No Need To Call

The phone has changed from being a piece of equipment that would ring every so often to a piece of technology that can receive everything imaginable (text messages, emails, facebook and twitter notifications).  In her book, "Alone Together", Turkle explores the notion of children and young adults using the telephone more for receiving messages rather than taking a phone call. 

Cell phones have evolved into something ordinarily used to make a phone call into something a teenager or anyone can multi-task on doing just about anything (text messaging while listening to their music or searching the web).  The phone call is becoming more obsolete every day.  Another thing is the voice mail, i know some people are just like me.. if i make a phone call and the person doesn't answer, i hang up and send them a text message to call me back or message back.  Text messaging is so much more convenient these days but it does has it's downsides.

Text messaging, emails, facebook and twitter notifications are very convenient but are very impersonal.  It lacks the actual tone of the voice speaking (sarcasm, serious, funny).  Text messages are a lot of the times misunderstood because of this reason. 

We have become so adaptive to text messaging because it is so convenient that if someone doesn't respond immediately or within 5 minutes we become paranoid that we did something wrong or wonder why the person isn't texting back.  Most the time the person is busy or just cant text back but there are those people that feel they are obligated to check their messages, even while driving (which we talked about in Dr. Pam Wilson's class).  They have even started coming out with new applications and technology for phones that let you recognize or see if the person you texted read it or not.  This cuts down on the anticipation but also brings into effect controversy with relationships that you have. Maybe someone did read the message but was in a conference or meeting with someone and couldn't text back.  The person who sent the text gets irate or curious in why the person didn't text back because they know that they read it, but why! This brings relationships with friends or whoever you may be texting controversy and arguments.

It feels like we're always connected to someone with our phones.  We are always 'on call'.  Which sometimes it is good to just get away and leave your phone somewhere you cant see it.  Or go somewhere there is no cell phone service.  I went to a small trip this past fall where there was no cell phone service and it was weird, but very relaxing.  It makes me wonder if people were satisfied more with their relationships in life with just having a pager or no phone or having these new technologies for phones today....

Always On

We are literally 'Always On'.  We now have the ability to access the internet, while talking on the phone, after sending a text message to someone you just e-mailed.  There are all these options we can use today that 10 years ago had to be done seperately and not on the same machine that fits in the palm of your hand.  New technologies form every year and we consistantly adapt and change to these new forms of communication and technologies. 

Sherry Turkle's chapter 8 in her book, "Alone Together" is very interesting in how we are always connected to the internet and social outputs.  In the past decade, these newfound technologies of smartphones and wireless connection has broughten us to a new state of life.

In my life, i am lucky to have a smartphone as well in the iPhone.  I have the ability to do everything i need in a timely manner on my phone.  It has everything from text messaging to having apps to checking the weather and anything in between. 

Turkle brought up a great point about e-mails in the chapter.  She talked about how anyone under 25 years old, e-mail has become an old form of use and technology.  I believe this is correct in some circumstances.  E-mail, in my eyes, has become something of the past and continues to do.  With new forms of communication on social media outputs and on smartphones, e-mailing has become something one has to check but doesnt want to. 

Being a college student, obviously i have to check my email for school and my personal email.  However, if i didnt have those email accounts on my phone i would be lost.  I wouldnt check my email as much if i had to log on my computer and check everyday because i just would forget or wouldnt want to.  Having in on my smartphone is a great convenience for me. 

Turkle also brought up the point of distractions and multitasking in the chapter.  I believe that the generation growing up with these forms of technologies grasp the ability to multitask and conduct new ways to communicate.  However, there are forms of distractions with these new forms of technologies.  She said she interviewed children in the 1980's about their lives with technology.  Their distractions while doing homework consisted of Super Mario and music playing in the background.  Now, students are faced with numerous distractions, especially with school, in Facebook, Twitter, texting, email, eBay, shopping on line, and surfing the web in class.  Going through school, i can agree that these distractions sometimes get a hold of students and myself while in the classroom setting.  Now, some people might even function better when they are able to multitask with these forms of technology rather than sitting and drifting off in a lecture.  They might actually get more out of it by not being bored. This could be wrong, but a good thought to think about.

However one might take it, new forms of technologies are being made all the time and we have to adapt to these or we might get left behind.  These days, people adapt so quickly to these forms that it will be something of the past before we know it.

Digital Culture and Social Media

Our ways of communicating have transformed drastically coming from house phones to being able to have 'FaceTime' with people across the world.  'FaceTime' meaning being able to talk to someone while being able to see their face through video all on your cell phone.  Perhaps the most important thing about these technologies and forms of communication is changing, we must be able to change and adapt to these new forms or we will be left behind in the previous era of technology that is more than likely to diminish. 

As the technology of our new media products change and transform, so do our relationships and how we use those forms of media.  Digital media is so easily transferable anywhere one wants to send it.  Our communication patterns and abilities have completely changed from 20, 10, even 3 years ago.  It is forever changing and if we don't want to be left behind we must adapt and be able to learn to use these new forms of 'new media'. 

Some of the ways digital culture appear in my life is definitely through school and research.  With so many classes in college, i must do research in order to gain more knowledge about the topic we are discussing or the paper i am writing.  In today's media world and new technologies, i am able to research through computers and data bases to find the answers or knowledge quickly rather than the traditional way of the library research.  Other uses of technology include: Televisions (HDTV), DVD (now transforming into Blu-Ray), CD (which everything is now available on my iPhone).  As you can see transformations in technology are continually changing.  A few years ago the flat screen television came out, then it was HDTV, and now they have came out with a 3D TV.  And not too long ago was the VHS player which evolved into the DVD player which movies could suddenly play on discs, now movies are evolving into what we call Blu-Rays (high definition movie players and discs that allow us to see a higher quality picture).  And of course, the Internet.  The Internet is the ultimate network that allows everyday people to research and communicate. 

In Glen Creeber and Royston Martin's Introduction and first chapter of their book, they compare 'old media' to modernism and 'New Media' to postmodernism.  Modernism being associated with the early phase of the industrial revolution and postmodernism being dealt with the changes along the way after the industrial revolution.  The context of modernism gives us a theoretical insight into the way in which the media was understood and the ideological impulses which influenced critical theories.  Roland Barthes famously used structuralism and semiotics to analyze mass culture.  He stated that even though structuralism helped further legitimate the study of mass culture and the media, his conclusions still suggested that the audiences were powerless to resist its hidden meanings.  Meaning that all the things the media was doing during the era of the industrial revolution, the people had no idea what forms the media and mass culture would evolve into.

We are still in the postmodernism era with digital culture and social media.  Everything tends to be recreated and transformed but made better.  Competitors in the business world takes the idea of someone else's product and essentially tries to recreate it and make it look better and the next new thing.  These new found forms of  digital culture and social media have sparked more competition throughout the business wold.