In Baym's book she
describes technology as a multi definition term. She explains how technology
has influenced our social spaces where we are not as present. Baym also notes
that technology has slowly decreased our perception and sense of the real. One
of the perspectives of technology that Baym discusses is the social shaping of
technology. Technology has altered the way we communicate to one another.
Technology is created and the use factor of that technology changes over time
to accommodate our own preferences. For example, cellphones were originally
used to make calls and text message one another. Whereas now so funds are used
as lube computers that have multiple functions to accommodate us in our
everyday activities. In relation to the prom queen of Instagram she is using
Instagram as a way to portray her life in a certain fashion. Instagram was
originally used to share pictures and it has altered over time to accommodate
multiple functions socially and technologically. The prom queen on Instagram uses
her Instagram to promote her own popularity. She alters her life through
Instagram by editing what she posts and says to be a self-definition of what
she wants and believes her life is like. She also uses certain hashtags
and filters to be seen as 'with it' and popular (ex. #squad). Overall social
snapping of technology has changed Instagram to be about self-definition
and perception. It is no longer just a place where you post pictures but a
popularity challenge to see who has the most interesting and best life of them
all.
I
chose the social shaping of technology because I believe that technology has
altered its original form to promote people to be more expressive of themselves
through social media. People enjoy expressing themselves and their lives so
they do this through social media. People can create their own persona of
themselves and they do not have to live their own lives but can create a new
persona that they would like to live by. By socially shaping
our technology we as a community create our own ways to express ourselves
and alter technology to our own standards.
Hi laura,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that technology has shaped the way we communicate. Just like Marshal McLuhan says the "medium is the message" and therefore whatever medium we are using with alter how and what we say to one another. Social media sites such as Instagram do allow us to create our own persona such as Lilli does. Lilli portrays herself as being tough and very cool especially with the black and white filters but in reality she is a very sweet girl.The way we communicate has changed but I don't know if it will keep changing or affect us as much as it currently is. Do you believe that this change in our communication process will be positive for negative for our society?
I disagree with Nadine. Technolgoy doesn't shape who we are or how we communicate, it enhances it. Technology doesn't change how we act or who we are, its an extension of it. Kind of liek the Apple Watch. Its not a replacement for the iPhone, its an extension of it. Thanks to technology however, we can express our selves more openinly, easily and creatively thanks to technology which makes it easy and convinient to send mesages and recieve them whether its a tweet or a picture. "The medium is the message" is true, but the medium doesnt change the sender.
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