iPods: A Social Antibiotic

Recently a study was done with high school age students. They asked the students questions about their social life and tried to render information that would prove valuable to parents and teachers in how to help them in that realm. The study found that students are becoming increasingly uncomfortable in even the most simple social scenarios. The number one fear among the teens was how to maneuver out of any given conversation.

Growing up I probably heard the phrase "practice makes perfect" a million times, but never has it seemed to be more evident in this particular paradigm. As I walk the University of Memphis campus and watch for visible signs of the concepts given in our text and how they perhaps directly relate to this technology of portable media devices and specifically the iPod, these factors begin to take shape. Forty years ago before an efficient and effective portable media device had been produced there was not an escape from a world in which you are very much present. The iPod in my opinion has allowed its users, for a moment, to escape awareness of visibility. Once the iPod ear buds go into my ears I now have an excuse to ignore all social implications that I might not otherwise be able to ignore.

After watching the documentary "We Live in Public" I was keenly aware on my way home talking to my wife on the phone that perhaps someone may be listening to our conversation. The only way to avoid uncomfortable conversation at that point is to convince yourself that no one is listening. There is something about visibility that causes human interaction to change. This panopticon effect really changes our behavior in a radical way.

Somehow the iPod creates a social space for its beneficiary that is tuned specifically to their current emotions. Using audio distraction the brain can function free from anxiety only to find itself more distraught once the earbuds come off. If I am a football player who needs to escape pregame anxieties I just pop my earbuds in and in an instant I am propelled into digital space. I am no longer human but become an avatar in my own head, inside the space between the earbuds I am powerful and I will pick songs that render that to be true whether it is Metallica, Nelly, or whatever song I may find empowering.

If I am on a train in the midst of people who I don't know and am crowded by, I can escape into my digital world free from cluster I close my eyes, choose a song accordingly and for a moment I extend my senses beyond the confines of the natural world. The iPod releases my neurotransmitters to fire according to the data I choose instead learning to cope in circumstances of which I am not in control.

The implications can be seen as that of an antibiotic. The iPod like an antibiotic gives me freedom from the symptoms of social discomfort in the short run, but once the ipod or the antibiotic is gone I have weakened my system to those interferences. I have not trained my body to cope with reality with its faculties alone but now I become dependent on the technologies to cope with the world around me. The iPod is a social antibiotic.

Body As Code

For today's class, I'll be presenting material based around our reading for the section entitled Body as Code:  Life in the Network.  Here's a video to watch and think about for today's class.  Think about and ask yourself, "How does this affect the idea of travel?  And how does this affect the ways in which one experiences travel?"

Identity Management Goes Mobile

From first to last… If seeing an iPad in real life can spark fascination and intrigue from the masses, imagine what it does in the virtual space. People have created, chatted, and dated in virtual space for a while now, but most of this has taken place behind a stable computer, but this is changing greatly. As previously mentioned, the netbook was thought to revolutionize mobile computing, but it just didn’t cut the mustard. Enter the iPad. Managing your online identity while on the move has grown exponentially over the past few years, with cell phones working to offer users some of the same functionality they could do on their computers, but small screens and cramped keyboards only allow for so much. Our book explains that “…the Internet allows you to completely rework your appearance in an online environment…” “You are free to describe how you look, your expressions, posture, gestures, reactions, and so on. You can “try on” other appearances and personalities that would be impossible (or embarrassing) to carry off in real life” (Slack + Wise, 164). The iPad has become the perfect solution. The issue many faced with computers is that they could only update their statuses, profiles, and blogs while they were in front of a computer. What does this mean for representational space? They could only occupy their online identities for a short period of time. If, as in real life, we facilitate many different identities depending on our situations, if these occupancies become mobile, then we can inhabit as many online as we choose. The transformational factor, though, is that the lines begin to blur as never before because we are managing our virtual identities at the same time we are embodying our “real” selves. This assemblage shifts and changes the independence of these identities. Although, they may never morph into one complete identity, the management of these different identities will continue to intermingle closer and closer together. The iPad makes this fusion of real and virtual identities easier than ever. With the iPad’s architecture, applications to manage your virtual persona are made specifically for it. One could manage a different identity in each app they use. From the Foursquares to the Twitters, to the Facebooks, they are all available and are with you anywhere you are, complete with a large interactive screen that you can touch and feel as if your digital friends were real ones (kinda sad in a way…). An app, such as Sociable, can even bring these various identities together in one interface. Apps such as Flickr and Photo Wall allow the users to present pictures of their glorious lives and travels, letting viewers from around the world into their lives. On another level, the virtual world, Second Life, where you create a digital avatar of yourself (whoever that is at the moment) and move around in an entirely digital world. It is one of the closest experiences to a fully functioning digital representational space you can find. The world can now be traversed portably through the iPad, by using the Pocket Metaverse. Now you can enjoy the digital world (the Matrix) while sitting on a train in the real world (Earth-or so you think it is…the Matrix has you).
With many more people able to navigate these digital spaces more frequently and efficiently, what happens to this space? Identity markers such as race and gender may be able to be kept oblivious online, at least for a while, but the outside “physical” world still has major influence in the digital space and this causes the same tensions and separations as it can in reality, although, in some cases, indirectly. When you think about cultural implications such as status…does this mean now that those who can afford these high price devices are the ones who will now dominate this space since they have the ability to affect the virtual world at any place and at any time in a more effective manner (Slack + Wise, 166-167) ? Ipads are becoming the dominant player in the mobile computing space and with them brings massive amounts of control, flexibility, navigation, and resources. In a sense, the iPad is a major tool where one can do their online management anyplace and at any time, which becomes a powerful medium.

Think about information sources such as news organizations. Who has the power; who draws the crowds? Those who can get as much information to the people faster than others can. Who gets the information the fastest? The ones with the largest amount of resources: larger teams, better equipment, better technology. In turn they become more popular because people learn who the popular informants are. Transition into the digital realm. Say you create a digital persona in Second Life, how do you rise in the ranks? By having a persona that people want to watch or follow. This means having an active caricature that is always active. How do you become more active? Having the ability to manage the persona anytime, anywhere… the iPad rises.

Blog 2...How Women Use and Feel about the Washing Machine in their home

Certain work in the household has come to be known a women’s job. Ellen Lupton, author of Mechanical Brides: women and machines from home to office, offers insight into the washing machine as the mechanical device that is holding them in slavery to their own homes. Lupton describes the home as a place for men to escape and relax from work. On the contrary, women see the house as a feeding ground for labor. The very idea of the washing machine stipulates that laundry must be done. In modern times because the machines have become sleek and more efficient there was the belief that women were being rescued from the task of cleaning. However, Lupton’s approach reputes that the modern day washing machines are in fact making household duties an even heavier assignment.






“Rather than sell a few larger machines to centralized businesses, manufactures sought to sell many smaller units to private households. The return of laundry to the home affirmed women’s role as consumers of individual products instead of shared central services.” Because this was the proposal of the manufactures, women became the target consumer for the washing machine. Thus, when the machine was brought into the home the women were the expected user of the machine.
In the 1830’s commercial laundries were used to serve seaports and gold miners. The commercial laundry services accommodates mostly men when they were first developed and later became a place where one would drop off their entire family wash that was required for the week. These services reached its height in the 1920s and then met its match with coin laundry mats and the newly discovered home laundry system. Later, when the machines reached the home, women were taught by to operate the machines on their own without any assistance from their laundry service or washerwomen. The control was now shifted into the hands of the consumer and no longer a profession commercial service.
In the text Culture and Technology, the authors discuss convenience in the form of wants and needs of a culture. Many times, convenience does not necessarily make life better for a culture. In some cases making things more convenient can cause the reverse effect and make life harder for people. The authors explain that our bodies do have basic needs that have to be met such as clothing, water, food and shelter, however, as time goes on we have expanded our needs and organized our world around our wants. This perception rationalizes that because we have altered our world around us to such links we have accepted necessities that technologies that are not biological. We have inherited these technologies because they have become cultural necessities. (Wise and Slack 2005, 32-33) The washing machine is a technology that our culture has acquired out of the necessity for clean clothes and has morphed into a technology that demands surplus and extensive effort on the consumer.
Victoria Leto, in the article, Washing, It Seems Like All We Do, explores not only the idea of how women are using the washing machine more than men in the household and that the machine has certainly caused more labor than convenience, but also how the idea of doing laundry inside the household has privatized the lives of many domestic women at home. It is a task that takes up much of the time spent doing chores and shuts women off from others while inside. Leto looks at how many women used to stand outside and place clothes on the line giving them a chance to feel the sense of community among their friends while doing their chores.
In this research, women were asked questions about their time doing laundry. The women interviewed revealed that washing machine is clearly a one person chore. Long gone are the days where women are crowded around the boiling water to wash their clothes together. The women viewed the washing machine as not only just a single person job but a controlling chore as well. The washing machine size determines the amount of laundry that one can do in each load, therefore, enslaving the consumer to repeat the task over and over. Essentially, women feel as though they are the consumer solely being targeted for the washing machine and are exclusively responsible for the operations of it in their home.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XyIYOz1Y0pgC&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=the+washing+machine+and+its+effects+on+women&ots=LesdMN9B1f&sig=H6eNMPvJ93EnxDk0OQz7T-GWfX8#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=i9k8oapdbl4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA136&dq=has+the+washing+machine+affected+women%3F&ots=PuWPHIUele&sig=1vBuoCdUZBGG9vTfL7bsRqgQSes#v=onepage&q&f=false

Bicycles Technological Evolution

 

The bicycle is an excellent example of technological development and evolution. The original bicycle was inspired from the technology used to develop horse-drawn wagons, it was named the "Hobby Horse" and it's design allowed for no brakes, peddles, or springs.  This design was introduced in 1812.  Nearly fifty years later, the "Bone-Shaker" entered the bicycle scene.  The frame alone weighed 100 pounds, which proved to be very difficult to make sudden stops.  Due to such difficulties, the hand brake was designed.  Around 1870, bicycle designs took a great turn, with significantly disproportioned wheels.  Bicycles with an oversized wheel in the front, followed by a very small wheel in the rear are known as the "Ordinary Bicycles".  In 1885, Rover Safety Bicycle was designed, this bicycle most closely resembles the bikes we ride today.  The Rover bicycle was designed with a light weight diamond shaped tubular steel frame, chain, and mounted wire spokes.

The evolution and develop of the bicycle is crucial to note in our society. So many Americans own and use bicycles everyday, and we would not have such luxuries if it were not for technological evolution.  The original bicycle design was inspired by horse-drawn wagons, and in turn, bicycles inspired the design of baby carriages and wheelchairs.  All of these technologies have had, and will continue to have, a significant impact on our society.

The need for such transportation devices, stems from our desire to develop technologies that are an extension of our bodies.  A two wheeled instrument allows us to get from point A to point B, similar to our bodies ability to walk.  As an extension of our bodies, the bicycle is a much more practical and time efficient means of transportation.

http://www.pedalinghistory.com/PHhistory.html

http://www.phys.uri.edu/~tony/bicycle/bikehist.html

Cosmetics and Makeup

Woman, historically speaking, represents the “other” in comparison to man. That is, man symbolizes a superior level of mental and physicality in comparison to woman. Many theorists attribute this historical narrative as a direct contributor to the oppression of woman or subjugation by man of woman using technology. One technology that our text mentions as a technology of the body is makeup. The authors define the use of this technology stating, “Makeup is used to alter one’s appearance to fit within cultural norms of attractiveness and to exaggerate and emphasize gendered characteristics of appearance, such as the eyes or lips” (Wise and Slack 2005, 161).

Today, a prime example of a technology that subjugates women is the enormous cosmetic industry. The use of makeup has largely crossed cultural boundaries, globalizing cosmetic use in a sense. While cosmetics are no longer a luxury available to the wealthy, they have marked a distinct cultural norm of woman’s identity across the world. Consumers of cosmetics today, vary over cultural, racial, and socio-economic status. Our text also cites that makeup aides in altering racial characteristics. (Wise and Slack 2005, 161) The authors further, “For example, skin-lightening cream in sued to change the color of one’s skin so that it better meets the cultural ideal of fair skin and white identity.” This illustrates the critical role that cosmetics play in a definitive alteration of one’s identity.

Primary uses of cosmetics by women act to enhance, paint, conceal, and mask woman under a veil of cosmetic products. For example, cosmetics’ uses range from the desire to achieve a femininityy that is culturally recognized, to appear younger, to appear less tired and ultimately as a defining technology that aides in the construction of woman’s identity. That is, makeup as a technology acts as a marker of identity.

Aging also plays a critical role in the cosmetic industry. In a 2010 article from the Washingtonian titled “looking Younger” authors state that, “It's a given that collagen production diminishes as we get older. Collagen is the protein that gives form and firmness to the face. Likewise, elastin, which enables your skin to spring back like a perfectly cooked cake when it's poked or pressed, is also on the wane”(Hacinli, 2010). The article further stressed that gaining begins in the early twenties, therefore, concerns of gaining reach millions of consumers.

The cosmetic phenomenon is not limited to the United States or other Western countries. For example, in India, Bollywood actresses are subject to heightened scrutiny just as American actresses are to criticism and comparisons to these women with and without (gasp) makeup. This particular cultural use of makeup challenges widely held beliefs and breaks new boundaries regarding femininity and what is acceptable. Like India, Hollywood expects makeup as a vital identifier of women, particularly actresses. Like the Bollywood site, entertainment magazines regularly feature comparisons of starts without makeup.

In conclusion, the cosmetic industry has surpassed numerous expectations as cosmetic surgeries are becoming increasingly popular. While traditional “makeup” is removable, these innovative surgeries actually rearrange the anatomy of a woman to meet some ideal or cultural expectation. Like the historical hazards associated with traditional makeup, women now are engaging in life-threatening surgeries to change their appearance. Ultimately, all use of cosmetics and cosmetic surgeries provide human beings to overcome the limits of the body. Cosmetics are just one of the millions of technologies of the body marketed daily. Once again, we are faced with the dilemma of whom technologies aide. In this case, cosmetics create one more drudgery that millions of women subscribe to a daily basis. This essentially functions to subjugate woman to meet an idealized version of herself in order to meet societal expectations and femininity as a identification.

Too Much Pleasure Can Lead To Pain

Yes, we know Advil can help give us pain relief from an intense exercise at the gym or ease the pain away of a headache from a long stressful day at the office. But do we ever think about the side effects that could come with the relief and comfort this magical pill give us? In 1969, Ibuprofen was first used to treat patient with rheumatoid arthritis. Today, Advil is used to reduce fever, headache, toothache, back pain, arthritis, and minor injury. It is not safe for a person to take Advil if they have a history of heart attack or stroke. Also, ask a doctor or pharmacist if Advil is safe for you to take. Advil side effects can cause dizziness, drowsiness, headache, stomach pain, gas, and heartburn. Drinking alcohol while taking Advil can cause stomach bleeding. USA Today publish an article in June of 2010, called the Danish study on healthy people using pain relievers are raising their risk of future heart related problems. The article provides studies done, that proved cardiovascular risk increased when healthy people used NSAIDs such as Advil. Individuals whose average age was 39, that used ibuprofen had a 29% chance of fatal and nonfatal stroke. In the article, Cardiologist Dr. Michael E. Farkouh explain that drugs that raise blood pressure such as Advil are associated with an artery-blocking effect that can be harmful in patients who are healthy. The study also indicated that healthy people are more likely to take NSAIDs for muscle and joint pain do to regularly excising. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-06-11-nsaids-heart_N.htm) Another article by the New York Times talks about a study done by physiologist David Neiman at the Human Performance Laboratory at the North Carolina Research Campus. David Neiman conducted a stress test on the runners that was racing in the Western States Endurance Run. Neiman saw in blood samples he took, that many of the runners were providing their own physiological stress in tablet form. The runners that took ibuprofen before and during the races showed more inflammation and high immune system than runners that did not take any form of ibuprofen or aspirin. The runners that used ibuprofen also showed signs of mild kidney impairment before and after the race. Neiman find out that 7 out 10 runners were using ibuprofen. Majority of athletes in a wide range of sports, take some form of painkillers religiously. Neiman research finds that many athletes took ibuprofen before a sporting event to prevent pain during or after the event. Furthermore, taking ibuprofen before participating in a sporting event can actually has an opposite of reducing pain effect for athletes. The soreness of the athletes that took ibuprofen was same as the non-ibuprofen taking athletes. Physiologist Stuart Warden found that NSAIDs actually slowed the healing of injured muscles, tendons, ligament, and bones. (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/phys-ed-does-ibuprofen-help-or-hurt-during-exercise/) Neiman and Warden Research also confirm passage on page 61 in the textbook on how the technology we felt was created to help us, end up proving to harm us. MSNBC reported that Advil and other forms of ibuprofens can cause health risk for pregnant mothers. (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/9811838/ns/today-today_health/) Advil design assumption is to expect their consumers to read the warning label on the packaging box, but the emotional attachment to Advil is that this technology as articulation gives relief, joy, and comfort that distract the buyers to recognize the warning. Over the years with Brett Favre and other athletes admitting to being addictive to painkillers, have lead to the term painkillers to be identified with athletes in physical sports.