I thought the readings from Rosen's writings about technological mediums were very thorough in some aspects of the way that the mind thinks.  I could see how there could be negative effects on the mind when you do too much of one thing can and in this case only gaining knowledge about the world through images rather than texts.

I like how she brought up the legitimacy of photographs.  I think that we give too much credit to images we see when it is presented from an accredited source or what source we value.  It could potentially be the downfall of intelligence if we constantly give into sources that we respect without any follow up.  But I guess it really depends on what kind of intelligence you are referring too.  Rosen is referring to the complete dumbing down of humanity without the use of text.  I see where she is trying to get at with this point but I think that some images cause people to investigate more about the image.  Like who took the picture, who mad the picture, and so on and so forth.  In order to do further research it is imperative that you know how to read and thus write.

For those who choose to take images at face value it can become a potential problem.  But this also could be a different kind of intelligence.  Certain images can correlate to common thought and building on these images could help you refer back to things you have already seen in the past.  If a child first sees fire and touches it and it burns them they are conditioned to not touch it again.  This idea can also be applied to any given situation if one chooses to think the situation through or has the ability to do so.  If i see an image of a beautiful woman on the cover of the magazine a lot of observations comes to mind.  The portrayal of beauty is swayed to one spectrum of what beauty is.  What about the beauty of a fifty year old woman or a woman of color?  These things say a lot to women when we look at what is portrayed as beautiful.  Most covers have light skinned models that are mostly Caucasian.  Rarely will you see a Indian woman, African, Asian, or Latin woman.  I'm not trying to get into a battle of the races, I am stating what I see on the racks throughout California.  The publishers of these fashion magazines show us that beauty is a youthful woman who has perfect complexion, who is fashionably in tune, and is rail thin.  If I choose to let this idea rule my opinion of what beautiful is then I will constantly give into the things around me that mimic that image.  If I sit back and really think about the production of the magazine, who is distributing the magazine and why I think certain things are beautiful I then begin to put myself in a box that I don't fit in.  I know that its not natural for all women to have rail thin bodies, immaculate skin, full breasts, perfect hair, perfect make-up, and fashionable attire.  These are all sellers that keep us in the loop of consumerism for beauty products.

We buy the products that models are wearing.  We wear the make up to try to mimic what we think is beauty.  It becomes a vicious cycle that Rosen has talked about.  Getting caught in the loop of images rather seeing past what the image is saying.  I have fallen guilty to this too.  But I think without getting lost you will never really try to find your way out of the misguided articles.  The complete spectrum of what beauty is lacks in this kind of system.  Older women feel they are too aged and younger women want to be something they're not as well.  This is why it is important to investigate your sources.

I don't think that all of humanity will follow the same thought though when reacting to an image.  People often develop their own theories or beliefs about images they see and not everyone takes it at face value.  I think that when I see something repeatedly through the day like on a bus or stop signs my subconscious is working to store it and use it to my advantage.  My first initial thought is 'what are they trying to get me to buy'?  Maybe because I'm skeptical or maybe because I have learned through trial and error that a lot of advertisements try to tap into you believing in what they are selling is legit.

When sitting back and thinking about how images affect me I could see how it could be bad  if you get caught in the cycle of a image based life.  But texts are just a collection of symbols that are images, so you could take that stance that texts can be harmful to one's intelligence.  Each letter is a symbol is represented by images and the collection of the symbols make a statement too when you take a stance on how you want to organize you ideas with these symbols.  Reading into things that are falsely reported can be a dangerous road to travel down as well.

Communication Taking New Paths

Vlog: "Privacy & Voyuerism on the Tube"

Since the introduction of technological mediums as a source of communication the adaptation of using them has affected the way humans communicate. Through centuries of trial and error there has been a selection of useful communicative traits that have developed into considerable efficient characteristics that are then passed on to the next generation as an adaptation for social survival skills in the environment you are in.  Darwinism carried itself into social and technological communication and is changing the way that we interact with each other on a day to day basis online.

When I was watching my video blogger speak about the points she had gathered about changing communication skills online it made me think of questions that I would have asked for her to further diverge on: what social skills through technological mediums have proven to be favorable traits in her opinion, what causes us to react the way we do when filming ourselves when using these mediums, how we choose to portray ourselves when reaching out when in need of attention online, and what is considered okay as far as comfort levels when sharing personal information about ourselves to strangers online.

People naturally try to bond with each other by creating communities that make us feel like we belong to a group.  Our behaviors are shaped by the hierarchical process within online social communities filtering out the undesirable behaviors when video blogging.  After gaining the trust and status from online communities, video blogger's are left to mimic only the favorable traits that conjure the responses that they desire.  People in online communities have developed a new kind of social system onto online forums on the Internet.  What is learned as favorable skills when communicating face to face reflects how we choose to interact with each other online.  Through these adaptations brought about by  technologies many mediums we are beginning to build new characteristics within ourselves that are successful in helping us convey what we feel brings us together to each other. We have brought our community building skills and have projected them into videos, electronic music, and writing on the Internet.

Responses that we would rebuttal with when in discussion can be seen through my video bloggers conversation with the camera and herself.  For example, when she reflection of why we like to be watched  online she later helps herself into a question answer kind of conversation.  This is something that would happen naturally when conversing with another person.  A question, answer, then bonding happens and you could see how her learned reactions are being recorded as such.  She discusses how we like to be watched and how we are beginning to feel okay with this 'voyeurism' that surrounds us. The feeling of being watched in the outside world when we are facing each other as something rude or intruding. I wanted to focus on the definition a little bit before going further on my thoughts about being watched. When I think of a voyeuristic person I visualize someone who watches people in a perverted way rather than gathering data that helps them bond better with others for platonic relationships. So in the sense of gathering data, I see the what we do to protect our ego and how we develop lines that we allow ourselves to cross and draw for each other to make us feel loved.

What was once considered rude or prying has evolved into something we now accept because it is builds community and enforces the moral the group formed online.  Communication is changing and with that what is dynamics of what is considered respectful is going along with the change.  Our natural behaviors like venting or confining in some one has other extensions in which we could release our stresses. 

Technological Darwinism

The use of technology has become more and more abundant across the world.  People with computers, cell phones, or even a type writers have begun to explore the world through devices that are changing the way we communicate with each other without really giving it any thought.  Our thoughts mostly define instruments that we use to interact with the world as just a simple method of communicating.  Marshall McLuhan states in his book, Medium is the Massage, that "societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication."

I think that McLuhan was trying to say something very important to future generations about how our ability to take in technology is a direct affected of the device we received it.  What we categorize as important and what is not important has been in direct relation to how we came about receiving the information.  In this case, most of the information we get now-a-days is less by word of mouth and more by the electronic mediums.  We are directly affected how we view the world by the way information has arrived to us.  Having the face to face conversation and the old way of learning has been completely thrown out and we have a new respect for the reign of technology in our lives.  The social biology that is affected by what I call technological Darwinism has made us into sheltered from human interactions.  Maybe this isn't such a bad thing when you look at it.  From one point of view it does save time and money when you are able to access information through these mediums.  But on the other hand you have conditioned yourself to become impatient and lessened your attention span with quick answers.

McLuhan describes the way technology alters our way of thinking in the following passage:  "Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions.  The   extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act--the way we perceive the world."  The technological Darwinism that is taking place is beginning to change us.  So two important things that we should think about is how much we rely on technology in our lives and what will we do if electricity ceases to exist?  This reminds me of a quote from Albert Einstein saying something about technology-- "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."  Taken literally I felt that he was trying to say what McLuhan was trying to report:  the power using these mediums is damaging to ourselves as people.  Even thought we can keep in touch with people over seas or be warned about a potential disaster coming our way we are still becoming to reliant on something we shouldn't.  Destroying and unlearning all that we have come to learn as people is setting us back.

I sometimes see this social disorder in myself.  I fidget with discomfort when I'm surrounded by people on the MUNI and this is because I rarely expose myself to the public in the masses.  I have come very comfortable with my pod of a room and used my laptop to communicate with the world.  Maybe its comfort of being at home or just laziness but the sense of a safe sheltered place is something I like to constantly feed myself with and is usually accompanied with some sort technology that allows me to interact with people not in my room.  I'm not saying that I don't have day to day interactions with people I live with or with people in general but I could see how technology could impair ones ability to communicate at ease and interact at ease.  When you are face to face with a real person there is definitely a kind of chemical reaction that happens within you that you don't get from technology or any of its mediums (debatable).  Maybe I am just shy but the thought of technology helping me hide myself from the world isn't necessarily something I should rule out as a side effect to my self sheltering.  I could relate to the text in that way.  It is easy to get used to the electronic devices we use to interact with the rest of the world.

McLuhan thinks of the many aspects in which technology touches the many relationships we have in our lives.  One thought points to our interactions and how it is affected by technology in the lines of being raised by a collective world rather by parents.  "Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts.  Now all the world's a sage."  I know he probably didn't mean this in the literal context (actually thinking about the copy right date he probably did) when he was talking about two parents but I do see how raising a child and building character within that child has so many more factors now than before.  If a child is hurt or being taught a lesson that child may vent online or to friends.  Those friend's opinions or thoughts are put into the memory bank as a something that can be used to help solve problems in which the parents and the child is having.  So in conclusion, I would say that McLuhan definitely had some very insightful thoughts to technology in modern day life. 

Not Downloading Facetious Babble

Do you agree with Postman that all we must define all media ethically?  Why or why not?  As always, consider how these issues affect you.
I thought that Postman's passage was well thought out and had a great emotional appeal that the public could relate to.  We as humans, in my opinion, are rough by nature and the conditioning that we go through definitely has some benefits as well as disadvantages to living in a life of technology.  We are spoiled by time saving devices that can affect the way that we function as a person when problem solving.  Miscalculating time or even being dependent on a device such as computers to get information across are two of the many important things that could set back our lifestyles drastically.  I have seen many movies that convey how technology can contribute to the human life and how it could strip it bare of its meaning. 

The value of human connection is definitely at risk.  But with any advancement there comes a consequences both beneficial and hurtful to humankind.  Technology has contributed to fast and easy access to limitless information.  If there was a devastating earthquake that might potentially cause a tsunami miles away we have the technology to monitor that now and suggest a warning based on what is gauged.  In the event of something drastic happening we are able to respond within minutes rather than weeks or months.  Pre-industrial and post-industrial lifestyle has definitely made marks on the way that we live our lives.

The people in charge of giving information can distort it or censor what is given though.  Technologies could be used in a bias manner in which would only beneficial to those who had the power to control advancement can pick and choose the demise of entire populations.  With technology I could convey my feelings through written symbols, reminiscence thoughts I have had reading old entries, reach out to my sisters over seas, urge my brother to hang out with me more via text.  I could do an infinite amount of things that I would have to think twice about doing before making moves to do if I didn't have the ability to communicate.  These are reasons why technology is good for humanity.

The bad things that technology could provide in multiplying: false illusions of beauty, yellow journalism,and even pump out false information to start wars.  The way I see it is if a human is involved in out sourcing any information the possibility of it being untrue or a mistaken print is highly likely.