Blog #6

The plot line of avatar is just like every other run of the mill film that Hollywood mass produces and advertises in the attempt of swindling the public into seeing the same thing over again. The dichotomies within avatar are the same gender specific stereotypes that are drilled into our heads by other “Action and Adventure” films, that women are the weaker gender and must submit to the man and his orders. This is clearly displayed in Avatar when Dr. Augustine confronts Miles Quaritch about allowing Jake Sully work on the Avatar program. Miles talks down to her and degrades her research and the effect it will have on the Navi people. This is the typical stereotype of a man dictating orders to the woman, telling her what is best for the both of them. It further integrates the ideology that men are smarter than women because they get the job done, no matter the cost.

After watching clips from the Avatar movie and having class discussions with Dr. Muhlhauser and class mates, it became apparent to me that there are some basic things that are contradictory about this movie. The main contradiction is that the main character, Jake Sully, is a crippled man, who is in the military, and is the hero of this story. This character completely deviates from the normal hero figures that Hollywood creates. Fit and good looking men are usually cast to play roles like this, but a crippled man was placed in the prime role. The main reason for creating Jake as a cripple was to appeal to the emotions of the audience. The audience could see as a crippled man was able to walk, through his avatar, and experience the virtual world around him, but this is a superficial experience. The movie does a very good job of switching the focus from the well-being of the human Jake to the avatar Jake. The dramatic musical scores within the move make it seem that if Jake’s avatar dies, than Jake dies. This is not true and at any time Jake could come out of his avatar, back into the non-virtual world. This is what makes Jake's avatar very much like a personal WebPage.  Jake can interact within the avatar world without much consequence in the non virtual world which he lives in. Like web personal WebPages, people can display whatever content that they deem appropriate to express their feelings without it have having much impact on their non-virtual world. Blog and WebPages can be created anonymously or by an alias, and information can be displayed.  Charles Cheung states  that the personal web page’s problem “ is not so much about presenting their identity, but concerns their exploration of ‘ who I am’ and re-establishing a stable sense of self-identity” (p. 277). Just like Jake does, people can begin to explore new identities without many social repercussions in the non virtual world. Ultimately, Jake finds that his avatar identity is a better definition of self and that he wants to be augmented into their system. This also can happen to people after they have explored their possible alternative identities and come to a distinction on which ones they would like to be defined as. They are then ready to apply them to their non virtual world, hopefully more confident and sure of themselves.

Rant:  When Jake gets lost in the woods at the beginning of the movie, why doesn’t he just come out of his avatar and tell the other scientists of his general location, or of nearby land marks. I really didn’t like this movie.

References

Cheung, C. (2000). Identity construction and self-representation. New York: Routledge. P 273-285

Blog #5 Pleasure and computers

1) According to Lupton, Advertisements express the relationship between humans and their PCs have being a friendship and some" go further by frequently making the analogy of the relationship of the user/computer romantic, sexual, or maternal" (Lupton p.427). The setting of the advertisement, within the room of a beautiful woman, is speaking to the "computer nerd" who views any girl’s bedroom as a sacred area. This area is a place where her companion, the pc, can access and even relax on her bed. The clear sexual undertones are evident in this advertisement. Instead of having a human partner in her bed, she has a machine next to her. Not only is she interacting with the computer through touch, but she is experiencing pleasure from the interaction in a way that another human being may pleasure her. She is receiving pleasure form the hardware aspect of the machine, not from the interaction with the programs on the computer. This emphasizes the sexual relationship that can be seen between people and their computers. For this woman, it has become an extension of her, something that is giving her pleasure in ways that another human being can. I believe that this advertisement is catered to both males and females. Being a male, it creates a since of longing for that computer in the hopes that this woman may come to my house and lay on my bad, as perverted and immature that may sound, that is what it is saying to me. For the women who view this advertisement, it may instill feeling that this computer can offer an escape from loneness and even give them pleasure.

2)  “The world is undergoing an Information Communications Technology (ICT) revolution, a revolution that has enormous social and economic implications for the developed and less developed countries of the world ”( Bridgethedigitaldivide.com p. 1).  

Maybe I am naive or just ignorant to the facts posed in this class, but I have never really analyzed how technology has affected people and how it is affecting the people without it. The realization of the impact of the digital divide on other cultures and people is very apparent to me now, and I believe that it is a serious and scaring problem for the mass amounts of people without the skills and access necessary to reach the wide range of information and technology on the internet. The lack of equal representation among cultures can lead to misrepresentation and a deprivation of educational material for communities and long for education and self expression that technology can bring.

References

Joseph, M. (Photographer). Master/slave couture swimsuit for sony vaio. . [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.masterslave.com.au/content_images/images/Corporate_Clients/Masterslave_shoe__079-11_yellow_in_sony_computer_ad_sml.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.masterslave.com.au/about-us/corporate-clients-25.htm&usg=__gNtIYGBHyn-r1wditrcH8ukgCGk=&h=490&w=700&sz=301&hl=en&start=54&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=n2_zSKAygt5PyM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcomputer%2Badvertisement%26start%3D40%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2GPEA_en%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1

Lupton, D. (2007). The embodies computer/user. The Cyber Culturesreader, 422-432.

The digital divide. (2010.). Retrieved from http://www.bridgethedigitaldivide.com/digital_divide.htm

Blog #4

1) Thought I have not been involved within the social networking sites, facebook and MySpace, for years, I think that these sites fit the definition of peg communities perfectly. Occasionally, I access MySpace to check the comments on my band's page. When I log in, I am bombarded by what looks like a wall of people’s status. This wall is filled with instantaneous emotions of complete strangers. These emotions are crying out for attention and advice from other people within this virtual community. A person would not express deep emotion online unless they were willing and wanted to receive some sort of emotional satisfaction from the comments of others based on their mutual relation within the community.

 This view of MySpace places it under the definition of a peg community. As Bell states, peg sites are "sites where people can hang their interests or obsession, their enthusiasms or worries, and around them they can - or might - try to build something collective..."(Bell p. 257). I believe that not all, but most, comments on MySpace are pleas for attention of the other users in an attempt to find some type of common ground and a simple emotional connection between two people at an instantaneous moment. Creating a community with the RL is far more effective, in my opinion, than it is in the virtual reality. Though some sense of emotional satisfaction can be gained in the VR, the real life gain from emotional connection, in differing communities, can be even greater.

2) I think that it would be interesting to compare differing MySpace music communities. I would do this by looking at three different genres and how they are portrayed on MySpace. I would try to derive their values and the messages they are trying to send to their target audience. I could also look at the differencing Pathos and Logos on their site in an attempt to further analyze their values. Another option would also be to attempt to analyze their top friends to see what kind of rhetoric they are trying to display.
Possible bands:
Behemoth: http://www.myspace.com/behemoth
Justin Beiber:  http://www.myspace.com/justinbieber
Casting Crowns: http://www.myspace.com/castingcrowns

Blog # 3 Yahoo!

Yahoo!, once a household name has been overtaken by the giant search engine, Google. The appeal of Yahoo! seems to have diminished over the years as the internet has evolved and different technologies have been invented to create a more user friendly site. Though lacking in popularity, Yahoo! still adheres to the basic web page design that Burnett and Marshall discuss on their "Web Theory". Yahoo! is still very aesthetically pleasing to most users that enter the site. It is not over loaded with bright colors that distract and generate an innate sense of frustration. This is by design, According to Burnett and Marshall the lack of colors within a web page or the integration of subtle colors creates a relaxing atmosphere for the user (99-100). This is demonstrated in their plain white/ grey background. And their subtle shading within the boarders of the site.

The site also offers lots of proportional aesthetics. Burnett and Marshall define promotional aesthetics as " one of perpetual anticipation, and this structure of anticipation us part of the way that the web presents its own form of information in hierarchies..."(88). This is clearly demonstrated on the Yahoo! homepage. The most interesting news reports and hyperlinks are displayed at the top of the webpage while the less significant information is below. This technique is to help hold the users attention and draw them further into the site.

One aspect that has worked for Yahoo! is its ability to connect people through links to other activities offered by the site. These are shown in a column on the right side of the page. The links offer a means for its users to connect with other users via games, messenger, and movies. Though in theory these links should hold a users attention in and attention driven economy, but I wonder if they do. The links on Yahoo! may become and annoyance to anyone who isn’t interested in them, especially if it takes longer for the page to load with them.  Time is money and in a business driven world, maybe simplicity is more important then constant stimulation.

Reference

Burnett, Robert, and P. David Marshal. Web Theory: an introduction. New York: Routledge, 2003. 84-101. eBook.