Something that comes to mind when I think about our generation and technology is facebook. It's completely changed how people interact. A guy doesn't need to talk to a girl he likes in person, he can just poke her. If you want to show how funny you are, send your friend a bumper sticker. I always hear people talking about facebook in common conversation. "Did you see his new profile picture? That girl is in it. I thought they broke up? I guess not..." It changes the way we view ourselves, how we want to be viewed, and information we gain about each other. All through a computer screen with no physical interaction.
While a lot of tech-savvy things are cool, are they necessary? At the end of the day, how productive was it to sit on facebook and stalk people instead of doing homework? I guess with every generation comes its own challenges. We change with the times. Instead of stressing out over a frost killing a crop, we can complain about someone tagging a weird picture or adding another piece of flair. If things have gotten this weird, I wonder what the world will look like in the next 30 years.
If anyone wants an example of enframing, Morgan provides a nice one when she says "Something that comes to mind when I think about our generation and technology is facebook. It's completely changed how people interact." So, having our common modes of interaction changed is the non-human, non-anthropomorphic essence of technology.
ReplyDeleteUsually, however, we tend to take it another step and try to justify these changes as progress or condemn them as degradation. Another option is that we simply say these changes are neutral. These three possibilities corresponding to changes aided by technology are kinds of revealing that order further responses and subsequent modifications on action and interaction, i.e. enframing. "The danger," as Heidegger uses it, involves our tendency to treat this perpetual modification of modification as simply natural.
I’ve had some of the same thoughts about Facebook - our generation in particular has adopted a completely new way of interacting with each other. Back when we were in elementary school, no one had cell phones; people rarely even called each other. Mostly we saw each other at school, which is where people made plans. Then in later years the mass introduction of cell phones allowed instant communication. Now for those who don’t want the personal aspect of talking with someone else over the phone, we have Facebook- an international tool that allows people to A. instant message; B. view/post/tag pictures; C. make comments on a ‘wall’ or about other people’s photos; D. Play games, send ‘bumper stickers’, do stupid quizzes, etc. I was even offered extra credit in another class for filling out a survey about the potential for mainstream games to be promoted and played on Facebook (to reach a wider audience, I assume). First MySpace, then Facebook, what next?
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