Digitized Cultures
Digitized Lives was published by
Thomas Vernon Reed in 2014. Based off the initial chapter, his goal is to clear
up misunderstandings that exist with the invention of the Internet/World Wide
Web. A new epoch was created with the invention
of the internet. This “virtual” world is
constantly in contact with the physical world that we all live in. This new
world does not persist without its fair share of issues and bias. Reed seems to
view the internet era as a phenomena—one not very different from the inventing of
the printing press or television. He fluctuates from emphasizing the life
changing importance to how it is a basic invention. It is obvious he has spent years researching
the digital world based off the questions he asks: “Is the Internet making us
more knowledgeable, or just drowning us in a sea of trivia?” and “Is the Web as
creating new transnational person-to-person understandings, or amplifying
existing cultural misunderstandings?”(Reed 4). One thing I agree with Reed is
that virtual world is spoken about with the internet in a derogatory way, it
shouldn’t. Reading a book places you in a virtual world. Day dreaming can
certainly be defined as virtual. The Internet places you in a virtual world
(one that does not exist) just as reading and day dreaming, yet the internet is
criticized for this. If the user believes the virtual world that they escape to
be real, who are we to tell them it is not? I don’t agree that the
domestication of technology is a gendered process. By thinking this way you are
stereotyping the way men and women think to fit all of their gender. Women will
use the technology to look up recipes for cooking because women cook. That doesn’t apply to the women that do not
cook, and leaves out men who do cook. It is a simplification of a group of
people based of their gender. I wish Reed would not have done that.
I also thought the questions he proposed in chapter one not only alluded to his own intelligence, but also required you to think critically about what he was inquiring. I also agree with your views (and Reed's) that the virtual world should not be spoken in a derogatory manner.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you brought up the "domestication of technology" issue in your post. I too was surprised by Reed's commentary on the term, but I do tend to agree he is right to claim using the word "domestic" adds unavoidable gendered connotations to the conversation (complicating it further). I have heard the phrase “domestication of technology” before, but I tended to conceptualize it in my head as "tamed and no longer wild," like a pet, rather than "household." Now, I agree with Reed the word is more problematic. You make a good point that stereotypes rule in discussion of gendered issues. It is tempting to try and leave them behind in the interest of promoting just conversations and environments. However, to diminish the implications of a word that carries so much history ignores the fact that history doesn't start and stop. Just because gender roles may be shifting and it is more and more acceptable for women to work and men to stay at home doesn't mean we aren't dealing with the (slowly diminishing) weight of the rules that came before.
ReplyDeleteThinking on your comment on how the world see's the internet in a derogatory way... I agree and believe that the internet in it of itself is nothing to be thought of as bad or making "your brain turn to mush". The internet is simply just the tool to access another person/groups space amongst all the cyber spaces. If someone want to criticize the internet then their only argument that they really could have is the content on someone's/groups cite they don't agree with. Culture is changing due to the tool of the internet but the change is really all in the content someone else has made. As for your comment "The Internet places you in a virtual world (one that does not exist)" it's not a big deal but I just want to say it does exist just not physically. Only because the internet exists on servers, day dreaming exists in our brain (as well as the world in which we immerse ourselves in reading). We just have no physical realm we can interact our thoughts to. At least not yet.
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