Subculture it!

 Technology has become a way for people to express themselves over the web and for a vast amount of people to hear about what others have. Since technology has increased so rapidly, subcultures have formed over the web. Subcultures are a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture they belong to. This can include hackers who steal credit cards online or people who make their own websites for people to communicate the so called “truth” about what they believe.

Blogs have become a culture of their own. People are able to discuss their lives and their views for anyone to see. Blogging has become a new type of writing in our generation that has never been experienced before.  Stories like The Diary of Anne Frank took years to be written let alone published. Now our personal diaries can be published online to be read by those who want to hear our personal everyday life stories. These blogs can change people's lives and we do not have to wait anymore for them to be published in a book.

Online webcams have also become popular in our generation. We are constantly using youtube or skype to view people's lives. This can include funny videos and even heartfelt videos. We can relate to these videos and have feelings for those in the videos even though we have never met the people viewed. We no longer need to wait for the scheduled programmed news to come on the television to find out what’s happening in the world.  It most likely will be posted via a video of some sort on the web seconds after it occurred. The other weekend my mom laughed and laughed about a talking dog video that was posted. Another video showed in class was of a boy confessing he was gay online. It received a lot of media attention and people began to support him.   We can support other people we have never met because the web allows this. Online video can elicit instant truth in the eyes of the beholder because there aren’t all the FCC regulations standing in the way

There are consequences though to all this online technology. Because we have become so evolved in technology, we now have hackers and cybercrime. Sexual predators are now seducing younger children over the internet through IMS. Hackers can now steal your identity because all of our information is available and always exit out of websites.  The internet has become dangerous in a way we are only beginning to really discover.  Just consider all the financial information, bank accounts and National Security documents that are on a website……

As I stated before, the web is a tool that can hurt us AND bring us together as we join online communities to support each other.  For example, as teen suicide has increased because of cyber bullying, other teens have been able to come together and combat these bullies over the web. The web will increasingly be used for the good and the bad because anyone and everyone have access and are allowed to use it. Regulation is impossible because it is so enormous and so instantaneous. The internet is unique in the fact that everyone has a say even those we believe shouldn't.

GAME IT UP!

One of the earliest examples of video games was produced in 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith. Since then video games have become part of the everyday digital culture. We are even able to go to a certain channel on our cable and play video games with a remote. Video games have evolved not only by their historical/ cultural development, but also their academic development.

The book Digital Culture explains many games and how they evolved over time. In 1958, Tennisfor Two came out and ran on a oscilloscope. Video games really came out when the cold war came about. Both parties of war decided to rely on technology for attack and defenses. Because of the competitions between America and Russia, games like Spacewar emerged in 1962.  This game used a micro computer. The object of the game was to shoot torpedoes at one another without hitting other space objects.

As more and more video games started to come out, many countries started to jump on board like Japan with SEGA. Not only were computer games popular, but hand held devices started to become popular and then TV games broke out. These games were becoming so popular more space for these games were then formed. Better graphics and colors were added to enhance a “gamers” experience.

During my life I have watched video games become more and more important in the daily lives of my friends, nephews and even my older siblings.  When I was young video games were not that big of a deal to me. Now I am fascinated with all the Just Dance games. I am able to work out and move around over a video game and I find that pretty cool. Even though Just Dance is one of my favorite games, I don’t consider myself a “gamer” and don’t spend as much time playing video games as guys do.

I often hear males talk about video games and what are the best video games to play. Playing online with friends has become one of the biggest things to do now. With guys, I feel like it is a masculine thing to do. I have had several boyfriends and my nephews who will not let me play because I might mess up their score. The same goes for my brothers. It is as if they stereotype women video game players as not being very good.  I am not going to be good at twiddling my thumbs around. Huh??  Personally, I find I have more important things to do with my time.

As for the younger generation, I feel sorry for them. I recall many childhood activities such as playing in the woods, reading books, playing “Barbies”, making mud pies, scuffing up my knees riding my bike or playing soccer, and spending countless hours in the swimming pool. When I am babysitting my nephews, all they want to do is sit in front of the TV playing video games and that is great fun for them. After a while they start to look like zombies they are trying to kill in the games. I often try to turn the games off, but they can’t stand it.  They say they are bored and soon return to the video games. It’s as if they have to or need to play because they don’t know what else to do.

Video games are cool virtually because you can be someone else that you never thought you could be. However, I do believe that there is a difference between playing video games occasionally and being dominated by them to a point where they run your life.

Beep... I got a TEXT!!!!

As I was reading the chapter, The Nostalgia of the Young, in Alone Together, I realized how I was not really actively absorbing the information that I was reading.  It was as if the book wasn’t even there with me. Yes, I was reading and sitting in my living room, but I was not there reading my book. I was paying attention to my phone and wanted to talk to someone instead of reading. As a college student, I did not think that it was out of the ordinary that I did not want to do homework. However, it WAS weird that even though I appeared to be doing homework, I was really in another world with the person I was texting.

Author Sherry Turkle discusses in chapter 14 how teenagers are often in a world of texting or IM instead of in the world they are actually living. It’s as if the people involved in texting have stepped into a zone oblivious of the real world. We are constantly waiting for that text and IM and thinking about it instead of concentrating on the task at hand. I should be concentrating on my best ever blog, but I answer my text again. The way I see texting is that it is not rude to text; it is rude to keep someone waiting for a message! That is when I looked at my book and thought... TURKLE IS RIGHT!

There have been countless times when I have been talking to my mom and she is on her Treo planner busily attending to her schedule. What I have to say never enters her brain. I know of times where my mom has given me a chore and I am on my phone and I am completely oblivious to what task she has given me. The bad and sad part is everyone does it.  We either make an “actively listened to” face to face conversation non-existent or we make it known to everyone.

The other day I wanted to do something sweet for my boyfriend. My first thought was to write something sweet on his Facebook wall. A personal message that I wanted to express to him was then made known to everyone reading Facebook. To make matters worse, his family and friends commented on it. A special comment that I wanted to be sweet and personal became a joke. I could have written him a letter, sent a card, or left a message on his voicemail, but instead I let the whole world in.

Again I came to the realization that Turkle was “spot on” about personal conversation.  In my mind and in the minds of many others, calling someone and verbally telling them something is not good enough anymore. We have somehow been conditioned to believe that we have to post our most intimate and personal messages in a manner in which it is made known to everyone. The input and feedback from others actually matters in my personal relationship. If I post a status or comment that generically deals with men, people automatically assume it specifically refers to my personal relationship. Because of Facebook and blogs, my life is no longer private but worldwide!

I often have people who I haven't seen or communicated with in a very long time, write comments on how wonderful my relationship is with my boyfriend. Yes, I love my relationship, but they are making assumptions by blogs and what they see over Facebook. They really don’t “know” what is real. And when we actually get together face to face and those people have the opportunity to see my relationship in person, they chose to be elsewhere…. On their telephone engrossed in a text conversation or examining someone else’s Facebook posting.  They never actually see what my relationship is or even who I am.  Eventually, we start to lose those relationships because we are not capable of making real life personal and caring.

This is the last Sherry Turkle chapter that we will be discussing in class and what I learned in this book has become dear to me. I do not want to be just another intangible someone on the internet. I want people to see who I am in person as well as to know me over the web. I also understand that I must Chose to live my life without technology running it for me.  Sure, I want to stay in touch with my family and friends interactively on the web, but I also have come to understand the value of looking someone directly in their eyes and express an intimate emotion or comment without the drama of everyone else’s opinion.  

If true communication is7% words, 38% voice tone, 55% body language, how in the world do we understand each other if we are missing out on all of the nonverbal stuff by texting, IM and Facebook?

PostSecret IT!!!

PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Select secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits.

I was introduced to PostSecret my freshman year of college. My soccer teammate showed me the website and I immediately became hooked. People share intimate secrets of their life anonymously. I noticed that in blogs and comments these secrets impacted people's lives. Other people manage to apply these secrets to their personal lives and overcome so much just from hearing these secrets.

In the book Alone Together by Sherry Turkle, Turkle discusses PostSecret in chapter 12, True Confessions. Turkle says that these confessions are therapeutic because people are getting these thoughts out thus releasing issues that may be burdening them in some way. By people revealing their secrets anonymously, they do not feel they have to be judged, hurt, or criticized for speaking what is on their mind.

As I read Turkle’s Chapter 12, I became intrigued. I started to research why people confessed online instead of to their friends or close family members. Websites then started to pop onto my search screen with thousands of people sharing their personal lives to people they do not even know. Then it made me think. Why do I share secrets with friends? Why do I have to tell someone's secret even though I am not supposed to?

When I share my secrets with others, I want people to relate to what I am going through or feeling. I do not want to feel alone! Sending in secrets to PostSecret or posting anonymous comments allows for people to read other peoples secrets and relate to them. They are able to identify with people and get things off their chest without revealing their shortcomings, faults or mistakes.

One secret that interested me was of a kid who wanted to kill himself for being different. After reading his PostSecret, a person sent in nearly the same PostSecret and wrote that the secret had saved them.

PostSecret is a way for people to interact with others and be heard without people knowing who they are. We can impact people's lives in some ways and PostSecret is a small way to make a difference by providing meaning and understanding of the intimate thoughts that sometimes haunt us.

LOST WORDS!

In our generation we have become obsessed with communicating with one another. People seem to constantly email, text, Twitter or Facebook one another and in a way our spoken words are no longer important. Teens are constantly looking at messages and being submerged over written words. They could easily take words out of context since the words are not spoken the important inferences and clarity of the spoken word are not received. It would be easy to pick up the phone and call and clarify, but the drama continues and people are mis- interpreted.

Chapter 10 of Alone Together by Sherry Turkle discusses how we no longer need to call. When we message over text, or email we can allow our self to hide. It is like what I said earlier about our two identities. By texting or emailing, we can allow ourselves to still continue our second identity, but on the telephone people can hear our voice or hear our flaws in our conversation.  Our real life now is shown and someone with two identities cannot be the other person they want to be.

Since we no longer use spoken communication as much, cyberbullying has become a huge problem in the United States. "Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. We are now constantly seeing commercials on "stop the cyberbullying" or "we are against cyberbullying". Kids don’t have to hurt each other face to face when online words and threats can hurt so much more intensely.  Instead of a face to face confrontation, kids can bully behind the clock of their computer protecting themselves and dishing out the ultimate hate that hurts people.  There is no way to clarify or resolve the situation from the other side of the computer with total satisfaction and resolution.

I read an article on the web called Six Reasons to Use Text Messages Instead of Voice Call  which discussed why people use text messages instead of voice calls. It was said when you send a text message, recipients can reply at their discretion. When people hold conversations over a cell phone in public, they tend to lose awareness (or consideration) of the people around them. With texting’s 160 character limit, there’s no room for discursive small talk. You have to get straight to the point. Most of these points were considered in Turkles readings.

With people wanting to use written communication more than actually speaking, I feel like the voice we have long fought for over the years has become silent. For example, when people have problems with someone, they do not confront them, they Facebook about it or Tweet and the conflict is not solved.  It’s actually made worse because now everyone else reading the conversation feels they need to interfere and add their opinion into the problem.  On an episode of Kim & Kourtney take New York, Kim has a problem with a friend and tweets about it. The problem that she thought was an issue was not even interpreted right. In the long run she hurt her friend because she did not talk personally to them.

Texts, emails, Tweets, all can be misinterpreted because we cannot show spoken emotion. I often hear my friends say, "Well you sound mad". How can I portray a sound through text or status? Written conflict is not always portrayed in the manner in which we would like it to be interpreted. Sometimes if we opened our mouth in a positive conversation, more action can be resolved. For the record Silence is not always golden so let’s “talk” about it!