#digitaldivides

[shiraiharris]

Digital Divides: Photographer photoshops mobile phones OUT of images  (Shira)

Photographer Eric Pickersgill created the fascinating photoseries, entitled Removed, after realising he would frequently turn his back on his wife while looking at his phone.

The past month has been chaos with the Jewish holidays that just ended (finally) tonight, which is the reason my posts keep happening so late.  I, like many other observant Jews, do not use technology and various electronic devices during the holidays.  As I conclude this holiday season, I am excited to gain control and full access to my technologies once more, particularly have full access of my computer to do my homework.  I have recently become more flexible with using my computer if necessary for homework or stage management.  Watching the videos Rowan posted after reading Hand’s article, I was not surprised by the general negativity about the impact of technology on our ability to communicate for one another.  At the same time, I agree with Evie, Aaron, and others who argued that Touchscreen does not give credit to the positive impact of the digital world.  Not having the ability to communicate with many of my friends and family who do not use technology over the holiday further reminded me of the unavoidable all encompassing nature of technology and our ability to communicate with people all the time.  About a year and a half into college, I began texting on Shabbat and holidays, although I do not write or use my computer.  My decision to do so was twofold: without the ability to contact my non-Jewish friends, I often found myself alone and isolated.  Additionally, since I couldn’t contact many of my Jewish friends, it seemed that using my phone would allow me to be able to make plans with those of my Jewish friends who do use their phones.  What I did not anticipate was that becoming more flexible in my electronic uses would actually result in a very distinct and isolating divide between myself and those more religious.  Since selecting to use my phone, I am interested in how I can be more mindful of my technology usage all the time, especially on holidays.  I have attached a link to an article with photos of people with their phones/devices removed to draw attention to our over-dependence.  

[rcocc]

Digital Divides (Regina)

Before I read my classmates’ posts, I was struggling to make sense of the readings. One, the print was small, so my eyes didn’t want to work so hard to read words I don’t know. But also, I think I was struggling to envision what was being considered. Now, after having read through these posts and considered questions brought up by my peers, I have a much better idea of what was being explored. This is, first of all, an example of where technology has enhanced my experience and relationship with individuals, contrary to the sentiments of “Touchscreen” (though I do think that is a very beautiful piece). 

The video Rowan posted, “Amazing Tron Dance,” brought up some questions introduced in “Identity, Performance and Technology.” Of course I marveled at the spectacle that was the dancers being strategically illuminated to seem as if they are disappearing and reappearing out of the darkness. The luminescent suits they wore also captured a very “tech-y” “avatar” kind of character. But overwhelming I had to question the mixed reality paradigm, a term Evie generously outlined for us from the reading. The dancer on stage embodied both themselves and their avatar, with the illumination of costume defining the difference. To the spectator, when the lights are off, that body is gone from the show, gone from sight, gone from consideration. And yet, of course the body is still there. I question the doubling presence of body and avatar, when both are housed in one? I think film really has the advantage of effect because in person, a performance like this may ask for suspension of reality (i.e., you can still see the outline of bodies, hear their feet scuffling, etc.)

Just as a little treat, I wanted to post a Beyonce video that came to mind when considering both readings. her 2011 Billboard Awards performance of “Run the World” was supplemented with this avatar technology, “manipulation” of projections background. This was the first time I ever saw something like this before. Of course it isn’t as impressive or precise like the “mesmerizing dance performance” video, but it was also 2011. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EwZ_AzDDM4 (performance starts at 3:00)

[baebaeron]

I also thought this went well with the Susan Broadhurst and Josephine Machon reading.

[baebaeron]

Re: “Touchscreen”

I, like Evie, found Touchscreen to be a lazy argument. Perhaps social media has made us somewhat less skilled at in person communication but it has also opened so many doors for people; especially the LGBTQIA* community. 

LGBT people, especially teenagers, in rural communities do not typically have a large support base at home or in school and they find that support online, especially on spaces like Tumblr. Through social media, they are able to find information and hear experiences on how to go about coming out, transitioning, dating, etc. 

Tumblr, for me, helped me in a huge way coming to terms with who I was when I was in high school. I come from a conservative Christian family and had no gay friends at the time so the only resource I had for any kind of information was online. If it wasn’t for social media and technology, I could totally still be in the closet, married at 18 like my brothers, and preaching door to door about the bible.

[eviezavidow-blog]

The Historical Precedent of Commodifying Relationships (Evie)

In Making Digital Culture, Martin Hand states that “there is something about the interactivity of digital machines which destabilizes modern categories of culture and technology” (44). He further defines the former as meaning and the latter as technique, claiming an asymmetrical relationship between the two and acknowledging modernity as the increasing technologization of society, culture, and subjectivity. 

A lot of people, including Marshall Davis Jones in “Touchscreen,” target technology and modernity for ruining interpersonal relationships and dominating ‘culture.’ They claim there is no real human interaction anymore, that love is felt through a screen and to have an online presence is a) a necessity and b) a performance. However, in thinking about romantic relationships specifically (of course ‘romantic relationships’ as a norm warrants destabilization), I am wondering if this is too lazy an argument. Even if the overwhelming presence of social media (Instagram, Facebook, Tinder, etc.) did inherently mean performance on the part of those who participate, is this something new? Is this a distinctly technological phenomenon? Marriage and love itself were commercialized and institutionalized long before the evolution of modern technology. 

People lament the commodification of love without acknowledging the purely capitalistic (and colonialist, racist, and heteropatriarchal) foundation upon which Marriage rests. Slaves were kept from marriage so that their children could be born into slavery, forming the backbone of the economy. Freed Black people were then forced into marriage in conjunction with a criminalization of adultery in order to recapture them, once again forming the backbone of the economy. Communal (non-married) methods of indigenous living were destroyed in order to implement White, European economic structures. Women have historically been pressured into marriage to keep them out of the public/economic sphere and contained within the private/domestic one. The current wedding industry pulls in an average of 40 billion dollars per year. In other words, the commodification of “love” and relationships is not born with the rise of technology. Further, ‘culture’  may never have really been all that separate from the technique that those critiquing technology discuss. 

tl;dr long story short, where technology has undeniably altered the way we interact with each other, it is nowhere near the sole reason we have purportedly found ourselves incapable of genuine and loving human relationships.