable with the amount that I use it, and how
often I pointlessly browse Facebook and Instagram without even thinking. When I
myself use Facebook I realize that I literally only use it to watch strange
videos and pointlessly browse. I feel as though I am none the wiser, in the
sense that I do not even realize what I am doing, and this is troubling.
Another thing that troubles me is the new post human way
that we interact with one another in an online environment. One quote out of
the reading that really spoke to me was “millions of individuals on a daily
basis now produce online selves in interaction with both other people and
software applications” (McNeill, 2012) . This part of the
reading applies to so many people including myself. It is mind bottling to
think that we are all the same, we have our human self where we interact with
other people, and we have our online worlds where we talk to people we don’t
even know, and have interactions with software. Maybe we are all drones in a
society where we are ruled by technology, but for our generations sake I hope
it all changes.
Bibliography
McNeill, L. (2012). There is no "I" in
Network: Social Networking Sites and Posthuman Auto/Biography . Hawaii:
University of Hawai'i press.
I enjoyed the theme of perilous doom that was argued in your post. However, I feel your argument could have been better stated within the first paragraph, as it seems to be more apparent within the last few sentences of your post. I can agree with your statements that people have been sort of enslaved by technology, I witness it every day. Furthermore, you could have introduced the argument that that while the citizens of Earth have been recreated into 'cyborgs', you could also incorporate that norms are apparent on social networking sites which promotes the change of technology into being, if you get what I mean. As stated by Van Luyn (2015) and McNeill (2012), the virtual world and social networking sites create norms - much like prisons - which people need to abide by in order to survive the social space.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
McNeill, L. (2012). There Is No "I" in Network: Social Networking Sites and Posthuman Auto/Biography. Biography, 35(1), 65-82. doi:10.1353/bio.2012.0009
Van Luyn, A. (2015). Network Narratives: Intertextuality. Lecture, James Cook University.