Virtualities

The Mode of Information and Postmodernity (Mark Poster)

Poster argues that "the mode of information [with the poststructural approach] enacts a radical reconfiguration of language, one which constitutes subjects outside the pattern of the rational, autonomous individual" (398). I feel that this argument is particularly difficult to disagree with, given the trends we have been seeing over a decade after this chapter being authored. The Web has completely changed the use of language in discourse and within social networking, influencing every aspect of how we are socialized to present-day norms. Today, some people out there regularly use networking platforms such as Myspace, or even Match.com to try and find their future "soul mates" (or perhaps just a random "rent-a-soul-mate"), and this carries little to no social stigma, particularly with the younger generation. We soon derive our very identity from the way we present ourselves online, as "the individual is acted upon in relation to his or her identity as it is constituted in the database" (404), which can often be a fairly narrow definition.

The way that instant messaging lingo has infiltrated our everyday dialogue is also very interesting to me, and it's fascinating that online text can often be substituted to carry the same meaning as the actual printed word, when really it is an extremely different medium. As students, we tend to trust articles that we find in online databases when putting together sources for research papers, without thinking twice about how these texts could have been edited or altered through the shift to the online world. I think it's an accurate perception that this, too, undermines much stability that was present in the print-based world (I feel like I'm back in J201 with that statement... Oops.)

For a Cultural Future (Eric Michaels)

Michaels examines an Australian Aboriginal tribe in this chapter, looking at how they introduced broadcast television to their culture, causing a pretty large stir. I think that it is important to note that if the television was able to be kept internal to their tribal group, it could be an effective means of communication and celebration of their culture, although I can certainly understand the concerns that some had with the new technology. It's difficult for us to say what is suitable for the Warlpiri, because of what Michaels describes as our ethnocentric focus. That said, I don't think we're headed toward a "lifestyle future" (421) as he argues, as I honestly don't feel that media consumers are truly dumb enough to just demean everything to the lowly status of a cariacture representing a lifestyle, rather than a very real cultural practice for a group of people different than them.

Weaving Women and Cybernetics (Sadie Plant)

And now, the report from the feminists! Don't get me wrong -- I've taken plenty of women's studies courses and am familiar with many of the arguments, especially since I would probably also identify as a feminist if I was asked. I think there certainly is a serious gender divide in access to some of the new media and opportunities available within the information sector today, and this is something that needs to be acknowledged and looked into, but I think some of Plant's points were a bit overdramatized, such as the statement that the concealment of women's "weaving" into our culture was "the denial of matter which has made [men's] culture -- and his technologies -- possible" (435). I have a problem with codependent definitions, such as this.