Alexandra's blog

● Alexandra Haro, 21, NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES, Media & Communication, QIBT ●

[haroalexandra]

A Day Without Technology

"A Day Without Technology" by Alexandra Haro Song: Last Stand by Jime Cide. https://soundcloud.com/jimecide/last-stand-only-one-2friendz. Licensed CC BY 3.0 ...

Hey guys, 

Here's my new video,

follow the link, watch it and like it

Cheers!

[haroalexandra]

Task 13: We are all Cyborgs

Technology has become a fundamental part of our daily lives. It is said that in nowadays world we are all attached to it and it is even creating us dependence to it. Technology was created to make our life easier or at least a bit less complicated than before. It has developed so many ways to please our necessities in every single subject or task. When talking about communication technologies, it is also said that they were meant to satisfy our communicative strategies and develop technological tools to fulfil them effectively. In this essay it is argued that the new technologies we have are improving our abilities to communicate as they are becoming part of our external body. It means that we cannot live without them. This situation may lead us to a technology-dependent future.

The digital world has brought with it different ways to keep the communication with the rest of people whenever and wherever they are. Social media is one of those. According to Boyd and Ellison (as cited in Papacharissi & Gibson, 2011, p. 76) it is said that social networks are abundant in many ways such as number, diverse and culture and it says that they far-reach the scope and traverse the global expanse. This leads us to wonder if it is possible to live without communication technologies. The answer is probably not. The technology changes and improves by the time. In the past, people used to write and send letters. Now we prefer using the e-mail which does the same for us in a considerable reduced time, and even better, instead of having a telegraph or telephone at home, we have a mobile one giving us the freedom to be everywhere and still maintaining connectivity with the world out there. “Our brains, more than those of any other animal on the planet, are primed to seek and consummate such intimal relations with non-biological resources that we end up as bright and as capable of abstract thought as we are” (Clark, 2003).

It is true that communication technologies’ popularity is affecting us in some different ways. Society has become less active than ever. We do not need to go buy a newspaper anymore because it has been replaced by the television or the news online. As a clear example of some communication technologies’ effects regarding to social media we see Facebook, one of the best and most popular social networks of all the time, which has brought us a different ways to not only communicate but socialize with people from all over the world. Sharing photos, videos and personal facebook status, chatting with people and commenting posts give us an inner feeling of having no space barrier between us.

It is more or less what happens with Foursquare, an application for mobiles and tables that makes us be in touch with our friends and makes us know where they are and what they are doing. While in the past that was not possible. Who needs to spend lots of money on international calls when we can install Skype for free in our phones, pcs or tablets. Now we all feel connected with the same hunger of knowing more about everyone. Instagram, another popular image-based social platform, makes us play with the visual and psychological part of our brains. It is like looking at the mirror, you see yourself but from another angle.  All these social networks have become people’s best friends and almost part of their external bodies, especially when talking about young people or young and new generations.

However, from another point of view, some people believe that communication technologies do not need to make us feel dependent of them. We are all still humans as Case (2010) said the self-reflection in this issue is that machines are increasing the way we connect with each other regardless the time or geography.  “Even in a networked world, the hunger for consumer goods and information is still taste-dependent and location remains a fairly reliable proxy for taste.” (Morozov, 2010). As it is said above, we are all dependent of technology for almost every single daily task. But it is argued that perhaps we still need that taste of reality. For example visiting someone instead of a call, a direct and face-to-face communication.

Morozov (2010) argues in his journal article that the internet looks like a well-created version of the real world. It is probably because society is looking for something similar to a real world atmosphere to satisfy their necessities. We all live in the age of telecommunications, and it leads us to have the access and manipulate the information we need without limits. It is true that we need physical contact with people, but it is also true that machines are getting to be part of us making that communication even better and stronger. “The mind is just less and less in the head” (Clark, 2003)

As a conclusion, the communication technologies are and will become an important part of ourselves; we will pay even more attention to them because in the future we will expect to have more demand on technological and communicative development. That is why we need to realize that those electronic devices are all part of us, and they are here to help us with our ability to communicate, express and get information from the world out there. We are all cyborgs. We may not need to have a robotic part embedded in our body, but we do have the power to choose the electronic devices to live with. It is and it has always been our choice to become cyborgs.

Reference List

Clark, A. (2003). Natural-born cyborgs. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Morozov, E. (2010). The Internet. Foreign Policy, 179, pp 40

Papacharissi, Z.  & Gibson, P. (2011). Fifteen minutes of privacy: privacy, sociality and publicity on social network sites. Springer, pp 75-89.

Case, A. (2010). We are all cyborgs now. Ted.com. https://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now#t-447004

Winter, J. (2014). Here’s Why Instagram Is Even More Depressing than Facebook. Slate Magazine. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/instagram_and_self_esteem_why_the_photo_s

[haroalexandra]

Task 12: Research

Hey guys,

check my research and tell me what you think

Cheers! ;)

[haroalexandra]

Task 11: Essay Topic

I decided to choose "We are all cyborgs". It's just interesting how technology has improved by the time, especially in the communication field. I wanted to do my investigation about the cause-effect line between the communication technologies and us.

[haroalexandra]

Task 10: e-petition

I found this website that automatically caught my attention. It is called “The Cove” and it is about protecting dolphins in Japan. I just signed this petition because I really consider that animals’ life is as important as humans’ and they don’t deserve to be killed and be sold as food.

I also consider that there is an awareness of what is really happening at the moment with these creatures. That is why we need more people interested in saving lives of the innocents and the ones that can’t express for themselves.

I am really happy that good people exist as well and they are willing to fight for the rights. It is a good alternative to check this web out and try to collaborate with associations like this one, the only purpose is to save dolphin’s lives and stop these animals murderers.

TakePart, (2014). The Cove. [online] http://www.takepart.com/cove 

[haroalexandra]

Task 9: KONY 2012

Kony 2012 started as a short film produced by Invisible Children Inc. to catch the attention of the world   to stop the leader of the LRA Joseph Kony, a man who is guilty of murders, abductions, sexual slavery and more crimes against children in Uganda, Africa. The purpose of this campaign is to let the world know who Joseph Kony is and what he does with the kids.

In the video we can see the story of Jacob, a boy who was rescued from the government of Kony and taken to be part of the movement to let people realize what is happening in the other part of the world. The purpose was to catch him and arrest him and finally take justice for all the pain he caused.

I think this campaign was a successful one because it could reach all the attention from a big amount of people in different countries all around the world. The movement of this charity campaign counted with posters on the streets, meetings, events, t-shirts, Facebook pages, Twitter hashtags and so on.

I find it interesting how they could reach so much popularity just using social media, posting a video on Youtube and sharing it online they reached around 99 million views and a lot of support from the audience.

 Invisible Children, (2014). Invisible Children.

Retrieved from: http://invisiblechildren.com/ 

CHECK VIDEO HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

[haroalexandra]

Task 8

This survey was such a useful tool to get to know what people really think about social media. We all know that society can’t live without having a public life, that’s why we understand the main purpose of social media. It’s not all about entertainment, as we could have thought, it’s more about finding a way of communicating. 80% of people seem to find it as useful communication tool when they are using their social networks while 20% of the people answered that entertainment was the main use of social networks. None of them answered that social media was for self-development as my target was quite limited.  

The favourite social network in my survey was Facebook with 100%, while Twitter and Instagram did not receive any credits.

Talking about how effective social media is as a communication tool, it is shown that 70% of my public use social media between 3 to 7 hours per day. While just 20% of them use internet from 0 to 2 hours and from 8 to more hours a day.

To take in charge, it seems to be close enough what social media means to the society. Communication is a big factor in our lives and it is even better when we can find different ways of communicating.  

[haroalexandra]

Hello there!

I invite you to fill the online survey! :-)

[haroalexandra]

Task 6: Cyberpunk and Cyberspace

This week’s lecture was about the cyberpunk culture and the cyberspace. In nowadays world electronic devices, the development of the internet and some new creations such as robots and androids brought us so many opportunities to explore how broad and incredible the artificial intelligence is.

The cyberpunk culture is pretty much considered as part of the science fiction genre and it can be focused on the dark side of the high technology mixing humans with robots.  It is also related to the hacking culture which as we all know it gives us the chance to control technology letting us do what we have to and it let us have a sensation of control over machines and more.

Hacking is a very popular term when we refer to computers, but it is changing meaning by the time. Nowadays it is easier to hack and to have the control than before and it is not that bad as it was in the past.

Cyberpunk culture also refers to the world as a material place. A place governed by rich people and where they don’t care about the rest because it is a construction made for power purposes only. It is all made up by criminal activity, murder, seduction and more.  

Retrieved from: http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/114/3/4/underwater_cyberpunk_city_by_nkabuto-d62tigc.jpg 

[haroalexandra]

This is a timeline with 5 popular cyberpunk films 

[haroalexandra]

According to Morozov (2010) this article refers to how the Internet is becoming more and more popular within the society in these days. It seems to be impressive how wide its use is. Talking about how helpful could Internet be; Morozov (2010) also explains that it can be used as a reliable marketing tool. Everyone is part of any social network these days, so it is not difficult to target all the audience you need to sell a product or a service. Internet can also be part of our “everything”, and by “everything” I mean every single tool we need. The Internet seems to be killing the old-school platforms we already had, transforming them into digital platforms for the future.

  Morozov, E. (2010) The Internet. Foreign Policy, 179,p. 40. http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/

[haroalexandra]

Task 3

In this week’s required reading “Mind Control & The Internet” (Halpern, 2011) it is explained how the relationship between technology and the internet has developed itself new techniques to make or start making new changes in our lives.  According to Halpern (2011) technology in medicine is able to help disabled people implanting little machines or computers to their brains making them feel able to continue with their lives. Therefore, the fact of using a computer inside their bodies controlling every movement and action gives them a feeling of dependence. It is also said that the increased popularity of the wide world web and the creation of Google have made an increase in terms of business and commerce.  

The article also refers to how artificial intelligence can fulfil our necessities as fast and easy as it works in real life. A computer seems to work on an efficient and fast way to fix some deficits on human bodies. That is why the debate stars due to fact that any people think that any machine could replace a part our body. In my perspective, religion takes an important part here, and it is noticeable involved in some other issues like this. People believe that cyborgs don’t have the capacity to replace what God created for us. Therefore, science and religion would never agree in any situation.

However, this article is showing how our future would look like. Even if we are not prepared to breathe in a technological atmosphere we will be definitely doing it. We will also depend on machines and on internet to solve our problems. Technology will be everywhere and we can’t do anything to stop it, because by then we will need it as much as we will subconsciously want it.

  Halpern, S. (2011) Mind Control & the Internet. The New York Review of Book, 23, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/

[haroalexandra]

Task 2 (Video): Technology in 2019 - What the future of tech looks like

According to this video, the idea of the future of communication seems to be improving with new different ways of simplifying our lives. Microsoft is taking part in this project announcing an overview of the future. Touch screens are becoming more famous and different consoles have been developed for every type of audience. I particularly agree with the idea that technology development can simplify our daily tasks with some electronic devices. It means that we would have much more time to focus on some other activities. This video shows how easier would be our daily life if we get these touch-screen devices. It creates an inner anxiety to have them and try them on ourselves. 

[haroalexandra]

Task 1

Communication technologies have brought us so many and important changes for our daily life. Particularly the creation of the internet and the development of new networks have made our life easier and less complicated. Due to all the new platforms the communication nowadays is more reachable than before. The development of the internet and the creation of social networks have made a huge difference for me particularly, due to the fact that any information or contact needed is easily reachable on the web. 

As I am a fanatic of photography, I would say that the use of Polaroid cameras took an important place in photography and technology development history. I wish I had the access to use one nowadays because as they are some of the classic old-school cameras that probably our parents used, they have the vintage look and feeling. Those fabulous cameras have been replaced with the use of digital cameras, SLR cameras, mobile phone cameras and even some application for mobiles such as Instagram which provides all the same visual effects as a Polaroid vintage camera. There are still some places where you can find them, but the popularity of these cameras has noticeable decreased by the time.

Some months ago I discovered “Spotify” which is a music platform that can be used either in computers or in mobile devices. It has also an application for mobile devices and can be found either on iTunes or Android market, therefore the access is unlimited for users. What Spotify does is to provide music, lists of artists, albums and even followers everywhere you are. Instead of carrying with an iPod or mp3, this application provides us with that media content whether if we are on the computer or on the mobile device.