Run For The Hills, 'Dumb F*ucks'

Recent report on Facebook founder, billionare Mark Zukkerberg, by Andrew Orlowski has exposed how a young Zuckerberg insulted 'trusting users', calling them 'dumb fucks' for passivly supplying otherwise personal information to the site.

But honestly, can you blame him? At age 19, your going to make a fair amount of regrettable comments; regardless if your a student or the 'next big thing'. Zuckerbergs throw away remark highlights the ignorance of thousands, if not millions of social netowking users when it comes to their personal security online.
Too much trust is placed in the assumed anonomity of the internet. Users seem to think of social netowork sites as an intamte space for private use, rahter than the glass bedroom it is, complete with a public veiwing platform. This visual depiction of privacy depletion on Facebook shows the increasing avaliblity of personal content over the years.

http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/

Moral panic has once again sweeped the world, with publicy outcry for 'safe buttons' to appear on all pages and organised boycotting that hopes to pressure the site to increase its responcibilty of users safety.

All Hail The Digital Deity.

You can not see it nor can you hold it. It answers complex questions and enlightens the confused. Millions of people put their faith in it and turn to it in difficult times. And without it, the world would be a different place. It is a god but no reincarnate of Buddha or a supposed son of an omnipresent being. It is the internet, our new Digital Deity.

Religion and politics are synonymous adjectives for organised manipulation. The topic of digitalized faith mirrors the sudden freedom of information that was made possible by Gutenberg and his printing press in the middle ages. Before this original form of ‘new media’, only the monks and priests had the access to bibles and possessed the ability to read. This dissemination of control has only progressed further thanks to the technological advancements and the internets ability for instant content creation.

As Leung states, the increase in user generated content has given a voice to previously mute communities. Yet it has also amplified the voices of those who were already heard too loud.Prefacing this study is a quote which reads "The superficial act of virtual shrine visits threatens to erode the dignity of this traditional shrine-oriented faith...” But already, in many cultures new media has been exploited to assist in the degradation of a once sacred activity through hugely popular 'televangilism'.

Going further Online churches such as Church of Fools casually invites you to “key in some prayers” and is a prime example of what one article from USA Today discribes as ‘religious fast food’, cheap imitations of the real thing. Not surprisingly, digital faith is proving to be just as popular and addictive and in my opinion just as dangerous as the real thing.

Thoughts on Paper.

Ah, the daunting feeling that arises from the prospect of constructing a critical essay. Putting forth an opinion, a personal perspective, a deeply rooted belief stirs up something inside that can only be described as confusing excitement. Like dipping a toe into a great abyss, you throw your underdeveloped self into a world of big ideas and hope to stay afloat, make it to the other side with a better understanding and relief that it's over.

The final piece of assessment for New Media acts as an extension of this blog. It calls for a highly refined discussion and critical analysis of a suggested concept, supported by material that we as new media practitioners have uncovered and use to our ability to prove or disprove a polarizing topic. The topics, which include hypothesis that either Susan or students have submitted, range from the personal to the political while still remaining vague enough as to be navigated in any direction desired. After being initially drawn to topic 5 ‘The internet should remain neutral’ concepts and ideas were developed and noted. From here, the realization became apparent that this was just one sub-concept that would be better fleshed out under the topic 'New media creates a new space/style of democracy'. This topic allows more diverse ideas to be brought forward and discussed.

Man on a Mission.

Image Via

Hugely influential Henry Rollins is a man that defies classification. A one man army in a fight against, well, everything, anything and everyone. He is the honest voice screaming back at society when it turns towards the mirror. I owe a great deal to him and was granted the experience of listening to his rants in person only last month. Here, in two different mediums for two very different audiences, he continues to speak passionately and unabridged about our dependance on new media.

Henry Rollins as Doc in Johnny Mnemonic.

Henry Rollins as Mad Stan in Batman: The Animated Series.

Your Own Digital Playground.

Originally, I was weary of blogs. I backed away from what I thought was yet another outlet for the masses to vapidly banter on about trivial happenings. This was a neiave and ignorant outlook, and the addictive nature of the internet soon had me trawling through thousands of blogs that ranged from delicate photography, outrageous soapboxes, professional meeting places and musical hangouts. I learnt the more you dig through the dirt, the better gems you find. I have a select few blogs I check religiously but, understand my expedition is just beginning. With thanks to this class, I am slowly converting from personal opinion blogs to more professional, informative and journalistic blogs that further inspire and prod my knowledge of certain topics. In addition to this, I have learnt just how simple and satisfying the 'art' of blogging can be and have begun to put together my own meeting place of ideas, inspiration and information. If for no other reason than to act as a personal digitalized photo-book.

The issue of perception dissonance raised by Martin on Kerrer's post is valid and highlights a flaw in the way blogs are perceived in comparison to more traditional forms of media and communication. He says, "If I was to say 'I've spent all morning reading blogs', some people might think 'waster', whereas if I say 'I've spent all morning in the library reading journal articles' people will think 'ah, good solid academic." I see this as perhaps the most pressing issue facing both bloggers and their blogs alike. However, I do not believe is a cause for concern. Just as the humble newspaper, television and the internet its self were received with a fair share of moral panic and distain, so too are blogs. And as every form of successful new media has done before, blogging will emerge as an essential and revolutionary upgrade in the way we communicate and interact with our world.

I can confidently state that this class based blog has vastly benefited my learning within this unit. I feel I can communicate more effectively large ideas in a condensed format (even if some blogs do exceed the 200 word limit, sorry!). More so, it allowed me to understand firsthand the basics of blogging; creating, maintaining and writing for the new digital playground.

Option: Paralysis.

Recently, cult heros of noise and precision The Dillinger Escape Plan released the long anticipated Option Paralisis to both critial and peer acclaim. The bands vocalist Greg Puciato was questioned about the meaning behind and content within the album. I find his opinions and the album a great exapmple of contemporary social commentary. The following is a segment of an interveiw between Shockhound Music and Puciato.

SHOCKHOUND: What does the term Option Paralysis mean to you?

PUCIATO: Technically, it's a term that was coined a few decades ago. It refers to one's tendency, when given a ton of choices, to make none. I think it's a good phrase to sum up not only what's going on in the world, but in many of our personal lives — certainly my personal life at times when we were writing the record. Culturally, it seems very apropos. Right now, there have been some amazing technological feats. Over the past 100 years, we've come much further industrially and technologically than we have in the entire course of human history. However, I feel like, as far as arts and culture are concerned, we may have never been at a lower point. I'm not saying that there's a necessarily inverse relationship, but I think that maybe some of the focus needs to shift back to an enlightened way of thinking where education and art are valued for their intrinsic benefits, and not just as means to a marketing end or to serve as a tie-in to some new product. When we were talking about album titles, Option Paralysis just felt good. It made sense.

SHOCKHOUND: Everything gets filtered through the internet — Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, etc. How many people actually still experience real art without these technological filters?

PUCIATO: That's what it's about! Technology is amazing. I'm not saying that I'd want to discard my phone or the internet, but people haven't learned how to say no. There are so many new things coming out constantly and the novelty aspect is extremely high. The users haven't learned how to restrain themselves, and they don't understand how the consequences of their daily actions affect everything as a whole. If you're a kid, you probably want to eat candy and ice cream for every meal all day and only drink soda. As a kid, you have no real idea as to why that wouldn't be good for you in the large scale, because you can only really see what's in front of your face. I think that's what people are doing now. They don't understand the repercussions of having everything be instantly gratifying or instantly available. It's not good or bad in and of itself. You can't say something that has no living properties is "good" or "bad." It needs to be used in the right way, though. The music industry is a perfect example. Pro Tools is not bad: It's people's inability to say "no" when they're using Pro Tools that is. It's their inability to not correct one vocal which turns into ten vocals, 20 guitar parts and 50 tom hits and destroys all of the soul that would've ever been in their records. It's about being bombarded with options constantly and not being able to filter through the bullshit, so to speak, and cut to the core of it.

Courtesy of Shockhound

In Sickness and In Health.

In our age of complete digitalization, its hard to think of anything that we can not do online. Conventionally, our personal health and well-being was reserved for the knowledge and prestige of the family physician. This trust, along with most of our actions, has shifted from the physical world to the digital as we type our ails and worries into a search engines to see what we may suffering from. This role of mediation (a key point raised by Latour in Wyatt et al.) is nothing new, it is what GP’s and nurses have been doing for centuries. But by introducing the internet as a trusted mediator, a rivalry between reverent and legitimate power has ignited.

Through the internet, we witness the rise of the medicine 2.0 and individualism through new source of both information & misinformation and spaces of research as detailed by Leong. The control of power has shifted; responsibility has stayed with the individual however the concern is now communal. The drastic changes in legislation and public opinion on smoking in Australia exemplifies this. In an attempt to regain the loose reins, you find new systems of management and administration in the from of websites and forums which aid the shift of power from public to private. In particular, government administrated websites that provide information on a range of health issues, including illicit drugs, in a responsible and proactive manner. By presenting facts in public forum, the internet aids in dispelling myths while assisting users to make informed decisions.

However, there remains the darker side to this 24/7 digital pharmacy as Neilson and Barratt discuss. The internet instantly oversteps the professional administration of products and treatments, delivering them directly to the hands of mere cyberchondriacs, to borrow Lewis’ terminology, full blown addicts or the curious consumer. They go on to raise the question of online monitoring, alluding that technology helps slay the monster it created.

When using the popular WebMD Symptom Checker, if the common symptoms of stress, headache and restless sleep are submitted, you are reassuringly diagnosed with either sunburn, dementia, porphyria or lymes disease. The only illness it fails classify is our obsessive attraction towards a complete and all consuming digital life.

Reshaping a culture around the digital revolution, countries now have to support their citizens who are affected by the new vices the internet provides. In Korea, a highly digitalized country, internet addiction is treated as a mental addiction. The video, Internet Addiction in China documents the move of communal interaction to individual digital obsession and the drastic treatment which is prescribed to rectify it.

References

Lewis, T. (2006). Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521-539.

Nielsen, S. and Barratt, M. J. (2009). Prescription Drug Misuse: Is Technology Friend or Foe? In Drug and Alcohol Review, volume 28: 81-86.

Wyatt, S., Harris, R. and Wathen, N. (2008). The Go-Betweens: Health, Technology and Info(r)mediation. In Mediating Health Information: The Go-Betweens in a Changing Socio-Technical Landscape. Sally Wyatt, Nadine Wathen and Roma Harris (eds), pp. 1-12. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.