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Blog post #10: Technicity of Intimacy (Joey Wong)

In this week’s optional reading by Alex Lambert titled “Body, Mood and Excess. Relationship Tracking and the Technicity of Intimacy”, the author writes about how there has been a range of commercial mobile technologies that are emerging, using psychophysiological sensors to monitor our bodies and behaviour to produce new forms of knowledge about social relationships.

The author also states the concern regarding how this form of relationship-tracking influences intimacy.

The author claims that relationship-tracking promises to take up the intensive social labours associated with contemporary intimacy yet the psychophysiological measurements that these technologies rely on can produce “partial and ambiguous indicators of intimate life, gesturing toward an excess of intimate meaning that cannot be interrogated”.

The author claims that the meaning of tracking (self/relationships) lies within the journey and not the destination. I agree with this claim. In the reading, the author related self-tracking to a kind of project and relationship tracking as a shared project.

For self-tracking, i will be using an application that I use very often when I was younger, “Plant Nanny”. This application reminds me to drink water and every time I log my drinking, i get to water my plant that i am nanny of. While the ultimate goal is to get my to drink more water, I am more invested in watering the plant that i have an emotional connection towards. This shows how the meaning of such tracking lies within the journey instead of the destination (goal).

The author claimed that relationship tracking can compromise and may cause more problems in an relationship. I agree and disagree with this claim. An example of a relationship tracking application would be “Zenly”. “Zenly” allows me to track all of my friends but most people like me started using Zenly to track our partners. While that might sound like I'm obsessed, this application allows me to make sure that my partner is safe and if anything were to happen, I could get hold of his last location. Furthermore, after a night out, I don't have to constantly check if he is home on text. I can just look at his location on Zenly and make sure that he is home safely. This is why i would disagree that such relationship tracking applications can compromise a relationship. However, I do understand how such applications can cause discomfort and arguments within couples. I have a friend whose boyfriend (now ex..) was in Thailand with his friends. While he was missing for a few hours online, my friend headed to Zenly to see the location of him. She googled the location name and found out that “he” was “at” a strip club. Till this day only he would know if he was really at the strip club or if technology has made a mistake of locating his location. This funny yet sad example shows how relationship tracking can ultimately cause discomfort and argument.

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Blog Post #9: Media intimacy, Tindertarians (Joey Wong)

In this week’s reading by Corinne Lysandra Mason, “Tinder and humanitarian hook-ups: the erotics of social media racism”, Mason claims that socially mediated digital space afford possibilities of recreating hierarchies of race. This is in addition to  Debra Ferreday’s claim that socially mediated digital space “affords possibilities for recreating hierarchies of sexuality and gender” (2013).

I agree with Mason’s claim that on Tinder, we often find people putting pictures of themselves volunteering their time or showing a benevolent side of them. In Mason’s article, it was said by McKay that these Tindertarians are using an aura of benevolence to attract dates. (McKay 2014). As mentioned, Tinder is a platform where people can swipe left (to reject) or right (to like) someone’s profile. I find it ironic that Tinder claims to be “a fun way to meet people” and “it all started with the realization that there are many apps that connect us with people we already know, but none that do a great job of helping us meet new people” (Tinder Site). I find it ironic because Tinder is helping us find new people to talk to by judging their looks. However, I do note that there are many Tinder users that like to put photos of themselves doing good. With the limited number of pictures they can put, users tend to put photos that they think they look best in, or photos where they think that would attract people to swipe right on them.

However, Mason claims that users judge other users based on their racial profiles. While there are studies that show that some races are preferred over other (in the reading), Mason claims for online dating platforms like Tinder to have recreated hierarchies of race.

I agree yet disagree with this claim. While I agree with how the users can be seen as having racial preferences with their swipes, I argue that these preferences can also be seen in real life. Using an example in Singapore, I have a friend who is a Malay male and have explicitly stated his preference to date Chinese females. Similarly, I have a Chinese female friend who have stated her preference to date Chinese males. While with Tinder, these preferences plays a larger role (in a way emphasises) in users actually swiping right on a profile, I contend that these hierarchies of race exists even in the real world without an online dating platform.

However, I agree with how these hierarchies can be seen through the Tindertarian profiles. Often, as mentioned in the reading, we find white people pictured next to black children from less developed countries. The fact that they can be considered an act of benevolence or good shows a certain superiority of the Tindertarian over the children they are pictured with.

Imagine if a white female is pictures next to a white orphaned girl, people would think that they are just siblings because the word “orphan” is not written on the pictures. The stereotype of how kids that need help are black shows a hierarchy of race. This is why I agree with how the pictures can relate a sort of hierarchy that the author claims.

[jzooey]

Blog Post #8: Media and Play; Gamification - Joey Wong

In this week’s reading by Caroline Pelletier, the author thinks that the relationship between pleasure, agency and motivation is undertheorised. She aims to situate the concepts within a framework that might identify more precisely how games can be considered to be educational. The author built her framework based on Žižek’s theory of subjectivity in cyberspace, and especially his notion of interpassivity. 

Pelletier notes how games are used as learning technologies relates to wider social interests. She reviewed the 4 versions of cyberspace and claimed that they manifest themselves in the literature on games and education.

The 4 versions are

1. Games as pain relieves

2. Games as sensual temptation

3. Games as replicas of non-virtual life

4. Games as dramatic stages for reality construction 

I agree with the author on how the games nowadays are considered to be educational, in the concept of Gamification. I personally think that gamification is everywhere around us. Given as an example, the National Steps Challenge is a form of gamification where the “challenge” motivates us to walk more and exercise more. The Health Promotional Board (HPB) of Singapore aimed to keep diseases at bay by encouraging Singapore citizens to walk more. By giving out prizes and calling it a “challenge”, it gamifies the initial intention of asking people to walk more. 

Gamification is a very effective tool used nowadays, and almost everywhere. I agree with the author that games are considered to be educational and I feel the best example for this was the example given in tutorial, the National Step Challenge. I resonate with the example as my parents were obsessed with the challenge. They would prefer to walk to buy dinner over driving just a kilometres thanks to the challenge. When I asked them why they care about the challenge, they would say that they “Can redeem vouchers or win prizes”. In 2020, the first prize winner won a pair of Singapore Airlines Business Class tickets to Seattle worth up to $23,000. Despite people’s intention of playing the challenge being their own gratification and benefits (vouchers and prizes), HPB had successfully got the public to walk more. 

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Blog Post #7: Understanding Bourdieu

In this week’s reading, the authors looked at how Bourdieu has tried to understand and explain the relationship between people’s practices. Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital and habitus were discussed in the reading. Bourdieu thinks that the more capital one has, the more powerful their position one occupies in society. Bourdieu also believes that our habits shapes how we act, relating to his concept of habitus. The authors claimed that Bourdieu’s concept relates to today’s digital culture. 

With new media, most of us use technology to stay connected online. The digital culture that is then built throughout these years then influence the users online. I agree with Bourdieu’s concept of how cultural capital has caused us to find people that are “like-minded” or “one of us”.  I strongly agree with the authors on how Bourdieu’s concepts relate to today’s digital culture. 

Online, we find many “communities”. For example, the affordance of Facebook’s groups allow us to create groups and many people have used the platform to find a community that they feel belonged in. Using TikTok as an example, many people are aware that algorithms are in place. Many users think that the algorithms places us in different communities and show us content that we would relate to and like. Thus, we can see many comments saying how “They really said FOR YOU page”. For example, there is a video on “Life short but guess who is shorter? You” and many people who view themselves as “short” view themselves in a community filled with “short people”. Another claim, however, in which i disagree was when Bourdieu claimed that the habitus of children from lower income background would restrict the children from doing well in the future. I think that as the world evolves together with the online world, voices are heard more with platforms available easily. The habitus of lower income children does not necessarily restrict them from success. 

I agree that habitus shapes the way we think and act, even in the online world. However, with the evolving times I think that habitus is a portion of factor that affects the way we make our decisions. 

[jzooey]

Blog Post #6: precarity and labour

In this week's reading by Ravenelle, she wrote about the promise versus the reality as well as the technological and social forces. She acknowledge the technological advancement and how today is evolving. The sharing economy consists of platforms that focus on short-term income opportunities and Ravenelle claimed that there are more risk than autonomy for applications like uber. She also implied that there would be more wealth for the wealthy, increasing social inequality.

I will be using Grab as it is similar to Uber, an example used in class. The difference between uber and Grab is that apart from "sharing" rides, Grab also allows its users to order food. They have came up with multiple technologies to aid in their revenue making. Once an application for booking a ride has become a platform for buying goods, ordering food and much more.

Personally, I have a close friend who worked as a Grab hitch driver. He always complained about how hard it is for him to earn due to the % that Grabs takes back from the hitch drivers. When Grab bought over Uber in Singapore, the inequality became worse. I had a chance to talk to a uber driver just a week before they were going to shut its operation. The uber driver said that there was a "waiting time" to apply to be Grab's driver and even while he is driving for uber, the existence of Grab had already affected his income. As competition increases, people are more likely to choose the cheaper option and that was what Grab did when they first came into operations. The Uber uncle lamented that while Grab is still not the monopoly, they have affected the Uber drivers in many ways and was about to affect them even more by buying over Uber. Through this I recognise that the true beneficial party of the gig economy is never the workers of these companies but the owners and shareholders. This is why i agree with Ravenelle's claim to a large extent when she stated that such economy would increase social inequality. While I have not been a gig worker myself, I see the people around me initially getting drawn by the "attractive" pay of gig industries only to be disappointed as competition gets tough.

While some think that being a Grab driver is flexible and they can choose anytime they want to work, this may be untrue for some. This then relates to how there is flexibility for the upper class and insecurity for the lower class.

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Blog Post #5 #familygoals (Joey Wong)

In this week’s optional reading by Crystal Abidin,  the author draws on ethnographically informed content analysis of two group of family Influencers on social media to help illustrate the value of calibrated amateurism in an today’s social media world and investigate how such parents justify the digital labor in which their children partake. She focuses her study on children of such microcelebrities, known as micro micro-celebrities, and how their parents feel about digital labour. 

In the reading, she explaining the different types of domestic fillers. 

1. Developmental milestones

2. Family occasions

3. Errands

4. Confessions

5. Reactions

I agree with the author that domestic vlogs usually consists of 1 or more of these domestic fillers. As an avid youtube audience, I found myself watching alot of domestic vlogs. It is interesting that we are interested in other people’s lives other than ourselves.

I will be using “Bubzbeauty”, a beauty vlogger on youtube, to show how these domestic fillers exists. Bubzbeauty, also known as Bubz or Lindy, has a huge following on both Youtube(2.84million) and Instagram(706k). She started off posting herself putting makeup and styling her hair, things which she loved and put on the net for free initially. However, as her following began to grow and as she starts her own family, she began to encompass the domestic fillers. She began to shift from a beauty vlogger to a domestic vlogger. Her children, Ayla and Isaac, were put under the spotlight the moment they were born. Till this date, Bubz still produces videos that include her and her children’s daily lives. 

A special domestic filler that I would bring up would be confessions, when she posted a video titled “Life Update | A Beautiful Beginning”. She admitted that she had gone through a divorce with her ex-husband, Tim. She said “I am really sorry to say that Tim and I are not together anymore.” This confession that Bubz made, even though she mentioned she knew that it was not in her obligation to share, showed the pressure/guilt on such domestic vloggers to confess things which they feel that their followers had been there throughout. She apologised for their split because she felt that her viewers were there since Tim and her got together to when they were married to when Isaac and Ayla were born. 

Other fillers have been part of Bubz’s uploading routine, where she would film herself getting groceries with her children, or herself celebrating family occasions. In addition to the confession that she posted, she did a QnA video to clear up doubts about her split. Such influencers can be seen to be pressurised by their following and bubz herself mentioned the guilt that she felt when she did not want to confess about her split, to her viewers. 

By allowing her family to take over her beauty channel, Bubz has encompassed how she “justified” young labour. However, just like the author said, she does not see it as “work”. Rather, she thinks that as long as her kids are having fun, she is okay with letting them talk on camera. I think that very little domestic vloggers would see their children as “young labour”. They place their children’s happiness first and allow them to “have fun” without the pressure of earning money or sponsorships.

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Blog Post #4: Media Industry (Joey Wong)

In this week’s reading by Horkheimer and Adorno, they discussed about the differences in today’s industries. They believe that each branch of culture is unanimous within itself and all are unanimous together. They suggested that the content that the radio produces nowadays are “trash”. A question that struck w me during tutorial was “What is the difference between art and content?” and with this example, I will explain the main difference and why the authors are so against the media industry that we are living in.

Disney released a remake of Mulan in 2020. The original Mulan was released in 1998, where Mulan was an asian girl who secretly went to war under disguise of a man in place of her old and ill father. The Mulan that DIsney portrayed in 1998 was a girl that was challenging social norms. She was not a “typical” Chinese girl in her times and always behaved differently from how her parents wanted her to turn out. In the remake, however, many criticised the film to not have portrayed Mulan accurately. The Mulan that was in the 2020 film was not portrayed to be how the 1998 Mulan was. People were upset at the inaccuracy and the morality of the movie making process was also questioned.

Here is a screenshot of a reddit user that was unsatisfied with the 2020 Mulan movie.

In this example, we see that many of those who watched the movie was upset that their childhood were “ruined”. Before the remake of Mulan, there were many other disney movies that were also remade into a “real life” version. While they did not receive as much hate like Mulan did, most of the reviewers think that “original is always better”. 

Just like in the reading, the authors stated that if someone were to turn Mozart’s composition into Jazz, it would be completely unoriginal. 

The difference between content and art that i was trying to explain would be that art is something that comes from the heart, while content is being churned out due to profits. The next question arises whether we are able to create art without thinking about profits. 

In real life, alot of youtubers suffer from ‘burn out’ due to the constant pressure to produce good content for their viewers. It is especially tough on the popular youtubers as they mostly started off with a passion which quickly turned to a revenue for them to earn money. 

While i agree with the authors that most industries these days are only thinking about profits, i think that it is practical and can serve as a motivation for people to churn out good content. With good content that come from the heart, and original, i believe that it can be considered an art too. 

[jzooey]

Blog Post 3: Mobile Media (Joey Wong)

This week’s reading, “Portable Objects in Three Global Cities: The Personalization of Urban Places”, is about a study conducted in 3 global cities — Tokyo, Los Angeles and London. They aim to understand the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) “shape our experience or urban space and time”.  In the study, the authors aim to study how portable devices constructs and support people’s identities and activities and even mediating relationships with people, places and institutions.

Unlike their previous researches, they aimed to shift their focus from private and interpersonal communication towards a more public and impersonal kinds of social exchanges. Through this study, they found that there were mainly 3 genres of presence that were common throughout the 3 cities despite their substantial differences in urban contexts — Cocoons, Encampments and Footprints.

These terms seemed foreign at first but as I read on, I realised that I know very well what these terms are. The authors explained Cocooning to be a private territory created by individuals within the confines of urban space. Cocooning help shelters the individuals from engagement. An example of cocooning would be reading a ebook or listening to iPod on the train. It functions as a way for people to “fill” or “kill” time.

Encampment is where people put down roots at places that they feel some affinity. Rather than “killing time”, people schedule and spend time at the location of encampment. An example would be the participants bringing their laptop to a certain cafe that they frequent, because of various reasons.

Lastly, Footprints are when places give out loyalty cards or rewards cards to track the customers’ orders and loyalty. The participants had different responses to these cards. Some find it intruding that the companies are collecting their data, while others are diligently trying to collect rewards.When foot printing is mentioned, privacy is involved.

I agree to a large extent when the authors said more and more of our articulation of personal and social relations to urban space is being delegated to different technologically embodied infrastructures, accessed with portable technologies of various kinds. While camping at the same starbucks everyday to study for my A Levels, the barista recognise me and my order. I managed to have social relations in a place that I set my roots in. At the same time, I used my starbucks card to collect “stars” that help me to collect a free drink/food everytime i reach 60 stars, where 1 star=$1 spent. 

Accessed with my phone and starbucks card, I can easily track the amount of stars spent. Organisations like starbucks and Grab motivate you to spend more at their organisation to retain your “membership”. Every 300 stars accumulated, you’d be crown a Gold member, where you get to access exclusive offers. However, to retain the Gold membership, you’d have to accumulate another 300 stars before the expiry date of the previous stars. This is one example of how I would cocoon myself in a place of encampment, all while footprinting with my Starbucks rewards card. These further emphasises the 3 genres of presence that were mentioned in the reading, which I strongly agree for.  It is ironic to me how I camp at Starbucks to cocoon myself to escape the real life, yet I am leaving more of me whenever I use my Starbucks reward card. I resonate with most the participants because even as a student, I like to cocoon myself with my airpods, camp at a cafe where i can focus and use many reward cards to earn more discount. A question that I thought of while reading was, was it truly worth it to sell my data for the extra 10% the membership card can bring me? For now, I think that while it might be creepy, it is definitely convenient and accurate to some extent. As much as privacy has been breached and some may feel intruded, I think that it is ultimately part and parcel of the digital age we live in. In order to get some discount, we have to give some pieces of our information. 

[jzooey]

Blog post 2: Domestic Media (Joey Wong)

This week’s lecture and reading was about how media is used domestically and how we have different perspectives to them.  In this week’s reading, Spigel talked about how television is a part of a longer history of communication and how it makes the world seem smaller and turning “there” into “here”. I am sure in most of our household, we all own at least 1 set of television. There have been arguments about keeping the family together or apart as sometimes television can cause us to escape from reality. However, television can also help us bond as a family. Personally, my family and I gather around the television to celebrate events. Once before a new year start, we countdown together with the local celebrities infront of our television, as though they are right there with us. Once the clock strikes 12, the whole condo screamed “HAPPY NEW YEARRR” with loads of cheers and claps. Despite not watching the same set of television, my neighbours are able to “bond” with my family through the same program, which counts down to the start of a new year. Another time where my family gather round the TV is every 9th August, where we celebrate our nation’s independence. I may not be the most patriotic singaporean, but with my family on 9th August I feel a stronger sense of belonging to Singapore through watching the parade on the television together. 

Spigel also talked about television as a symbolic object that communicates messages about the resident, especially in Japan. However, I think that this is true for many household. The richer someone is, the more able they are to afford a more expensive television. For example, Singaporean Youtuber Ryan, also known as Night Owl Cinematics, owns the latest Samsung television that produces really good picture quality. As Kristin Rothey stated, “proof of socialism’s ability to deliver the good life”. Television is used in this case to show his viewers how well to do he is.

In Spigel’s reading, it was stated that people traditionally put the newer TV set in the living room to be more respectful towards their guests. I agree with this to a small extent. While it is true in my household that the TV outside is bigger and more expensive than the one in my parent’s room, it was not my parents’ intention to be more “respectful” to guests. I also know of friends with one TV set in each room, the same model as the one they have in the living room. Thus, while this may be true traditionally, I believe that these stereotypes have been shifted. 

[jzooey]

Post 1 - Technology as an experience (Joey Wong)

The reading I chose to write on is by Mccarthy & Wright. The reading was mainly focused on how technology has improved and grown to be more successful when they relate to human experiences. The reading started off with 3 short stories of how people are intertwined with technology and how technology has made them feel in their daily lives. They later talked about HCI and user experiences, how norman’s model of action lacked in the area of how people feel when using technology, users as a social actor and how emotional quality is important when creating and improving technology. They also wrote about how interaction with technology is now as much about what people feel as much as it is about what people do.

The authors wrote about how text messages can make one feel connected despite being physically apart from one another. In the next short story, the authors portrayed how the nurse felt that her patients are being taken away from her when she uses the system. This shows how that piece of technology has made the nurse feel as though the essence of her job was taken away from her -- being able to care for the patients. In the last short story, the father in the story used many pieces of technology, showing us how it is intertwined with his life and using a piece of technology, gaming, he is able to do what he love which is to spend time with his daughter.  “Technology is deeply embedded in our ordinary everyday experiences”. I agree with the authors. As being someone who is born into the world in year 2000, I have never lived a day without technology and I have grown reliant on technology, just as I am typing this tumblr post with my computer. Especially during this time where the pandemic still lives amongst us, technology has played such a big part in helping us stay connected despite being physically apart. With the usage of video calls, we are able to be “in a lecture” without actually being in the lecture. As most parts of the world go into lockdown, our only mean to stay safe while staying connected is through technology be it through a phone call or through texts exchanges. I agree with the authors to a large extent that our interaction with technology can and has involved emotions, values, ideals, intentions and strong feelings. Using the example in the reading where the father press the record button such that he can replay the drama with his wife later on, the use of recording could help the husband to portray his love for his wife by recording her favourite tv series for her. 

I agree to a small extent that successful technologies are those that are in harmony with users’ needs. It is true that technologies such as texting and phone calls are very successful due to the fact that it provides people with alternative ways of doing what they already love doing which is communicating. However, there are also technologies that people have hated using but yet they still need to use them, causing them to be successful. Using the example of the nurse, she did not like how the technology made her feel like her patients were bits of information but the technology is useful in helping the hospital keep in order and track of their vacancies.  Personally, I am leaning towards agreeing with Mccarthy and Wright to a large extent in general. I will be using the example of texting to explain how technology has truly been embedded in our lives and how our interaction involves emotion. I personally use text messages a lot be it through Whatsapp or Telegram. Texting allows me to convey what I wish to say without having to be there physically. A lot of times I find myself being more capable of conveying my feelings through text messages rather than in real life when I have to face the particular receiver. With its constant update and improvement, personally for me I think that one reason why Telegram has remained successful is the use of “stickers”. 

Here is a snippet of my mother and I communicating with stickers. With Telegram’s update, users can now convey their emotions in the form of stickers. Thus I agree with Mccarthy and Wright that technology has evolved to become more in tune with our experiences and feelings.