Well, according to her MIT page.
I figured I’d toss that one up, there’s a few links to some article pdfs. I’m not sure which one I’ll pick yet, the assignment says, “pick an article, text, or excerpt”.
If you picked one already, could you let me know?
thanks….
Just wanted to add this:
Some of the links are wonky, but here’s her pdf directory.
I’m taking Authenticity in the Age of Digital Companions.
Bell mentions a critique from Bauman regarding the characteristics of online communities, such as “sites where people can hang their interests or obsessions…to build up something collective”. Bell begins to discuss his issues with that argument starting on page 257, paragraph 3, and ending on the first full paragraph on page 258.
He starts out by discussing Bauman’s issues with online communities, primarily starting with how easy it is to find a community, and how focused they are on a single topic. Bauman defines a peg community as the idea that a person can join a community for all the interests he or she might have, and then be able to participate on whatever suits the person at the time. Since it doesn’t require as much work (such as driving to your club meeting, taking time out of your busy life), people typically drop in and out of the community without any repercussions.
However, Bell discusses some examples where being able to use the coat peg idea as a positive idea, where the ability to focus on parts of your life or interests in a community can have value. Initially I agreed with Bauman, because it does takes less work to find a community based on your interest, but I think Bell is more flexible about online community bonds, and how a focused community has value, even if the bonds seem transient. Although some communities are flexible with member activity, I have looked at communities where member activity is required, and even monitored because they don’t want to have a community of lurkers. Many of these communities are based on the discussion of a topic, and if nobody discusses anything, the community will turn into a ghost town and lose its value. Livejournal has a lot of communities like that, where people discuss their favorite tv shows, argue over politics, submit makeup swatches or post “What They Wore Today”. In particular, if the community is based off of the content of their users, the bonds between community members are stronger because all the members are sharing something personal about themselves, or in the coat peg example, hanging their coat on the community peg.
From my point of view, I feel that he suggests that the separation of your personal identity into pegs can be a way to work out your identity, which could occur, if you felt that our identities are a sum of the parts. I do believe that I am a sum of my parts, because I have so many interests and many discordant parts that may not seem like they fit together when separate, but work together well as a whole. I love gaming, I could happily play games and rot away on a couch if I didn’t have any other interests, but I also love making delicious treats for my loved ones, all while testing out a DIY ombre manicure. I like programming, but I also love painting and being creative with random objects. I think those types of things makes us more interesting, and I think everyone has some level of facets on their personality (what you see is not just what you get).
Bell also mentions his disagreement with Bauman’s idea that online communities are not based on a true bond between people, and people don’t expect to have any type of repercussions when they decide to move on, or stop their active participation within the community. I almost threw up my hands at that point and did a mental “hell yahs” with Bell because I don’t like anyone dissing my virtual bonds. I loved my original blog community, I missed them when I was gone, and I got mad at them when they asked for too much from me (comment more, read my blog, chat with me! was a regular occurance).
Believe me, there are repercussions if you move on, people are still in those communities, and if you are active in the community, someone will notice. I remember when I decided to stop writing in my original blog. Everyone got really mad at me, and one girl in particular was mad enough to stop keeping in touch with me because I didn’t have time to chat with her anymore. I still feel bad about it, but screw her for not understanding. It isn’t any different when my friends graduated and moved far away, some I still have a bond with, others are still pissy that I’m not all over their facebooks.
In the end, for me, bonds shouldn’t be based on whether they are online or in real life, in my life, it depends on the community or the people involved.
After finishing Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, I was restless, thinking about what transpired during the three parts of the book. The book itself was split into three acts, the first is about Okonkwo’s inner struggle to get beyond his father’s legacy, the second is how Okonkwo deals with his family’s exile from his tribe, and the last is the struggle between the tribe and European missionaries who have moved into their space. Each act seems to add to the chaos that is Okonkwo’s life, and it is sad to see how a personal conflict caused a ripple effect in his and neighboring tribes.
As I learned about Unoka and his life at the beginning of the story, the first thing I thought was that he seemed at peace with who he was, even though he was in debt and had trouble taking care of his family. It didn’t seem that his family was unhappy with him, except for Okonkwo, who had to deal with repercussions of his father’s actions. In comparison, it was mentioned, “…Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.” This theme repeats itself in various forms, with how Okonkwo deals with what happens in his family life, the way tribe deals with crime, with the way the tribe reacts to the missionaries.
There were also themes of orality within the book, such as Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, who played the flute. In one scene, a neighbor visits Unoka in order to get a repayment of an old debt, and he does this by talking to him in proverbs. The story contrasts the neighbor’s speaking style when they were first talking, and how he speaks when he mentions the reason he was visiting Unoka. It seemed that by using proverbs, you aren’t coming out and saying plainly what you want because you want the listener to figure out what the speaker wants. I think that this is a way to discuss a sensitive subject like debt without angering or upsetting anyone.
In the beginning of the second chapter, there is a mention of the ogene (a gong) to show that a message for the village was coming from the town crier. Although the message was simply to share the meeting area and who should show up, the details indicated that the crier knew it was unhappy news, and let people know by the way he gave his message.
The drums also play a part in giving the tribe’s members a way to anticipate what was going to happen. The music was almost like a language where it could incite feelings of excitement or fear depending on the message. They used music to get ready for war, for preparing for festivities, such as the wrestling matches. When someone won, they made a song about him and recounted his glory as a wrestler. Other stories were shared between generations, morality stories for children and war stories for boys and young men in order to prepare them for their lives as adults.
Virtual communities have been a part of my life since I’ve been able to get on the internet but my involvement with virtual communities has changed over time. I define a virtual community as an area of virtual space that is focused on an interest, is updated on a semi-regular basis, has more than one person involved in it, has rules and regulations for belonging to the community and the majority of the updates are in the virtual space. I don’t want to cut off any communities that may have started in real space, because I think it is possible for a community to grow beyond its original intent if given a virtual space.
I have tried many types of virtual communities, such as online MUDs, chatrooms (from AOL to IRC), online games, livejournal, my old blog, this current blog, facebook, myspace, too many to list. It does take up some of my time to keep up with everything, and depending on my lifestyle at the moment, sometimes I just lurk without giving back to the community. At this point in time in my life, my interactions with my virtual communities is much lower than it was a few years back. One reason this is happening is because I started living with my boyfriend and we are making plans to get married soon, so my priorities are focused on my personal life, and learning to build a life with him. However, I think I am more active with my communities than I am with my good friends because I live far away from them and can’t visit them.
My current communities (in no particular order) include:
Daninja killing a bird in Aion
Most of these communities have some sort of barrier against joining, but once you fulfill their requirements, they are relatively welcoming to new members. Aion requires a member to buy the software, pay a subscription fee, and to follow their game rules (no botting, hacking or selling in-game items/characters for real money). However, once you start playing, there are guilds you can join, but they typically have restrictions and expect you to have certain skills. A serious guild might ask a member to fill out an application, be above level 25, be over 18 years old, have experience with PvP (player versus player fighting) and be an active user (someone who plays regularly and preferably for long periods of time). Other guilds just wan
t maturity (don’t kill your friend, don’t steal) and be willing to help the guild (help members with missions, share loot, etc). It really depends on how serious you are about the game. Since I’m a typical casual gamer, I don’t belong to an amazing high-ranked guild, but I still have fun without the commitment.
In contrast, ONTD has rules, and serious mods that will make sure you obey them or risk getting banned. When you try to sign up for this community, you have to be an active livejournal member, belong to some other communities, post on your journal regularly or post to other communities otherwise you won’t get in. Once you are in, there are rules about posting similar gossip stories, posting porn (only if it is a gossip story and marked NSFW), posting about banned celebrities (Heidi and Spencer) and posting the dreaded comment, “FIRST”. Beyond that, it is a free for all, rude comments are welcomed, snarky gifs and macros are exulted and having an amazing userpic is practically required. Good spelling and grammar is not required, but a comment will probably be ridiculed to death if it is not on purpose.
When I think about the kinds of experiences I have had that were almost purely virtual, I think of my gaming communities because it was very easy to feel like you are a part of a community. When I first started playing Aion, I learned what it was like to play without your gaming group. Part of the difficulty in starting a new game is getting to know people who are on at the same time and have a similar playing style. I usually would post messages in the [General] chat area for the game and also in my character’s job chat area so I could ask questions about how to choose a weapon, stats, etc. Unlike my previous game, Tabula Rasa, it was extraordinarily hard to find a group to work with by just chatting up people. Most people had an affiliation with a group from other games, and so it was difficult to get into a “good” group without knowing someone already in the group or filling out an application. Since I was unaffiliated with anyone, I found that I made more progress by asking for help with a mission, and then sticking with the group after the mission was completed. I found that I ended up on more people’s friend list in this way because I was helpful and we had a good gaming session. However I rarely got the same gaming friendships that I got from my old game.
Daninja in front of Tabula Rasa line
During my time playing Tabula Rasa, I had a completely different experience, which I partially blame on the size of the player base, and how dedicated people were to this game. In comparison to WoW, this game wasn’t popular, and the player base was small. Since people were always looking for people to group up with, it was easier to find a group to perform a mission, and if you were wandering around, it wasn’t too hard to find someone in need of help (from cockroach-like aliens). I also found that becoming affiliated with a larger group was much easier as well because there were more casual gamers who just wanted to have some fun, rather than get into the serious PvP. In comparison to Aion, I had in-game friends that would say hi when I came online, and we would e-mail each other outside of the game with interesting videos, pictures, etc. that we found on the internet. Most of my Tabula Rasa friends also were on my facebook and myspace pages. Even though I have never met any of my gaming friends in real space, I enjoyed their company when I was playing.
Although I never met any of my gaming friends from Aion or Tabula Rasa, I have met friends from previous games, and I felt that the experience both enhanced and detracted from my gaming experience. Obviously people looked a lot different from their online personas, and in some cases, not even the same sex. We had a great time meeting each other, but afterward it was a little difficult for me to separate the person that I met from the online persona. I still keep in touch with some of the people that I met at the game convention, but most of them I have lost track of once I left the game.
I love that I can use this title again and still be somewhat religiously correct AND pertain to our reading, which is chapters 4-7 from Orality and Literacy, by Walter J. Ong.
Ong is like the Grapenuts cereal my dad used to eat to get his “digestion” going, you know it’s good for you and after you let it soak in for a while, it becomes much more edible and even a little bit tasty (just a little though, my mouth has permanent scars from prematurely eating Grapenuts before they were properly soaked in milk).
After reading about how writing restructured the way people thought, in particular about how writers moved from dictating their missives to writing as a solo habit, I realized that in a small way, people are using orality and literacy as mediums for sharing information.
Podcasts are one example where a writer can create a “reading” where they talk, discuss, and explain their thoughts about a topic, but it is structured more like an article. Youtube is full of how-to videos on everything from fixing a leaky pipe to applying false eyelashes, and there is no obvious audience that is watching, but the author assumes that they are sending this information to a potential audience. Blogging is another instance where the author is writing to an invisible audience at first, and even if they become popular, they can’t always be sure that they know who their audience might be.
I do wonder though how people compose their writing, because I’ve never shared how I think about things, and how I come up with ideas for what I want to write about. I always assumed it was something acutely personal. That’s why when I read about some writer’s habits (especially the eleventh-century Eadmer of St Albans), I actually felt a bit of kinship. When I write, I am actually mentally “talking” to myself, kind of like my mind is a mental typewriter, but it’s more than that. Like St. Albans, I dictate to myself when I write, especially for blog posts. I am literally having a conversation (writing) to myself, so I thought it was interesting that novelists don’t imagine themselves reading it out loud to an audience. When writing for a formal paper, I tend to be less conversational, both mentally and style-wise, but after I’m done, I always read my paper out loud to see if it makes sense to me. Could this be orality at work? Or am I merely acting as my own secretary since I don’t typically have anyone I can trust to edit my papers?
In the Print, Space and Closure chapter, Ong discusses meaningful surfaces. I’m not sure if this is correct, but for me, meaningful surfaces is the value of of writing based on how difficult it is to produce. Wooden block writing – very hard. Calligraphy – very very hard (skill and experience is involved in this process). Typing out a paper on a computer – medium-hard (software experience and equipment). However, it is much easier to produce mass amounts of an article from a computer rather than sitting down one day and pulling out the calligraphy brushes (that’s why it’s slowly becoming more of a hobby or a cultured skill) to write your article for the masses. Cost plus time means that you might not want to spend the money to gather the materials to create a wood block grocery list, but you might do it if it was for a special occasion. Is the junk on the internet there because the cost to buy some hard drive space and a domain is fairly inexpensive and (depending on your skill level) easy to implement compared to buying ads in a newspaper or sending junk mail to the residences in your neighborhood? I think it is, that’s why we have spam, why websites force you to register to use their services, and why people still send you those fwd:fwd:fwd:REPLY TO THIS OR YOUR HAIR WILL FALL OUT messages.
When our instructor told us that Ong was going to be a dry read, I probably should have taken him a bit more seriously. This isn’t a complaint, but more of a “wow I see what he means now”. However, it wasn’t completely boring, except for the linguist explanations, which was a little much for me.
I think the first thing that stood out was the comparisons between the way people thought about oral and written language in their daily lives. He mentions phrases like “looking it up” which wouldn’t be possible for an oral language, since there is nothing that is written down. I also was surprised that there were a lot more languages that do not have a written component than I thought. Lastly, I was interested in how mnemonics applied to orality, and in comparison how people who use a written language still utilize these processes .
When I read about the differences between oral and written languages, I was primarily surprised about the kinds of phrases that we take for granted because we use a written language. It isn’t completely dissimilar to using chat-speak outside of a chat or instant messenger. I am always having to explain my cryptic Facebook status messages to my mom and her boyfriend because she is a novice to the internet and hasn’t learned all the shorthand or the acronyms that keep evolving over time. I can’t imagine having to remember an incident and its details without a way to write it down, and I definitely have issues remembering what I need to do without a list. My boyfriend is completely different, he is used to remembering the details of what happens in his life, so if you get in an argument, you better have your story straight or your argument will fall apart quickly (I speak from experience).
Ong also mentions the condescending attitude towards using names as a way to confer power to an object, which I have seen in movies, tv and books, especially towards a different culture. He argued that naming objects allow us to understand, and also classify objects so we can use them. I still don’t understand how to think of names as spoken words and to stop thinking of an object name as a label.
Perhaps if I started thinking of the spoken word as a mnemonic, it might help me see the differences. I try to use mnemonics but I can’t seem to get them right when I need them. I assume that most people didn’t have trouble remembering the rainbow using Roy G. Biv, but it took me until adulthood to remember that one, and I still sometimes have to take a moment. My second mnemonic is from my computer engineering classes, learning how current works: “Eli the Iceman”. I remember the “i” is current, “c” is for capacitors, and “l” is for inductors (?), and “E” stands for voltage (I think). In any case, I was impressed that scholars thought Homer wasn’t literate, and that Homer had to memorize all his poetry.
After I read about how he might have done it, I was still impressed, but I thought that perhaps it could be possible to learn such a huge poem. It makes sense to me that by using epithets to pull things together as needed would definitely cut down on the amount of work needed to repeat something, especially if it didn’t have to be a clone of the original story. Rappers do it all the time, if you listen to enough music, you will hear snippets from older rhymes, or a repeat of a famous line from another artist. You could also link it to cooking, which is something that I am good at (at least I think so). Once you know the basics of making a cookie, and you can consistently create good cookies, you can start changing the recipe. You can add new ingredients, change the proportions, modify the original ingredients if you have allergies.
However, like bad poetry, one must be careful when memorizing your recipes, or you will end up with something inedible.
Cyberspace is such a weird word. Cyberspace makes me think of gaming or even blogging where you create a character and becoming yourself, or a better version of yourself in a place where your physical presence is only needed for updates. Cyberspace could also be an idea from the movies, the terrifying place where anything can happen, and unusually bad things occur (Matrix, The Net, several B movies that I won’t admit to watching).
However, the truth is that cyberspace is my second home, the place where I go for entertainment, for keeping in touch with the world, learning and for gathering information. For example, at our house, we watch movies from Netflix, but we stream them through our PS3. If we miss our favorite program, we watch the stored episode off of our media server. We have two computers, and three laptops that are used regularly in our household. If we are hungry, we look for recipes online, or watch a youtube video on how to make Indian food.
So with that mind, I’ll go with the first one, it is a generalization of my current life.
“Cyberspace. A new universe, a parallel universe created and sustained by the world’s computers and communication lines. A world in which the global traffic of knowledge, secrets, measurements, indicators, entertainments and alter-human agency takes on form: sights, sounds, presences never seen on the surface of the earth blossoming in a vast electronic night.”
I love the idea of cyberspace as a parallel universe because I wish there was a way for us to learn or explore alternative realities when we are sleeping. When that happens, I will be all over that, sign me up for that beta. Yes I understand I will go mad from the lack of mental rest but imagine the possibilities! (Not the mental issue possibilities, but what you could do if you didn’t have to waste all that time sleeping) There just isn’t enough time to do everything, to learn and experience all that is available in the world.
The idea of a cyberspace parallel universe has happened for me on a small scale. The web, e-mail, gaming, chatting, social networking, online communities, information sharing, ordering food, buying clothes, anything you can do with some money and perhaps transportation, you can do in cyberspace. But that fits other cyberspace definitions, such as accessibility, building corriders, and content stored in massive databases.
For me, my parallel universe was my blog. A few years back I used to write in my blog every day, hardly ever missed, had a small group of online and real life friends that read about what I was up to. Technically the blog was me, but it was a snapshot of a point in time, and so it became my online persona, and my recollections were an online saga of my life. And while the physical persona did her homework, went to classes, had a great time with her friends, the online persona was always there for other people, waiting to entertain and share secrets.
It was amazing, and a little scary to have your life running in parallel. You might be mad about something, write a rant, post it and then it’s there. You might be okay a few hours later, but when people see it, they treat it as the instant truth. I think that’s why there is always a push for more information, hurry-hurry, because that is how that parallel universe sustains itself. Once the content goes stale, the online persona no longer works in parallel with real life.
FYI anyone who reads this, I use this space to fiddle with wordpress and its plugins, so forgive me if things change. Also I am one of those TMI people, so sorry, Daniel-san.
Anyway, I thought I escaped from blogging, and here I am again, blogging for my classes. How appropriately godfather-like.
I used to blog a lot, and then I got blogged out, basically got sick of blogging so people would stop bugging me. So I’ve been off for a few years and I’ve been meaning to blog again, it’s a great release and it encourages me to express myself in multiple mediums, such as pictures, drawings, scans of my classroom doodles, all that bunk. It’s not as satisfying as pew-pewing on my deceased game Tabula Rasa (rest in peace), but it is better than nothing.
I recently joined the DTC program this semester, which is an exciting change for me after the rigors of computer science . I have been working on my minor in computer science, and maybe work on a full bachelor’s in computer science after I complete my DTC major. I’m really looking forward to being more creative and using skills that I haven’t used in a while.
The change to DTC was important to me because I want to be a web developer, basically someone who creates websites (or application) and writes the backend code. Ideally I’d like to get better at graphic design, and also get more experience working with databases (SQL, mySQL) and the languages that work with them (PHP, C#, etc).
When I’m not at working as a web developer at the WSU Prosser Extension, I am typically working on all sorts of random projects. My favorite activity is baking and trying out new recipes for my boyfriend and coworkers. I find it relaxing and I get a lot of satisfaction when people enjoy my food.
Another way I like to have fun is playing karaoke games with my friends and playing (aka failing) at shooting or racing games with my boyfriend. Gaming has always been a big part of my life and I typically play online betas because I really like watching a game develop over time and it’s a great way to see if I like the game and want to continue to play after the testing period is done. I just finished playing Aion, and before that, I played Tabula Rasa and City of Heroes.
I always have a lot going on in my life because I like to keep busy, and I am looking forward to getting to know everyone better over the semester.
