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I decided to upload these two images because it kind of gives a basic summary of how the B.B.S. was first generated and how far it has come since then.

#eMac #historical perspectives #image post

Today, social media is a term that everyone knows. Even the most remote areas of the world have at least heard of Facebook and Twitter, and are probably using them on a regular basis. But it wasn’t always that way. Social media, in its present form, has been around a relatively short term and even [...]

The link was chosen due to its relation to the three topics covered in the last two week’s reading. The article skims the surface of a more developed social media-oriented web, but what’s important to point out is the underlying function each social media platform involved - communication, a function that played a role in the evolution of the Internet. As Lialina mentioned, websites often had “under construction” or “always under construction” signs posted on their websites, a hopeful indication to visitors the site would constantly improve. At the birth of BBS websites, users had a desire to communicate with each other, so they shared information and built virtual communities, which in some cases, led to real-life gatherings. As the internet evolved, social media platforms took over, and BBS were forgotten. Now, bonding and complaining, sharing and criticizing, are all possible due to the social media boom on the Internet.

A parallel in two readings is the way the two authors feel about the internet as of modern day. They both feel like it has no soul per say, as if everything is made to be consumed and there is no way for a person to really enjoy themselves unless they are profiting somehow. A very interesting way that the author of I hate the Internet did was insert himself into the novel and say that he was writing a bad novel because it was all about the Internet. The author of the first reading a very similar thing, she created a very custom webpage that was meant to be like the way the Internet was running in the very early 2000's. They both want to feel the custom and free feeling that the internet was made for. They both also think the Internet is being greatly misused, one thinks that we need to make it custom so we can really feel like we contribute. The second author thinks we are misusing the Internet because we want to be so involved and make a statement in a space that was not meant for that. In a way they are opposing each other but they also think there is a way that we should fix our use of the Internet. They both also talk a lot about the use of social media. The first reading says that social media is not custom and not a real representation of who we are. There has to be a 'correct' way to use any platform so we are never really showing our true selves. The second reading wanted to share how much of an impact social media was when it came to a revolution in Turkey. He discussed that the sheer power of people using one platform to speak out made the country shut down the websites and black out a lot of parts of the Internet that would give them that power again. Both of these readings were in a way very similar but also pulled apart from each other in opinion.

In “Social Media’s Dial Up Ancestor”, Kevin Driscoll informs readers on the earliest form of social networking - bulletin board systems. BBS’s were networks that existed on the internet which users could log into using the telephone. They were a niche interest for many early Internet users, where people in a given area could come together to share information and exchange files with other users. Users could post on the bulletin board system to leave behind a “bulletin” for other users to see. At this time, bulletin board systems were local. This meant that people could bond over shared interests online, then meet up in person. As BBS’s grew, users to connect to different BBS’s all over the world. Driscoll lays out the history of these systems and how they evolved over time.

“The History of Minitel” explores another now-ancient networking system, where users used Telecom phone lines to connect to their computers and chat, check the weather, or even engage in erotic conversations. The Minitel was a French phenomenon that took off in the early 1980′s. Initially, the system was designed to replace telephone directories, which were expensive to print and difficult to distribute. Over time, it grew into something bigger, where users could do anything from applying to college to checking the news. In a pre-Internet world, Minitel was a huge stride in technology and was definitely a predecessor to the Internet we know today.

In “A Vernacular Web”, author Olia Lialina reflects on the now archaic web design style that defined the early web. She examines what made this cobbled-together style iconic and why it eventually evolved. The most important element of this era was the concept of websites being “under construction” - that is, people’s pages were personal projects, and they were constantly changing. This reassured visitors that they could always come back to the page, and someone was working hard to maintain it. She also notes the starry background as a classic early web design trend. This was due to the fact that many early web users were science and science fiction fans, which translated into their web pages. Also noted were the cutesy free graphics many people added to their pages. Instead of one cohesive site, like we are used to today, web pages at this time were more “modular” - comprised of bits and pieces. It is important to understand that at this time, the web was very personal. The shift to websites being run by corporations pushed for a more clean, user-friendly interface with little creativity. Lialina takes the reader on a walk down memory lane and explains what made this aesthetic successful despite the fact it is no longer in style.

hashtag--triggered

My "aha!" moment about the significance of cell phones happened in spring 2009 when I first moved to Oakland, California.

I chose this article by Amy Gahran at CNN because I believe it touches on a couple key aspects of our readings. Gahran explains how cell phones are able to keep us connected. She gives a personal example to prove her point and tells us about being able to keep up with her friends chemo therapy progress through Facebook and Twitter, all from the bus. However, she then goes on to state that “[cell phones] can be an attention-absorbing cloak that people hide behind to isolate themselves from the people around them”. Just like in our reading by Turkle, Gahran covers how cell phones and other technologies can keep us connected with friends all over the world, but at the same time become a tool to distance ourselves from those in close proximity to us.

third-table

This article works both the cons and pros of society and our Always On culture, and Amy Gahran shows her self-consciousness of how “attention absorbing” the cell phone has become. Amy uses her cell phone to isolate herself from the man, and to isolate herself from eavesdropping into his conversation. Then she pauses her cell phone use to consider the man, her pause is to show that she is present, available and attentive. The article shows awareness of how the cell phone is used as “a tool to distance ourselves from those in close proximity to us”(hashtag–triggered). The article aside from offering an explanation of the relationships we have with our cell-phones, also explains how cell-phones has changed our lives. Phones have been transformed to be complex and hold features that make the cell-phone so significant to our daily lives, and it has allowed media to be used to access news and other services. “cell phones also now provide vital services and human connections. They connect people in dire need with services that can change (or save) their lives and offer new hope, even through simple broadcast text messages” Using the cellphones for its full technological potential, is also similar to the usage of any other medium of technology. One difference is the interference that cell phones hold on human interaction.

#connectivity #questionable #Week14

“After Julia sends out a text, she is uncomfortable until she gets back: “I am always looking for a text that says ‘Oh I’m sorry’ or ‘Oh that’s great.” Without feedback, she says “It’s hard to calm down.” - (Growing up tethered pg.176)

#week 11 post

Summary/Connections (Bonus at the end)

This week’s readings began with Gender and the Residential Telephone, beginning the discussion on gender and technology. Foreshadowing the more current conversations of gender and computers, Claude Fischer’s piece examines the historical, technological imagination and its gendering.

Fisher’s piece begins by examining the few surviving studies and surveys from the time of the early telephone but is ultimately not concerned with reported numbers. Fischer aims deeper than face value when looking at survey results, doubting their legitimacy by examining factors that could affect respondent’s answers. And ultimately, Fischer is more concerned with the cultural postures towards the telephone.

When it was first introduced, Fischer tells, the telephone was heavily advertised as a technology of labor meant to help women carry out housework more efficiently. And in this manner, the telephone, much like the stove or washing machine, was gendered as a tool to keep women working around the house. But a much more socially interesting side to the gendering of the telephone comes from the social and communicative benefits.

Women were often perceived to use the telephone more for conversations and to visit with friends and family, creating a divide in how genders communicated. This stereotype, still living on in sitcoms and low-brow advertising, is a product of the gendering of the telephone.

In Dr. Anne Balsamo’s book Designing Culture, she argues for the gendering of the “technological imagination”: the place where future technologies are dreamt up, and where cultural consensus on current technologies is decided. Her argument is more contemporary, aimed at readers brought up on programs to encourage women’s participation in STEM fields, but surrounded by male-dominated tech startups. But its core applies to the telephone: technologies are often considered a-gender, and are only considered gendered when women participate. However, before women’s participation, they are already gendered, only male gendered.

As Fischer describes, women are the gender of sociability: they visit and go out en masse to department stores and theaters to remove themselves from domestic duties. And by making the telephone a social technology, relieving boredom and loneliness, they gendered the technology and the cultural, technological imagination.

From the distinctly gendered first reading, the next readings have a noticeably smaller cultural discourse. Instead, the two chapters from Sherry Turkle’s Always On deal with the issue of connectivity and loneliness. Turkle refers to students on MIT’s campus who are constantly in contact with the digital world as “cyborgs”: “always on” however, hardly connected. They feel enhanced and networked, but their enhancements lend themselves to a more absent-minded attitude.

Applying a similar consciousness to this reading and to the reference of cyborgs, I was immediately reminded of the seminal feminist document the Cyborg Manifesto written by Donna Haraway. Written in 1986 the Cyborg Manifesto marks the shift to a more coalition-building oriented feminism: a feminism built around connectivity. And so it is no small coincidence that Turkle should evoke the image of the cyborg when she catches up on the digital connectivity of the world in her work. Although Haraway seems optimistic about connectivity in the digital world, Turkle is starkly pessimistic. Where Haraway had hoped for coalition building, Turkle seems to find no meaningful connections and networks being made over the internet or on our phones.

Both Tuesday and Thursday’s readings had powerful, human cultural messages under their technological skins and represent changes in technology and the technological imagination. And reading these has built a specific understanding of what a historical imagination is.

Connections

Digital connectivity and the American Culture reflects specific social anxieties that the public hinders behind a small cellphone screen. Always On and Growing Up Tethered show detailed accounts of regression between developments of new relationships or development of separation towards our phones. Our Always On culture has created a revolutionized productivity, but has also deteriorated our individualism and our value of independence. Therefore those who grow up tethered become accustomed to support. “With sociable robots we are alone but receive the signals that tell us we are together” (154), using Turkle’s description of sociable robots tells us that we reject the physical space of socialization for connections.

The explanation of our Always On is the fear that is present in separation of children, adolescents and adults who are tethered or attached to their cell-phone. Although the cellphone is only the object that carries everything society needs to feel connected, in the large world of networking.

Technology sets expectations about how we share, connect, provide an extension of ourselves, therefore since everyone is online that’s when we truly have interactions.

All the expectations have carried over to create a burden, exactly the same burden female’s carried in Fischer’s Gender and the Residential Telephone. Although the problem then was that women appropriated the telephone without consciousness, the distinction now is that society is grown to constantly connect with others through the phone.

Additionally, Adorno believed people gravitated towards popular music because it required little attention and energy. Similarly, the cellphone is used as a means of distraction from reality, as Witkins explained in his writing “On Popular Music” (106). However, contrary to the dull drag of daily life that led people to the music, the cellphones distracts us from the over-stimulating environment that surrounds us.

I READ DR. ANNE BALSAMO’S DESIGNING CULTURE BEFORE ATTENDING UTDALLAS. MY DECISION TO CITE DR. BALSAMO’S WORK WAS TOTALLY COINCIDENTAL. I DID NOT KNOW THAT DR. ANNE BALSAMO IS OUR DEAN. THAT IS VERY COOL. HOW COOL IS THAT? VERY COOL. VERY COOL.

#Week11Phones

hashtag--triggered

Longform, Interviews, and Criticism

This article brought up a point that I had never thought to consider: Just about everyone pirates, especially since “piracy has become normalized”. The first portion of the article centers around critics and how many of them would pirate a movie to be able to view it early and feel part of the in-crowd. The idea that piracy is normalized is really interesting, considering we’re using Tumblr which is popular for its gifs. The article brought up that the process to make gifs require illegal downloading, or another illegal act of removing the copyright protection on the disks or itunes file to be able to use the movie for gifs. Another interesting point is the gaining popularity of gifs. The aricle names large sites, such as Buzzfeed, Vanity Fair, The Independent, that are using gifs more frequently in movie critiques or as “reaction gifs”. Since the only way someone could make a gif would be through pirating the movie in the first place, those sites are actually indirectly encouraging people to pirate. The rest of the article goes on about how pirating films hurt the companies (particularly minor ones), and how some of the companies are trying to release DVDs and blurays sooner to decrease pirating. Even though more and more companies are fighting against piracy, they don’t do anything about the gifs since it is basically free marketing after all. It’s forcing people to find new ways to pirate films or shows. Windows 10 allows users to screen record a “game” however just about anything can be set to be a “game” so users (guilty) are able to simply screen record the show or film and use that file for themselves. The fact that it has become so easy to pirate really shows how normalized this has become.

third-table

I actually enjoyed reading this article because it does go into depth of how “piracy has become normalized” and is now seen as normal behavior when seeking out new/most recent forms of media. Despite the fact that whatever we download/torrent/seed online is considered “illegal” it also brings up the concept that the general public has unequivocally decided “that art and entertainment are things that they are entitled to have for free.” - Matt Zoller Seitz.

Anything relating to mass media entertainment is officially up for grabs. So, this also shifts our focus to ourselves rather than thinking of the parent companies that are producing these entertainments for the general public. This can be considered the gray area that we don’t look deep into or necessarily pay attention to when we pirate or download music/films/shows/video games. To conclude, yes we are all pirates in a sense of having this entitlement for new media.

#reblog post #week 11

Breaking up by text message.

This article explores the effects cell phones have on social interaction for different age groups.

From the late 90s, illegal filesharing gradually brought the music industry to its knees. Exclusive extracts from Stephen Witt’s book pinpoint how music ‘got free’

in this article, the author goes into new depths and looking back at Alan Ellis, a 21-year-old computer science student from the United Kingdom, personal experiences of creating an illegal online filesharing site that essentially brought down the musical industry and changed the way users listen to music.

“That was the real secret: the internet was made of people. Piracy was a social phenomenon and once you knew where to look, you could begin to make out individuals in the crowd. Engineers, executives, employees, investigators, convicts, even burnouts – they all played a role” - Stephen Witt (2015)

#music #filesharing #computing and the net #books

“ Its larger point was that the moral identity of piracy depended on the moral economy of the music industry. That economy, Gullickson felt, was an uneasy mix of two incompatible systems, art and capitalism. In practice, the industry operated solely to maximize profits.” (Johns,439)

#Week7 #Pirates

2/26/17

“The Pirate at Home and at Large” works to trace the social history of home piracy, touching on the greater history of piracy along the way. Beginning with the early issue of print piracy, the chapter recounts massive print pirate operations taking place in factories, creating unauthorized, authentic copies.

But the issue that “The Pirate at Home and at Large” really goes after is home piracy. The chapter begins by establishing the social structures of the home: the most public and transparent things happened, quite literally, out in the open—in the more public places of the house; whereas the more secretive and surreptitious happened in corners of the house, upstairs or in the basement.

Homes that dabbled in piracy of old were portrayed as wrecked by sin—adultery and chaos abounding. But policing of the home was still, legally, nearly impossible. And the home maintained a kind of “sanctity” protecting domestic radio pirates and for a while even video pirates.

A large start for the culture of piracy came from the intensive listeners of jazz and opera. Their piracy had what Johns calls a moral value—a desire to archive and own dying, rare, or otherwise unpurchaseable records, necessitating piracy.

In the shift from early 78 rpm records to modern 33 1/3 rpm records, many older, seminal jazz records were being left behind, never reprinted for the aficionados’ collections. Cornered into piracy, jazz-heads began printing pirate 33 1/3 records as the only alternative to dying 78s. All this piracy, and as it was more specifically called, dubbing, was occurring in official factories.

On the opera front, records were being pressed off radio recordings, caught from European radio waves, where this music enjoyed more popularity. But pirates from either genre were quickly being shut down. This, matched with the advent of magnetic tape and home recorders meant the frontlines of piracy would advance to the home.

And with television programs and films being copied and essentially pirated in every living room, the “sanctity of the household” protected the conscience of every casual, at-home pirate.

In places like Nigeria, piracy has, instead of going from large scale to small, worked its way up. Modern piracy in Nigeria has brought over western entertainment and made it available for the masses. But instead of being a system just for consumption, piracy has opened ways of production.

Brian Larkin’s “Degraded images” reveals a world of infrastructure built by piracy. The same kind of at-home piracy that Johns wrote about, but on a massive scale. Films being copied and sold; music and television copied from physical and digital sources put up on massive physical marketplaces. A whole network of distribution and production built for and by piracy. And from here, filmmakers and the likes have found inspiration for their own original works.

In the places where once only pirated works were sold, a whole array of legitimate, Nigerian made products could also be found. Piracy allowed places like Nigeria, where modern forms of entertainment were often unrealistic, to go through what Larkin calls, “Pirate modernity”; not just modernity for Nigeria, but a kind of global modernity, ensuring that a wealth gap never means a culture gap.

#Week7

teamwhoosh

“The ingenuity of a phonograph’s mechanism may incite the inventive genius to its improvement, but I could not imagine that a performance by it would ever inspire embryotic Mendelssohns, Beethovens, Mozarts, and Wagners to the acquirement of technical skill, or to the grasp of human possibilities in the art.” - The Menace of Mechanical Music, John Philip Sousa

third-table

I really like this part of the reading, it was the part where Sousa really explained how recordings and records were stealing the soul of music. It was more him trying to explain rather than just disapproving of 'music in a can'. This quote really catches how much he doesn't like records and how worried he is about people forgetting to play actual instruments. I really like the picture too, I feel like the blend between classical music and what we know as djs now fits very well with what we read and the discussions we had in class.

#week 6 reblog

Summary

In Sousa’s and Firth’s articles, they explain why the developing industry of music was destructive to music as it was at the time. Sousa and Firth both believed recorded music and the industrialization of music would destroy the integrity of music by ruining the listener’s experience. They both believed music ought to be listened to “live” (a term that did not exist at the time) so that listeners could truly appreciate and connect with music. They also argued that the industrialization of music would discourage people from learning to make music themselves, as this used to be the only way to enjoy music. With music being more easily accessible, Sousa thought, people would become lazier and uninterested in making music themselves. He was also concerned for economical reasons because many people in music could be out of work. Firth goes a bit more in depth about recorded music specifically. Overall, they both make a compelling argument, and it is interesting to look at music through this historic lens.

In Clayton’s article “Confessions of a DJ” he explains both the pros and cons of deejaying as a professional career. In this piece, he lays out some of the problems with deejaying, such as the legality issue and economic problems. Because deejaying is inherently “illegal”, DJ’s struggle to make a living. In addition, they often have to make sacrifices like playing gigs they wouldn’t otherwise want to play. It is a difficult choice between making a living and having artistic integrity. Clayton has been all over the world with his deejaying and seen all sides of the industry. It is certainly interesting to read this piece in juxtaposition with earlier works on the developing industry - it is safe to say that both Sousa and Firth would have a lot of criticisms about deejaying and the current state of the music industry.

#Week6Music

Week 6 Music

Connections:

The backlash or control of music is a consistent problem between all three articles dated in the early 1900’s, 80’s and late 2000’s. The controversy of music has depended both on the artist and the listener having different views on the rise or fall of music authenticity. We studied both the controversial views of composers and technological advancements, and the views of popular music movements. In the world of DJ we discover that “To kids coming of age in a world of technology and unhinged capitalism, our music seems to sound the way global capital is—liquid, international, porous, and sped-up”,(Clayton) this is the contextual idea of DJ. Sousa’s controversial idea of mechanical music “I foresee a marked deterioration in American music and musical taste, an interruption in the musical development of the country, and a host of other injuries to music in its artistic manifestations”(Sousa), explains the hesitation and “apathetic” culture that disco music received because it introduced a new American pop-culture. The articles uncover how social culture created different genre music, they explain the connotations of classical and DJ mixed music and their role in society. Classical music was a symbol for America’s domesticated lifestyle, because music was integrated into the roles of Housewives. Both articles are contrary to one another “Confessions of a DJ” is focused on the mix of different songs or different tones to create music and a commodity from restricted intellectual properties. While “The Menace of Mechanical Music” contradicted the use of recordings for a sound of music, because it devalued the learning of sheet music and instruments. To connect both classical and DJ music both have similar mathematical elements, without mathematical elements these two different creations of music are completely opposite. Sousa would probably view DJing as an expression of art without soul, because it is created by mechanics and using the intellectual property of others. In the era of Sousa’s, industrialization and ownership weren’t so well understood. In the era of upcoming digital recordings, “ The musical judgments, choices and skills of producers and engineers became as significant as those of the musicians and, indeed, the distinction between engineers and musicians has become meaningless.”(Frith)

#woosh #Music teaches all that is beautiful

Week 6 - 2/19/17

I really wanted to use these two images together because it provides the perfect visual of how musical formats were created, their wide range in versatility, and its multi-use of the magnetic tape.

“Tape was an intermediary in the recording process: the performance was recorded on tape; the tape was used to make the master disc. And it was what could be done during this intermediary stage, to the tape itself, that transformed pop music-making” (Frith, pg. 21 & 22).

#week 6 post #historical perspectives #music

Technology provides crystal clear recordings of all the music in the world, at little or no cost. But, as a historical audio installation opens at the Science Museum, composer Christopher Fox asks why we won't let go of our musical past

This article dives into more of a nostalgic outlook on how the distribution of music has changed over the last few decades. It also discusses the techniques we used to record and store music such as etching for records or tapes and also compacting music into information so we could use it easier to stream or to put on a CD. A lot of detail goes into how music has change and how more efficient on it is to have music playing whenever you want. The article ties into the first reading of this week which discussed the whole concept of "music in a can" but instead of it feeling like there was something taken away from the music Community instead something was added in and changed just as everything else will change. The article also talks about DJs and the way they change the way we feel like we can make music because they remix and or change another artist's music into their own version. The article closes out with the interviewer going to two separate musicians and getting their feedback on how music has changed over the last few decades. The two of them give an answer that is very similar to the beginning of the article which was very nostalgic about how things have changed so quickly and so drastically just as everything else will change.

#week 6 post

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