Applicable to our Adbuster unit
http://laughingsquid.com/ron-english-badvertisments-at-the-welling-court-mural-project-in-queens/
Monday, June 14, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
fearroyo on Reingold's SmartMobs
From Reingold’s perspective in terms of changes in the media I can say that I have been slow to adopt newer forms of popular technology and media. What I have seen however are quick shifts in norms in terms of how individuals within my age group interact with one another.
I definitely noticed differences in people that own smart phones versus those that did not during my orientation as a prospective student at UC Davis. I noticed young individuals with smart phones tended to preoccupy themselves during opportunities to interact directly with new individuals that I am sure many of the other prospective students were seeing for the first time. I was eating in the Tercero dining commons and I stood next to a girl waiting for a restroom to become available, and I was curious about the self-distracting phenomenon that I have been noticing. As I stood next to her, I recall feeling a bit awkward because I wanted to say hello, but I took the opportunity to see how she would behave in a socially awkward situation by fumbling around my pocket for my cell phone. As I reach into my pocket to grab my phone, she mirrored my actions and grabbed her smart phone and began fiddling around with it for some time. From that experience, I definitely felt partially isolated from the other prospective students because everyone else felt as if they may have been too preoccupied with their phones to initiate a casual conversation.
In another instance, I recall recently questioning one of my friends about their desire to purchase an Ipad. I had trouble at the time understanding the concept of essentially having a massive flash tablet that cannot be stored in one’s pocket. She was telling me she wanted to purchase the Ipad because with it she would be able to access thousands, upon thousands of applications and use it as a media gateway to browse through music and keep up with her online persona. I had trouble understanding the logic in one purchasing the Ipad because from what she told me, the capabilities of most recent generations of Ipods and Iphones already have these capabilities. I felt as though she wanted to purchase the Ipad for the sake of keeping up with the next major shift in popular items that are anticipated to be desirable within the next few years. I could not understand the use value of an Ipad because most of the capabilities sound too similar to what typical netbooks, and laptops are capable of handling.
I often find that I have trouble understanding the incentives other individuals have in purchasing the latest technology when improvements are likely to come thereafter the initial release.
I definitely noticed differences in people that own smart phones versus those that did not during my orientation as a prospective student at UC Davis. I noticed young individuals with smart phones tended to preoccupy themselves during opportunities to interact directly with new individuals that I am sure many of the other prospective students were seeing for the first time. I was eating in the Tercero dining commons and I stood next to a girl waiting for a restroom to become available, and I was curious about the self-distracting phenomenon that I have been noticing. As I stood next to her, I recall feeling a bit awkward because I wanted to say hello, but I took the opportunity to see how she would behave in a socially awkward situation by fumbling around my pocket for my cell phone. As I reach into my pocket to grab my phone, she mirrored my actions and grabbed her smart phone and began fiddling around with it for some time. From that experience, I definitely felt partially isolated from the other prospective students because everyone else felt as if they may have been too preoccupied with their phones to initiate a casual conversation.
In another instance, I recall recently questioning one of my friends about their desire to purchase an Ipad. I had trouble at the time understanding the concept of essentially having a massive flash tablet that cannot be stored in one’s pocket. She was telling me she wanted to purchase the Ipad because with it she would be able to access thousands, upon thousands of applications and use it as a media gateway to browse through music and keep up with her online persona. I had trouble understanding the logic in one purchasing the Ipad because from what she told me, the capabilities of most recent generations of Ipods and Iphones already have these capabilities. I felt as though she wanted to purchase the Ipad for the sake of keeping up with the next major shift in popular items that are anticipated to be desirable within the next few years. I could not understand the use value of an Ipad because most of the capabilities sound too similar to what typical netbooks, and laptops are capable of handling.
I often find that I have trouble understanding the incentives other individuals have in purchasing the latest technology when improvements are likely to come thereafter the initial release.
SmartMobs: A Living Legacy
As soon as I read the introduction article SmartMobs, it made me reflect on my experience with the surveillance media experiment I did a couple weeks back. I remembered how the use of my phones and computer became less frequent because of my new knowledge that everything I was doing, saying, and viewing was all being recorded in some computer, somewhere else unbeknowingst to me. But ironically, the use of cell phones and computers are more useful now than ever. You can now talk to people across the world via skype, aim chat, or ustream. iPhone apps connect me to facebook, twitter, and myspace among many other social sites to keep me connected with everyone anytime of the day. I can only imagine what 2020 will look like in terms of technology and the way we use it. Smartmobs will only grow more powerful and readily available to the newest generations to continue this new legacy of technology.
Smart Mobs: Who Owns the Media
This article immediately brings to mind the iphone, as it a phone that boasts continuous connection to the internet. It tracks everything; there is an application for nearly any type of tracking. Which restaurants you’ve been to, what locations you’ve visited, etc…All of this can be easily logged and tracked. There are so many ways to create smart mobs with the amount of connectivity each person has, as well as the various pieces of technology that promote the creation of these smart mobs. Facebook itself is probably one of the largest creators of smart mobs. Simply joining a “facebook group” or ‘liking” something immediately categorizes the person, placed amongst individuals who share similar interests. The quickly advancing technology is shifting cultural norms, compensating for the increased connectivity with greater categorization of individuals.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Blog 13 Smart Mobs Who Owns Media
The article Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution definitely supplied an awareness to my own technological consumption practices. I never really thought about the actual social changes that are occuring as a result of the shifts in media technology. I now know that there is a certain power in the knowing of these changes since there are many advantages to the connectivity of the new media. Being aware of "Smart mobs" and taking advantage of the power of being able to organize oneself with many others, despite not knowing them personally, and further making social/economical/political changes as seen necessary. Two instances in my life where I could use this advantage of smart mobs would be when trying to gain awareness for a charity that I feel should be exposed to the world. Just like posting up a sign, I can text and message random people to see my message. Another example would be political activism and trying to get the candidate I want voted to be made aware of by the public.
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