Readings:
William J. Mitchell, "Prologue: Urban Requiem" e-topia (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999) 3-7
Marshall McLuhan, "Decline of the Visual" Looking Closer 3: Classic Writings on Graphic Design (New York: Allworth Press, 1999) 174-176
Albert Borgmann, "Virtuality and Ambiguity" Holding On to Reality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999) 179-192
Question: We have established in our readings and class discussion, that the digital world is one that requires only two senses, sight and hearing, and both of these are not truly required to navigate the digital world. Example legally blind individuals can still 'see', a deaf individual can still 'hear' with a hearing aid.
As technology continues to develop we are able to access the digital world from anywhere at any time. We are continuously attached to some form of technology that allows us to access our digital circles, weather it is to check email or to find out what a friend had been doing since we saw them last, twenty minutes ago. And as technology continues, virtual reality devices, devices that will allow us to see the digital world could gradually take over to become our reality.
With the way technology is going, we know more about our neighbors than our selves. SO where does the disassociation of self end and the association with the unit or masses began? Or rather with the use of the Internet and the ever increasing availability of digital sources and forms of information gathering, when or where does the individual fit in?
2 comments:
I think that the individual does have a place in this new world that you have described. Whether it is a digital circle, virtual reality, or the internet, there is always an emphasis on the individual. All of these worlds are escapes from the real one that we live in. In these new worlds there is a place for you to be whatever you want to be. You can search for whatever peaks your interests and discuss these topics with people of the same interests. You can become the individual that you couldn’t or wouldn’t become in the real world. So not only does the individual fit into the use of the internet but the individual thrives in the internet.
Maybe the individual is becoming more pronounced in these digital worlds. Over all we have become selfish individuals, that think only of ourselves and the immediate gratification that is falsely promised to us by the media and the virtual worlds we have created. It is when this instant gratification is denied that where a problem with our identity and the confusion of that which is real and virtual arises.
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