#deuze

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DEUZE & SARZ

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New Media and its Invisibility

Recently, as new media technologies have developed and evolved, constantly providing more sophisticated affordances with enhanced mobility, individuals have immersed themselves in this technology allowing once-separate facets of their life to converge to the extent where this mediation has become invisible. The product of this convergence is aptly named by Deuze (2011) as a ‘mediapolis’, “a comprehensively mediated public space where media underpin and overarch ... everyday life”. Having such a universal influence over the multitude of aspects of everyday life, media can no longer be seen as a separate entity of any description; media’s integral pervasion of contemporary life has demanded its total and indiscernible absorption into normality.

At this unprecedented stage in the ‘technosocial’ hybridization of contemporary life, as referred to in the first lecture, this invisible media has revolutionised how we experience reality. Always within arms-reach is a technological device of some kind allowing us to remain constantly submerged in this mediated reality. As observed by Deuze (2011: 140), once media becomes invisible “our experience of reality itself, becomes irreversibly modified,” the keyword for me being “irreversibly”. As we progressively adopt these ever-evolving forms of media, generally due to the desirable affordances (both practical and social) they provide, we form ingrained dependences with them requiring our continued engagement with these technologies to function. As we’ve surrounded ourselves by media we’ve slowly entered a fully mediated existence; escape from which is almost impossible to conceive. (Deuze, 2011) 

Deuze (2011: 140) also observes how invisible media modifies “our sense of identity”. Societally we use these embedded forms of media to communicate and interact but it’s how we do this, how we express ourselves to others, whether directly or passively, that helps shape our sense of identity. This idea of typing oneself into being, as espoused by Boyd and Ellison (2007), affirms the impact media has had on self-formation. Almost a decade ago, as highlighted by Donath and Boyd (2004), people were already accustomed to thinking of the on-line world as a social space, and today there are an abundance of social networking sites, each an elaborate hub of communication and interaction; manifestations of our mediated, technosocial lives. Hence, just as one’s appearance and behaviour is representative of their personality, so too does our appearance and behaviour online influence our self-perception and how we are perceived by others. These new platforms for self-expression encourage users to prolifically share information about themselves as part of the platforms' architectural design, according to Papacharissi and Gibson (2011). Despite the unfortunate required sacrifice of one’s privacy to fully engage with this “privately public era of social media,” (Papacharissi and Gibson, 2011: 75) it does afford a new sense of individuality to be cultivated from a collection of your self-advocated thoughts, ideas and beliefs. But first and foremost, it’s the increasing invisibility of this new media which is enabling and empowering this form of self-representation, and as this technology continues to evolve and more seamlessly integrate with reality, it only makes me wonder how far it’ll take us.

Bibliography:

Boyd, Danah and Nicole Elison. 2007. “Social Network sites: definition, history, and scholarship.” Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 13: 210-230.

Deuze, Mark. 2011 “Media Life.” Media, Culture & Society 33 (1): 137-148

Donath, Judith and danah boyd. 2004. “Public Displays of Connection.” BT Technology Journal 22 (4): 71-82

Papacharissi, Zizi and Paige L. Gibson. 2011. “15 minutes of Privacy: Privacy, Sociality, and Publicity on Social Network Sites.” In Privacy Online: Perspectives on Privacy and Self-Disclosure in the Social Web, edited by Sabine Trepte and Leonard Reinecke, 75-89. Heidelberg and New York: Springer.

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Controversial CCTV

Despite all this evidence showing the amount of surveillance and tracking we, ourselves are instigating, there is evidence some members of society disagree with CCTV cameras. CCTV’s main purpose is to deter crime and ultimately protect us and to help provide evidence when crimes do take place. However some citizens have argued surveillance cameras are expensive and the cost of do not outweigh the crimes they prevent, others have argued the amount of cameras has gone too far and they are now becoming intrusive. Researching into the twenty first centuries observed societies I read about a group named The Surveillance Camera Players, who perform contemporary plays in front of surveillance cameras, taking the omnipresent culture will live in with a pinch of salt (Deuze (2012) Pp- 101-130).  

The effects of surveillance in ordinary everyday life are not often thought about, although we are surrounded by it and it is often self instigated. One statement by David Lyon states “All societies that are dependent on communication and information technologies are surveillance societies" (Deuze (2012) Pp- 101-130).

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Oblivious Addicts

This morning I woke up to the alarm on my iPhone.  I coordinated my uni travel plans with friends via a flurry of short texts.  The rolling news coverage on the bus stop screens took me to Libya.  My iPod kept the bus trip entertaining.  Once at uni, I connected to Blackboard and discovered I had assessment due in two weeks. 

All this and it was only 8am.

  Last week, blogger Jordana commented on the excessive new media usage that goes unnoticed in our lives each day.

After reviewing merely two hours in my average morning, I felt like a bit of a geek.  Had I really been wired in that whole time?

   This new existence has been described as a “mediapolis”, where media technologies are seen to “underpin and overarch the experiences and expressions of everyday life” (Deuze 2011, 137). 

Deuze (2011, 138) states that “our life is lived in, rather than with, new media” and we are becoming increasingly unaware of its presence.

  It’s all too easy to download an app that helps you get dressed in the morning.  As Genevieve Bell (2006, 48) acknowledges, “cell phones are pagers, notice boards, answering machines, fridge front doors and bedside tables”.

Even memorising the lyrics to a cover song appears to be too hard for music artists these days- Ben Drew from Plan B can be seen singing lyrics off his iPhone.  

    But it seems we have forgotten an important fact here:

Although our lives remain constantly connected, we are still in the driving seat.

Are we becoming too dependent on new media to get us through the day?  Or is it just a helpful tool that should be embraced?

  Either way, it may be too late to back out now.

      Further Reading: Time Magazine explores the multitasking media generation- Full Article.

References:

Bell, G. 2006. The Age of the Thumb: a Cultural Reading of Mobile Technologies from Asia. Knowledge, Technology and Policy. Summer 2006. Volume 19, No 2.

Deuze, M. 2011. Media Life. In Media, Culture and Society. Volume 33, Issue 1.

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Media is everywhere, and therefore no where

Deuze 2011

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Branding ourselves

As Deuze (2011)suggests media should not be seen as somehow located outside of lived experience, but rather should be seen as intrinsically part of it. Our life is lived in, rather than with, media – we are living a media life.”

Susan Leong presented us with a challenge our 1st week here. It was to refrain from a new media, the internet, for at least an hour. Now some of us didn’t even last that hour, some of us lasted a day, or two days or even three days but no one lasted more than 4 or 5 days. The findings from that challenge was that we felt disconnected, anxious, bored and many other feelings. This shows us that our generation who grew up with new media at our fingertips live the media life. We live in media and can’t live without it for more than a working week.

  In caramattiuzzo’s blog called Image-on-the-go they discuss Levy’s idea about how people are judged by what music they listen to. This is branding a person based on the new media they use.

  New media can consume our lives as we all saw how much extra time we had, if we took part in the 1st week challenge.  It brands us and our lives. Everyone can be branded by the new media they use but the matter of the fact is how much are we willing to let new media label us?

  Deuze, M.  (2011)  Media Life. In media culture & society. 33 (1): 137-148