Bagel Foreheads and Futurism

Note: This post claims no answers to the questions proposed; I just found the subject matter apropos of our class discussion last week.

THE BAGEL FOREHEAD

Have you seen it? Does it weird you out? What am I talking about? Why, the newest beauty trend that comes out of Japan: A Bagel Forehead. Yes, that's right. Bagel. Forehead. It looks like this:

Basically, both men and women have taken to injecting silicone into their foreheads as non-permanent body modification.

The reason this fascinates me (relative to this class) is because of last week's discussion on exotic-Orientalism and the Future. One theory is that USA sci-fi writers latched onto the technology (and fear thereof) in the East as the vision of the Future, therefore making it the trope. It was then discussed how the Eastern cultures have turned that on its head, or "played" with it.

My question about the Bagel Forehead would be: does it continue to support the notion of exotic Orientalism? Is it a way to mock the trope? Does it's "otherness" continue to support the trope in the US (to the "common man')? Or, is it simply a way for non-permanent body modification, much like piercings?

I mean, let's face it: implanting fake horns, bifurcating one's tongue, or even simple tattoos are much more long-term (and potentially permanent). This is probably just a new cultural fad--and is not as detrimental to the body as neck stretching or lower lip plates; completely unrelated to the trope of exoticism. But given the topic last week, it certainly gives one something to contemplate!

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Professor of Sociology and Author of "Racism without Racist" says that when people make statements such as-"they're being to sensitive" , "its not that big of a deal" or "it's class, not race", they are using  color-blind ideology and langauge, which is also known as todays racism.

He states:

Minimization is the fourth frame and operates as yet another way in which the dominant racial group can explain away racism. This frame is particularly insidious for it allows whites to ignore claims of racial inequality from individuals and communities of color who are experiencing it. Otherwise known as “playing the race card”, accusations of “reverse discrimination”, accusing minorities of being too sensitive and using race as an excuse, and others obscure the real incidents of racism (not just prejudice) and race-based discrimination. Minimization also allow whites to be racist through the rhetoric of colorblind racism, by silencing the voice of the oppressed, telling those who are experiencing racism that they are being “hypersensitive”, and allowing the oppressor to analyze and mandate the terms of what is/isn’t racism/racist (Bonilla-Silva 29).

Meet Zuraiza the Painbringer: My World of Warcraft Avatar

(This link goes to my character, Zuraiza, for those want a larger picture.)

That's right, my primary avatar in World of Warcraft is female. This is hardly uncommon. There are plenty of men that play female characters, and women that play male characters. The reasons for why players create online personae that cross gender lines vary, from the immature and purile to the boring-yet-sensible ones.

Zuraiza arose from the latter sort of reasons. I created her a few months before the launch of the first World of Warcraft expansion: The Burning Crusade. The game was a very different beast then, several years ago, and the roles that players had to fill when participating in group-based gameplay included options that had since been eliminated by Blizzard's design team. Zuraiza originally filled one of those obsolete roles.

Now she fills a role known as "melee DPS", which means that she stands behind the target and beats the hell of out of with a pair of two-handed weapons. (Yes, she can do that; that's why those weapons look so big.) If she's needed, she can swap to a one-handed weapon and a shield and fill the "tank" role: she gets the target's attention and lets it beat on her while the DPS--Damage Per Second; they're the folks that do the most damage in groups--focus fire on it to bring it down. (I'm not going to explain why it works this way; suffice to say that it's an artifact of how the code of the game works, and it's a known issue.)

Zuraiza is a female Troll Warrior. (For those that speak the lingo: Female Troll Fury Warrior.) While I play on what's called a "role-play" server, that sort of consensual narrative-cum-improvisational acting is actually strongly discouraged by both the structure of the game and the gameplay culture that's come up around it; the "painbringer" epithet comes from a habit I once had of using a macro command to have my avatar execute a voice emote--"We bring da PAIN to dem!"--whenever I charged into melee and engaged in combat. (This gets very annoying when you need to do that a lot within a minute of time, and pisses off your teammates, so I stopped. The name, on the other hand, stuck.)

I do not see Zuraiza as any extension of myself. Very few players do, especially those who--like me--participate extensively in the game's team-based content that goes on when you hit the level cap--raiding--and instead we see our avatars as virtual playing pieces and dress-up dolls. (The motivation is to improve your character by earning gear upgrades; these virtual assets are often where the design team spends a lot of art assets, so they look very distinctive and thus doubly desirable.)

Instead, the creation of online identity revolves around one's guild and choice of faction. This is very easy to see with long-time Horde faction players, as they tend to openly display their faction loyalties via associated merchandise (shirts, hats) and using social media spaces such as Facebook to display that affection. (Alliance players, on the other hand, tend to be quiet about their affiliation of choice.)

As popular as displaying one's faction of choice is displaying guild affiliation; a guild, in practice, is akin to a bowling team and the usual guild activities--raiding, and smaller group stuff like it--are like playing in a bowling league. The success of a guild in raiding and similar activities brings prestige to it, and thus to its members, and with that prestige comes social capital that can be (and often is) used to influence the gameplay culture of that server, especially within the guild's faction (Alliance or Horde). Like professional sports, there's considerable competition for the best talent on a server, and headhunting is both a long-running thing as well as a source for considerable drama between guilds. The comparison with sports as well as with gangs should be quite interesting to see, if done.

There's some justification for the animosity. Most raiders have "main" characters--the one they raid with most of the time--and several alternate characters ("alts") that are used to support the main in some fashion or another. So, when the main in a guild jumps ship to another guild--and it's almost always in the manner that the Yankees headhunt the best talent in the rest of Major League Baseball; the recruiting guild is usually higher up on the prestige--and thus progression--ladder, and they target frustrated members of lesser guilds who believe that they're being held back. When the main goes, so do the alts most of the time, making the former guild much weaker- a series of these in quick succession has broken the targeted guilds. Guild-based identity, therefore, is not to be taken lightly.

On a lighter note...

Since the latest expansion, Mists of Pandaria (a.k.a. "Kung-Fu Panda: World of Warcraft Style"), I rolled a new alternate character that features the new race as well as the new class: a female Pandaren Monk. My peers, behold Balsa of the Spear. (She's inspired by her namesake, the protagonist of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, who makes a big impression early in the series with this scene.)

Behind the glasses

Creating an avatar this week was a fun exercise in online identity presentation.  It made me think of both why I chose the avatar I did, as well as how others represent themselves online.  I discovered that in general, people were truthfully representing an aspect of themselves.  However, the representation changed depending on where the avatar was used.

I chose to put sunglasses on my avatar.  This is typical for me in my daily life.  I find it easier to avoid unnecessary interaction with others by minimizing eye contact.  I gives me a sense of privacy, and my avatar carries that  representation into the virtual world.  

My boyfriend has an avatar that he uses for Xbox live.  He tends to play with the same group of guys, at times including friends of friends.  This allows him to be very familiar with those he interacts with.  Therefore he includes personal attributes on his avatar that only his friends would understand, like a visual inside joke.

On Facebook people often change their profile pictures.  Often pictures of events or places are taking the place of face shots.  Even inanimate objects represent quite well.  A friend of mine on Facebook recently replaced her profile picture with that of a Greek statue, and if you know her, it showcases her personality well.

Timely for this discussion, I was having a discussion with a customer earlier this week and he was discussing the appropriateness of using an avatar for an online dating website for his profile picture.  I said that I thought it was a cool way to relay a bit of personal information in a nontraditional way.  It also allowed the observer to development an opinion based on other relevant information, before being confronted with physical appearances.  

All of these examples show that people use avatars as representations of real parts of themselves.  This information sharing may be just as intimate as what we can get from actual photos.  

How far will we push technology?

In class we've discussed the idea of being 'blocked off' by technology. It's almost like an invasive species, popping up in every corner of the world. As I'm writing this, I'm working with 5 open internet tabs and watching an episode of The Simpsons. How much more technology can we fit into our life? Corning Inc. has created a few amazing conceptual videos displaying the opportunities Glass technology could create. If you watch the video, you'll see a world surrounded by technology. While this could create convenient and improved situations for areas like health care, what would this mean for our every day lives? Would this be going to far? And, most importantly, how much would all this cost (because I want a cool house like that!)?

My avatar

I had a lot of fun making this avatar actually. I tried doppleme.com and I wasn't impressed because a lot of the options were unavailable. For this avatar, I used faceyourmanga.com. I think it looks a bit like me :)

WHO are WE?

We seem to talk so much about identity on the Internet that we seem to forget who we really are. We need to eat and sleep. We have friends and people we share our lives with on a daily bases face to face. We go outside and see that it is sunny or raining. We live our lives.
The Internet isn't alive it is a tool, it doesn't eat food or sleep or have family or friends. Yet we talk like it is something alive. If there was an EMF and it took the Internet down on a world wide bases, we would still be here. Walking, eating doing our lives without the Internet we would have to what other choice is there?
We seem to place a lot of attention on something that is a tool nothing more.
Our ability to dream has now been overtaken by a tool, that is only a tool it can not make our dreams come true only we can do if we decide that we want to. This tool the Internet can help because it is a tool, yet we must decide where we are going and how we are going get there and which tools best help in our quest.

My avatar

Well this is what I put together as my Avatar. It was one that I could do quickly and didn't take a lot of time. Well it took longer than I thought it would.

Native Steampunk and Alternate Histories

I was thinking about our conversation last week on representations of race and ethnicity, and the question about who is "allowed" to claim various identities.  It reminded me of a blog post which I have now added into the "optional readings" for week 5 in D2L.  The piece is about someone who self identifies both as Native and as steampunk, and the author raises some very interesting points.  It is a piece about representations of race, subverting stereotypes, and navigating a fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural honoring.  I also enjoyed reading about Native Tech, and thinking about what that concept means if your culture has often been portrayed as frozen in the past.  The whole blog that the piece was posted on - Beyond Victoriana - is an exploration of "multicultural perspectives on steampunk".  

Is steampunk that takes place in the "meatspace" sort of like a live action version of an avatar? What are the potentials and pitfalls of using fantasy or fictional spaces - online or offline - to explore history and alternate histories?

A Little Piece of Me

So, this is a little blurry. I found this great site for creation: Cyrsandrea Dream Avatar Creator. I am amused that my first name is in there...

Anyway, I was very conscious when I was making this Avatar. I wear glasses when I don't have my contacts in, and I love purple and green. I also like silver hair (which mine will eventually be, if I am anything like my dad...and I am, genetically), and wear mostly black to work and when out & about. 

Basically, this "person" is a piece of me. It is not that I "hide" this part of me, or that I feel I can only be like this in certain places at certain times (like Bondage A-Go-Go--ha!). But, what it boils down to is practicality. I am a low maintenance person. I hate doing my hair in anything but braids/ponytails because it is too fine; I don't spend money on clothes (when there are bikes and sports stuff to buy, and event entrance fees to be paid); I do minimal make up because I know I am going to sweat it off when I work out and don't like it oozing into my eyes; and I like to sleep instead of spending 60 minutes each morning "dressing up." So, for all I love alternative/steampunk/goth/underground/punk-type cultures, it is just too much damn work to be that way all the time. Even in high school I went with just all black (50s Beatnik) because it was simple. I still do, as a matter of fact.

Oddly enough, the above is the "male" body type. The "female" body type was not too different, except for smaller hands, thinner thighs, and a little thinner neck. But that is not me. I am a stocky, muscular girl.

So, in any case, I can do online what I am basically too lazy to do in real life. And my attitude is if anyone--alternative or otherwise--thinks I am not being "me" (or "real"?) enough in real life, then screw 'em. We are multidimensional creatures. And, in fact, I despise people who are uni-dimensional. Who wants to move in just one "clique"? How boring. I like my ability to maneuver through different cultures, yet truly belong to none. Then again, I have always been a loner...so maybe I am just lying to everyone all the time...

Joy in Avatar!

I chose to go to the first link on the syllabus and try faceyourmanga.com. I like the fact that I didnt have to sign up,(though I did have to leave my email address), and it was easily accesible and not difficult to use.

This is my first time creating an avatar for myself. To my relief, I found it to be an easy process. I am "computer challenged" and am finding this blogging process to be a little harder than I thought it would be. This is only my second time blogging. I did a blog last year on Human trafficking for an English class. I couldnt tell where to find it.

Anyways, I chose to keep my ethnicity the same, as my identity is deeply embedded in my ethnicity. I tried to make my avatar close to me as possible as possible, maybe- perhaps a bit lovelier. Though I wouldnt call the proces tedious, I did find myself laughing at how long it took me to decide on the eyes, mouth and eyebrow shapes. Choosing my wardrobe also proved to be a long deciding process as well. Despite myself, I thought it very important that my avatar represent me with a fashion statement I could be proud of, thus choosing an outfit also proved to take way longer than it should, considering. What does this say of me that my Avatar must be so perfect and refective of me?

Usually, for my profiles (Facebook, Yahoo), I choose an actual picture of myself. Other than using my children or my favorite basketball player, Kevein Garnett, I dont usually use other images. I chose to place a mike in the picture because I generally consider myself a teacher who spreads knowledge  and also because I like to sing. I like the way my avatar came out- she is pretty,  yet strong.

All in all, I found this to be one of the funner (is that  word?) assignments!

Two Avatars, Two Selves

For the assignment on avatars, I clicked on the links Jennifer posted and decided to try both for creating avatars. What follows is a recollection of my experience and some thoughts about the process.

The second program I used (which I am writing about first) was  DoppelMe. This program was not very detailed. There were far fewer choices that could be made than with FaceYourManga, which made it quicker and less laborious, but the final result is also far less satisfying (and the hairdo, of course, is totally Peggy from Mad Men).

It may have been better to have used this program first, because after creating something so detailed, this seemed like the Lego version of self. I try to remember that it really doesn't matter. That these avatars are simply zeros and ones arranged to offer a visual cue or - to put it in modern business-speak - brand.

I was aware, though, of trying to avoid "gimicks." When I do these things (make avatars), I seem to be far more worried about NOT giving the wrong impression than I am about giving the right impression. That is probably because a first impression can prime an online encounter for conflict or empathy.

I decided to include a dog in this avatar because I have a 10-year-old dog I love, and being a dog lover seems like a great way to signal good will. At least, that's how I interpret. Stepping into "cyberspace," however, I realize I could just as easily be signalling that I am a naive twit.

I first used the "FaceYourManga" site and created the image below:

The process was very detailed compared to other avatar creators I have come across in the past. I began by making choices from a detailed menu based on my real appearance - as close as I could get. Failing to find choices that really mimicked the way I look (as if I know what that is), I continued to try to get as close as I could while maintaining an eye for keeping it "pleasing" because, yes I admit, I care about that. I did a lot of experimenting when it came to embellishments - including an eyebrow piercing and a face tattoo (neither of which I have) - fully expecting to back most of it out, but finding I liked the look that incorporated those.

To me, it is interesting to see the finished product, switching to an analytical eye, because the process of creating it was mostly unconscious (that is, I was in "doing art" mode where the final product had to be tweaked as a "picture" rather than made to look any particular way).

Now that I study the finished result I wonder about the choices - eyeglasses, tattoo, piercing, double scarves - and why they appealed to me. I see the avatar itself as a study in vulnerability and protection. Vulnerability because I am revealing something of my real self which includes sensitivity to criticism, and protection because I am covering myself with decor that acts as a distraction. I also see the dark night sky as a symbol for walking in mystery.

There is also a duality in the image. If I hold up my hand and obscure the left side of the image from sight I get a much different impression than I do when I obscure the right side. But the basic feel I get from this avatar is (believe it or not - and it is probably just me) compassion. It's not what I had in mind when I started, but that is what it seems to exude when I look at it.

It has occurred to me as well that I could as easily use a red dot, a diagonal line or a purple star for an avatar and over time it would embody all the personality and history I give these fake persona avatars. Perhaps we are better able to either give a true glimpse of ourselves or deceive others about who we are when we present something that carries more clues.

As in life, I just want to fit in and make a good first impression. After that, and if it is a "safe" environment, as far as I can tell, I can relax and be more myself.

Doppelgänger

So. Here she is. And I must say this is pretty standard for my technological representations. I'm sure you're asking "why the mustache?" Well, because I like mustaches and can't have one (unless I up my testosterone intake but that comes with other undesirable side effects). Also, I feel it adds to the expression of my personality. I like to reflect that I have a silly side. If you see my Facebook profile picture it's me but it also has a degree of silliness:

My Wii avatar (Mii) is very similar to the DoppelMe image. It looks like me with a mustache. 

What does this all mean? You know, I've NEVER thought too much about it. I've always tried to make my avatars look as much like me as I could. I don't like misleading people into thinking I'm someone that I'm not.  Now, you can make assumptions about me based on my Facebook profile picture. For example: I drink a lot because I'm holding a beer and appear to be in a bar. Or maybe that I'm trashy because I have tattoos (an assessment made by members of my own family who don't take the time to know me outside of what's on my FB). But to me this picture just says silliness which expresses my personality - a side of my personality that my classmates might not ever know because none of you actually know me outside of class. I am aware that I'm fairly different in and out of class and in and out of work. This can be an extension of the identity discussion we've been having. What parts of your personality do you let "take the wheel" during your weekly duties; what traits are expressed more freely in each of these settings?

Thinking about other's motives in designing their avatars is a hard task for me. If I don't know the person, I would have a hard time discerning the reasons behind their decisions. I think it is theirs to explain if they felt necessary to do so. Which I guess is our assignment for this week! :o)

Blog post for the week of the 27th

Hello all,

For this week, create a new avatar and post an image of that avatar on the blog using a site like Face Your Manga, Doppelme, Second Life, etc.  Then reflect on the experience.  You may choose to answer one or more of the questions below in your reflection, or you may choose to write on some other aspects of the topic not described here. Understand that this exercise does not tie specifically to the readings for the week of the 27th, but instead should be informed by the readings and the discussions that we have had thus far on the concept of digital identity.

First, you may wish to describe your avatar and discuss any choices you made while you were making it.

Thinking of this avatar or one you've created in the past, did you choose an avatar that reflects certain parts of you or your personality or identity? Which parts of "you" do you tend to highlight? Did you enjoy creating the avatar or did you find it tedious or stressful?

If you haven't used an intentionally created avatar before, have you used a profile photo on a social networking site like Facebook?  Do you tend to use photos of yourself, others, objects? What do you want your profile photo to say about you?

Consider our readings related to online identity, such as digital natives and adolescent self-development, identity and race, identity and gender. In what ways do you feel avatars could help or harm one's self identity? What "invisible" parts of a person's identity can be brought forward (sexual orientation, political affiliation) with avatars? What do these choices of disclosure and non disclosure offer us? Could we learn anything about our society by studying the avatars chosen on a site like Second Life? 

Best 

Jennifer

Why You Should Not Belief What Western Media Claims About Syria

This article at the Washington Post published today concerns itself with a report that there is a mass exodus of Syrian nations fleeing over the border to Turkey, following up a previous story on this topic, and the Turkish army is now enforcing a closure of that border to stem the tide down to something that Ankara finds acceptable for the moment.

This is part of a larger effort by the Western Media Establishment to create and direct a narrative about the so-called "Syrian Revolt" that favors the party line professed by the Anglo-American political establishment--run out of No. 10 Downing Street in the U.K. and the White House here in the U.S.--and their allies in the international banking system. As happened in Libya previously, the leading media corporations in the U.S. and U.K. are not telling we--the people said to be represented by these governments, and to be informed by these corporations--the whole story.

We are not served by a media establishment that might as well be an agent of government policy. That is--and has been for generations now--been the case in the West generally, and the poles of the aforementioned Establishment (London and D.C.) specifically. We've got to seek out alternative outlets, and that means leaving the comfort zone that we've come to experience from the so-called "mainstream media" outlets; this means seeking out so-called "fringe" outlets, and it means active engagement with media narratives, on the assumption that NONE of them are telling the whole truth. In short, an overdue return to the active critical reading of multiple sources with known biases, intending to discern by triangulation what the truth of a matter actually is in fact.

We start by seeking out, and bookmarking, the online media outlets of foreign media outlets that publish in English. PressTV is a London-based, English-language television media outlet owned and operated by Iran. (This is the most recent Syria story as of this post and it covers actions by Egypt to organize a local group of nations to bring Syria's problems to a negotiated solution- something not covered in Western media because it interferes with the Western narrative.

The other major networks with a YouTube presence are RT (formerly Russia Today; owned by Russia, English-language studios in Moscow and D.C.; most recent Syria-related story is a follow-up about the Libya situation because it addresses a region-wide trend of anti-Western action) and Al Jazeera's English-language outlet with studios in D.C., London and Qatar- it's world headquarters. (It's most recent Syria story is about a claim by rebels to shoot down a military plane.)

While those outlets are non-Western mirrors of Western-style media organizations, the real influence is coming increasingly from individuals or small groups working online as podcasters. The best of them, still, is The Corbett Report- a full-time, one-man operation by James Corbett, a Canadian expatriate now living in western Japan (with his Japanese wife).

With regard to Syria specifically, The Syrian Girl posts video updates of her own as well as links to stories posted by others that gainsay or contradict the Western narrative; in particular, she gainsays the "freedom fighter" Western line on the rebels. This video gainsays directly that narrative.

Podcasters like these are gaining in influence because media networks increasingly use them as associates, sparing the networks the need to risk personnel themselves or recruit or retain in-house experts, while borrowing the independents' credibility for their own purposes. It's a win-win for both parties; the podcasters benefit from the increased visibility and the networks benefit from being able to exploit outsourced wells of viable, newsworthy commentary and reporting. Calling them "fringe" is no longer a devastating pejorative attack on such outsiders and foreigners, especially when former U.S. and U.K. Intelligence officers blow the whistle on Western media's complicity in Intelligence operations (because The CIA's Project Mockingbird never really ended; it got normalized).

This all part of an ongoing collaboration between the media and the government that goes back to World War I, as admitted by the co-founder of Public Relations--Edward Bernays--when he published Propaganda in 1928. Bernays was hardly alone in his actions, or his motivations, and the apprentices of his apprentices are now the leaders of the media end of the said Establishment.

Why, then, should you believe what Brian Williams says on NBC Nightly News?

You shouldn't. You should, instead, regard what he says as suspect until evidence to confirm those claims reaches your awareness- just as you do with academic claims. We cannot let others do our thinking for us, because if we do they'll define our world- and, therefore, our identity, to their benefit and not ours. (You shouldn't do that with these alternatives either, but at least they're better--especially James Corbett--with citing or linking sources so you can check for your self.)

And we're talking about identity here, aren't we?

Gangnam Style Penetrates the Foundations of Modern Philosophy

For some reason, I've been running into news stories about "gangnam style" parodies and remakes.

So I watched the PSY video:


and the "making of" video:



In the description for the making of video, the producers write: "The song is characterized by its strongly addictive beats and lyrics, and is thus certain to penetrate the foundations of modern philosophy."

As I watched the video, which I initially dismissed as nothing more than a goofy, having-fun song, I started to think more about the idea of penetrating the foundations of modern philosophy.

The question that I most asked myself was "what does it mean"? That was followed by "why can't I understand what it means"?

I'm experiencing some kind of cognitive dissonance here.

A few thoughts: The video has 221 MILLION views, and it's not in English. I know about the American remakes, parodies, and copies. It seems obvious that the whole phenomenon of this video is a sign of some shift in the production of culture.

The singer's personal identity is incredibly interesting to me. He mocks himself, he mocks hip hop, he mocks Bollywood, he mocks the genre. It's not often that this level of parody itself is re-parodied and becomes a movement.

It's connected to race, to sexuality, to branding, and to the life of a cyborg. It's definitely a blurring of boundaries. It's also a contribution to culture that's created in the "liminal" or "interstices" (see Homi Bhabha if you're interested in the source of much of this thinking about the Location of Culture).

It's an everyday occurrence that something goes viral on YouTube. I understand "Double Rainbow" guy, I understand "Nyan Cat"; I even understand Rebbecca Black's Friday. But Gangnam Style...I love it (or at least like it), but I don't GET it. And that's an unusual feeling.

Your thoughts?

NTIA Updated Report on Computer Usage

Hi all!

As I was looking over the "Measuring Race on the Internet" article, I saw a lot of information from NTIA, or National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and thought it was a bit out of date. Here's their website to their latest reports - which is 2011 with 2010 Census data.

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/data

This link:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/exploring_the_digital_nation_computer_and_internet_use_at_home_11092011.pdf
has a current breakdown (since 2010) of anything you could possibly imagine (race, age, income, education, etc). Page 15 has the current computer usage by race breakdown. So: Asians went from 71.2% in 2002 to 86% in 2010; Whites from 70% to 80%; Blacks from 55.7% to 64%; and Hispanics from 48.8% to 66%.

The report is really crazy and I didn't know this ever existed before reading this article. Very interesting!

Turn THIS in

Recently I attended a meeting with fellow writing tutors to discuss the issues surrounding plagiarism detection software. While I am highly against plagiarism and the effects that it could potentially have on my degree personally, I am not liking what I’ve been hearing about the available software.

The first problem I have revolves around just plain laziness. And I’m not talking about the laziness of the students plagiarizing. I’m talking about the laziness of school officials. It’s already a disgrace that there is practically no education on citing sources and using others’ work while writing an essay. Even at the college level I see students who have no idea what a writing style is. That’s a pretty big hole in our education system. But to see professors turn to an easy fix—the plagiarism detection software—makes me want to shake my finger in their faces. Isn’t it part of your job as a professor to analyze and evaluate my work? Is it that much more time consuming to Google phrases online that may be plagiarized? This might not be such a big issue for me if the professors using it actually knew how to use the software—but they don’t. Students are repeatedly being wrongly accused of plagiarism because professors forget that the detection software is not infallible. Whose ever had infallible technology? And where do I get mine? The worst part about these wrongly accused students are that most of the students being pegged for plagiarism are ESL or ELL students who do not fully understand how to cite their sources properly. Native English speakers have a far easier time intentionally plagiarizing and actually getting away with it. So….education, not software, should be the first priority.

The second problem concerns ethical and legal issues surrounding the software. The main reason plagiarism is taken so seriously is that it is stealing someone else’s intellectual property. So when a software detection service requires a student to give the company their essay to store in the database….what do we call that? Reverse plagiarism? Why do I care about whether other students are taking my work if a corporation ‘combating’ plagiarism has decided to keep it for themselves anyways?

What about the issue of compensation? Why are these companies getting paid for comparing essays to work written by researchers and students that were received for free?

As I see it, the software is creating more issues than it’s preventing. There have been numerous lawsuits against companies like Turnitin.com. I’ll stick with Google and my style manual. However, plagiarism and writing styles need to be emphasized and taught throughout educational institutions because it is an imperative, foundational tool for everyone. 

How On-line Identity and Off-line Identity Connect

Our on-line identitiy will reveal our off-line identities or “true self” at some point. While it may be possible to re-write a new on-line identity void of anything that resembles our true self, I conceive that our off-line identity will emerge via SNS when people are continuous interacting with each others.

Many popular sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter require some personal information in order to participate on the site. This information, available to the public, will allow “friends” pertinent information about off-line identity, as well as your on-line identity, assuming they are true. Geographic’s, economics, occupation, family status, education, political stance and even photos, allow people on SNS information privy to our off-line identities.

Even when a person misrepresents who they are, I contend that personality traits such as anger, prejudice or sarcasm, will eventually surface on SNS sites, allowing yet another glimpse of our off-line self. Social network sites, in their quest to connect people, can reveal traits and behaviors that people may not even be aware of about themselves, thus allowing a better understanding of self  identity on-line and off-line. For instance, a person that is constantly challenging views of others may never have seen themselves as confrontational until it is revealed from social network friends or self discovered by taking a look at oneself via SNS.

Lee Trevena, author of the article “Why Facets of our Offline Identities Exist Online” states

 It is important to understand that our offline values and lives are being reproduced in these online environments for this awareness helps us understand the context that we create which gives us a sense of belonging and this sense of belonging contributes to our sense of identity, and our relationships.

Though we are allowed the freedom to create identities for ourselves, I contest that our off-line identities will emerge even if we try to wear a mask or reinvent ourselves. While today’s technology is vast in its contents to provide us with many vehicles in which to express ourselves, our on-line identities or brands will give clues to our off-line identities regardless of what we choose to display to the world.

 

Procrasti---I'll Come Back to This...

“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.” -Spanish Proverb

Tips and tricks across the web to battle procrastination!

According to Psychology Today:

"Everyone procrastinates sometimes, but 20 percent of people chronically avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions—which, unfortunately, are increasingly available. Procrastination in large part reflects our perennial struggle with self-control as well as our inability to accurately predict how we'll feel tomorrow, or the next day.

Procrastinators may say they perform better under pressure, but more often than not that's their way of justifying putting things off."

We live in a culture of multi-tasking. We listen to music while watching TV while doing homework while on Facebook while having a conversation with a friend in person and online. And then we procrastinate. How can we battle it? Googling procrastination will bring up all sorts of "tips and tricks" but I think it just comes down to one thing (and in the words of Nike): JUST DO IT!

We can also cite South Park's ADHD cure (sorry for the link, it's the only one I could find) for a procrastination cure:

http://www.telly.com/HUKCH?fromtwitvid=1

We just need to SIT DOWN AND STUDY. Also, lists. Lots and lots of lists. 

Post-Feminists or Just Ignorant?

In Palfrey and Gasser's "Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives," the discussion of Digital Natives goes in depth about what identity means. Their focus particularly on the female Digital Native coincides with both Banet-Weiser article "Branding the Post-Feminism Self: Girls' Video Production and YouTube" and Haraway's "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Social Feminism in the 1980s." This focus on females and their public identities may be because females are fairly new to the public sphere. And by fairly new, I mean the past 50 years or so if we are thinking in terms of waves on feminism. 

These three articles intersect at the discussion of women taking and using something that they previously didn't typically have access to: a public forum for expressing themselves within the context of their current culture. This can be conceived as both a good and bad thing for women. The good part is that women are free to express themselves but the bad may be what they choose to express and how they express it. All of this is relative and it is where feminist issues come in. 

I argue that digital identities (Palfrey and Gasser), cyborgs (Haraway) and self-branding online (Banet-Weiser) are all basically the same concept. It's an extension of yourself in an online medium, basically. Adding post-feminism to this creates the aspect of women all authors are discussing.

In Banet-Weiser's article, she discusses girls navigating their online identities through the use of YouTube and how it may be a form of post-feminism and self-branding (who knows what her actual thoughts were since she had no closing thoughts). My question asks: Do these girls and young women know that they are post-feminists and does it matter if they know or not?

According to Wikipedia's definition of post-feminism it is: 

"...ill-defined and is used in inconsistent ways. However, it generally connotes the belief that feminism has succeeded in its goal of ameliorating sexism, making it fundamentally opposed to the third-wave intention of broadening feminist struggle."

So, are we in an era where women are struggling less? Did the second-wave succeed in liberating women? I don't think so but do the female Digital Natives believe this?  Or do they just not care? I think they don't care, personally, because they do not realize the consequences involved with sharing all they do online. I do not think teenagers are socially aware to the extent that they would understand a post-feminist stance.

What are your thoughts? Are they post-feminists or just ignorant?

Mermaids and Media Control

OK folks, so last week, I mentioned how the government has control of the media--news, internet, radio, etc. Andrew suggested I post about this. 

First, here is the link to Animal Planet (AP). This is a trailer for Mermaids: The Body Found. As you can see, this is a snippet from the two hour show. In a nutshell, this follows the story of scientists who identified a unique sound (The Bloop) that was a new species (of dolphin, so they thought). They also heard sonar tests by the Military, to which they attributed mass Whale beachings/deaths. Eventually, a body was found in a shark that did not match any known species. After putting all the pieces together, the consensus was something they avoided saying: it was a mermaid. Enter the government, who confiscated all the info. 

Now, these scientists, who ostensibly worked for NOAA, eventually left NOAA. Some of them have tried to put out their own sites. Yet look what happens when you type in one of the two names: Dr. Paul Robertson. This domain has been seized by the department of homeland security!? You get the same thing when you search for Mermaids are Alive, which was another attempt at creating a website. Here is a16th century rendering of what was thought was genetic anomaly--and what the scientists claimed they found:

Of course, there is a disclaimer at the end of the AP 'documentary':  "Though certain events in this film are fictional navy sonar tests have been directly implicated in whale beachings. “The Bloop” is a real phenomenon; there is still debate about what it may be. None of the institutions or agencies that
appear in the film are affiliated or associated with it in any way, nor have they approved its contents.
Any similarities in the film to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental."

So, we are left to wonder: what is the veracity of the information? Are mermaids real? I really don't care one way or the other, and that is not the question I am pursuing here. But why did the Department of Homeland Security get involved? If it is because of the sonar testing, what is the government doing behind closed doors that could so terribly affect the planet/humanity? How bad are the sonar tests? I would assume pretty bad, if they want to cover up the information on it. 

And then, why get rid of "Mermaids Are Alive" website? If the evidence is weak or potentially a hoax, why not just let that site stand? There are plenty of others claiming the same thing that have not been censored. People will believe what they want to when it comes to a topic like this.

The question is: who controls the information, to what degree, to what purpose, and why? We heard a ton of info on the Sept. 11 attack of 2001. I mean, you can't hide that (duh). Yet the reports of potential Chinese Satellite Hacking were hardly heard of--and hacking into our satellite system could cause a whole lot of havoc; it could be considered its own act of war. Without 100% proof, retaliatory action can't be taken, of course. But would the U.S. want to, given the global economy and who produces a lot of the crap we buy? So...how free are we, really, to use the internet to share information? Sounds to me like "The Man" still has a pretty strong hand in media control.

I Wanna Be a Cyborg (?)

If "the cyborg is a kind of disassembled and reassembled postmodern collective self" (205), then I want to be a cyborg. Then again, perhaps if gender is a set of behaviors, I already am a cyborg. Why? At least 50% of my attitudes and actions have male traits; "a cyborg is...a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as of fiction" (191). So, I am creating myself with these male-esque traits (hyper atheticism, lack of maternal instinct, propensity to cuss like a sailor, etc.) as a fictional creature; I can't begin to tell you how many people find it odd I don't want children. I am a fictitious female. Yet I am a "social reality," with my long hair, proclivity to wear tank tops, and the occasional purse usage. I am a collective of learned gender traits and a protest against them, of which some of this can be found online.

This leads to the question: can I be branded? Sadly, I would say yes. We all can be branded. The girls on YouTube are "crafting gender identity through particular performances" (282). Could I not, then, be said to be doing the same with my assimilation of different gender traits? Just because I am not broadcasting everything about who I am all over the internet does not mean branding is not happening. My resistance against the stereotypical female has itself already been co-opted by "the man." And, to my horror, it has been turned into the thing I hate.

The concept of strong women has become "Grrrl Power," and attached to things like little pink tank tops. When I went to Hot Topic when it first came out, black, dark, and what is now called emo was all the "fashion" you could find. Yet now there are hot pink and electric blue fishnets etc. that these neo-goths can wear "ironically." Gag. I always just wore plain black clothes--yet even THAT was "branded" by my mom. I was a "long hair"--the second-generation pre-hippie Beatnik. Even what I still like has a brand: Steampunk. And let's not even get into what has happened in the athletic world with the whole "shrink it and pink it" attitude, which includes "women's specific bikes,"  girly-girl clothing in "fashionable" colors, and stickers that say "(insert sport here) Like a Girl." GAG.

We simply can't avoid the branding. Whatever we try to "become"--be it from a place of protest, uniqueness, or outright oddity--someone will latch onto it and turn it into a fad; sure, it may be a counter-culture fad, but it is a culture--a sub culture; it is a way for us to identify with others. We are social creatures. We really can't avoid it.

And, we can't really escape ourselves. Palfrey and Gasser (P&G) make this clear with their example of the 16 year-old agrarian girl who could move to a new town and start a new life for herself. But we are now "plugged in"--cyborgs, really. Our social lives take place in the real and digital world. The more of a "native" we are, the worse it is--and the more we immerse ourselves in the digital world, the harder it is to "hide" ourselves. Computers leave records the way paper never could. As P&G say, "If the Digital Native has created multiple identities, those identities might be connected to create a much fuller picture of the individual than was possible before, spanning a greater period of time" (35). Google searching can dig up god knows what.

So, here many of the younger people are: branded cyborgs trying to control their identities. The control may or may not be possible; the avoidance of branding very much seems out of our hands. Maybe I don't wanna be a cyborg after all...

Online Identity Creation: It's Heathers & Mean Girls, Folks, Forever.

What the assigned readings for this week show us is that the matter of identity is not one with clear boundaries that are easily marked and monitored. Identity creation comes from the liminal spaces where the individual (internal) and the community (external) meet, because neither party has total control over how identity gets constructed. The commonality of these three assigned articles concerns how the forces in play in this space interact.

Online identity construction is, essentially, the same as offline identity construction with the sole difference being that it is far easier to see how this process operates in an online context because--as of this post--the technology used makes it transparent to a savvy observer. We see this most obviously in the identity construction processes at YouTube, where the efforts of the young women and girls we've read about to construct an identity that they control run straight into the counter-effort by others to control the identities of these same female users through the use of Comments, Upvotes/Likes and the View Counter.

These same contentions of identity control exist when one posts on Reddit, Facebook, Google Plus, etc. despite the lack of visceral experience that video provides. The push of a given conception of myself--who I want, and intend, for you the reader to see me as, to identify me as--gets contested by those that respond by voting/Liking the post, commenting on that post, and linking (or not) to that post. Manipulating the technical system to promote or denigrate the original poster is quite effective in seizing control of an online identity and shaping it to one's desire; this is not because you're taking control of the original poster, but rather that you're making the poster a pariah to the observers watching the interaction- this makes identity creation an inherently political act. This is the sort of thing that public relations professionals, and their fellows in marketing and advertising, find fertile ground for their skills and expertise.

The result, therefore, is that the rise of YouTube and similar Internet phenomenon such as Felicia Day's Geek and Sundry as well as FPSRussia--there's your segway for next week--where individuals that understand how to create and control popular perception of your persona become able to exploit this online identity creation process for their own ends, and thus remove some of the amateurism that's commonplace in the social media space. This is not a place where intellect rules--my fellow geeks and nerds, I am sorry to tell you so--but (as with offline identity matters) a realm where, once again, it's charisma that matters most.

What is Cyborg Feminism?

As I read the "Manifesto for Cyborgs" article by Donna Haraway I found myself writing things in the margins like, "What?!" "Really?!" and "It is?!"

A few pages in, I felt myself frustrated and annoyed. Not only was the language in the piece full of unnecessary jargon, it was also obviously relying heavily on an audience that had a significant education in postmodern theory, Marxism and feminism. Dripping with irony and "insider" witticisms, I felt as if I were peaking at something not really intended for my uninitiated eyes. 

And it wasn't just that the language and structure were difficult. I am OK with difficult text as long as I am eventually getting the gist of a piece. The problem that sent me searching for information about this article on the internet rather than continue to read this article was the sweeping statements that seemed utterly wrong. I searched for Donna Haraway and Cyborgs on Google. I found this Wikipedia article about Haraway that includes a section on this very piece.

Apparently this is a classic piece, and one that I hadn't encountered before. So, I tried to figure out what I should glean from Haraway's point of view that relates to the theme of this week's reading - Online Identity and Presentation. So, I focused on the section "Fractured Identities." There I found a clue to what might be the relevance of Haraway's manifesto to the other readings this week.

To summarize, Haraway seems to be pointing out that women are not necessarily aligned (and should not necessarily be aligned) with each other on important issues simply on the basis of their gender. Some takes of others from the Wikipedia article are:

the cyborg is a hybrid being.
According to Krista Scott:

Haraway feels that the cyborg myth has the potential for radical political action as it frees feminists from a desperate search for similarity with one another, since physical/epistemological boundary breaks can be extrapolated to political boundary crossings.^[11]

According to Marisa Olson:

Our life force flows through us and out into the objects we make, she reasoned; thus there ought to be no distinction between the so-called real or natural organisms that nature produces and the artificial machines that humans make. Her conclusion: We are all cyborgs.^[12]

 Whether or not I understand all of the nuance or particular references in this piece, the part that seems to be pushing us into the current discussion is the idea of creating affinity groups rather than gender groups. I think the current social media environment allows us to do that.

I gotta see it to believe it!

You Tube is a place where digital natives can practice self-expression while working on their identities through brand development.  The articles we have read this week discuss how these ideas interplay with one another.  The development of ones identity at times through branding is done through interaction with viewers that provide feedback.

Performances on You Tube videos are validated by the number of views and comments the videos receive, which is in turn crucially significant to self-branding. (Branding the Post-Feminist Self: Girls' Video Production and YouTube p. 288)

I see problems arising with the constant necessary validation of self-identity as explored particularly by the young.  Identity by the young is basically the same in both physical and online spaces.  Adolescents more than any other time in their lives explore different aspects of identity and shifts occur regularly.  The comments, and views that come via YouTube are a recognition of one's self.  Being seen and believed makes ones identity real; real for the individual creating the content and real for the viewer receiving the content.

This reminded me of a post I saw on YouTube last year.  It received many hits and touched many of those who saw it.  It was a post of a boy discussing the effects of bullying for him personally.  He reached many people who saw his video.  A while later, he posted a video of him and a friend smiling, goofing and speaking of his popularity with others.  (This post was later taken down).  This led many to call into question the validity of this post.

This controversy was over the believability of ones identity.  And as digital natives seem to share identity between  physical and online spaces easily, the 'proof' required to show a believable shift may not always come through in online settings.  This missing component could be damaging to ones identity as it relies on others recognition.

I am not sure about this site! :p

It looks like everything is tallied up on this site. If we visited someone or made a comment. Boy I feel like I am being watched (big brother). Its a little weird (I think) and I am sure this is part of the whole thing about doing this blogging on this site so (our) or (maybe I should say the Institution of Higher Learning) Instructors see how we preform. I am way off the path laid out for us in the syllabubs to follow, sorry I am getting carried away now that I am blogging I cant stop help me help me. Just joking see you all in class even if I haven't written anything about our reading I will tell you guys in class.   

How do I look from there?

I still have issues with regards to the whole perspective that we actually establish an identity just by placing it out on a blog site. The whole idea of snap shots of our perspective with regards to who we are as individuals seems a little shallow to me. I know that we are using words to share ideas on blog sites, yet even within close relationships who we are as individuals, more or less often is still a mystery.

Not liking this learning experience

I had thought that I was computer savvy but this whole blogging thing is causing me more stress than learning. I am caught between working on my ability to write and have you all see what that looks like and also trying to learn to do blogging. Maybe there is a time where you get to old to learn! hehehehe
I am going to try and ride this out but I already feel like I am so far behind that only a full time tutor can help me overcome my procrastination. I am a passive/avoidance personality which increases my stress level and anxiety and in turn causes me to withdraw even more and this in turn causes me to become depressed because I am not meeting the demands that I have set for myself. Well enough about me. I not sure that I want this to be shared with you all but I feel like at least I am trying to make some kind of identity, as the old guy trying to learn something new.
 

Ladies, ladies, ladies...

The prevalence of psychological disorders is on the rise. One of the main contributors to these disorders is the thought processes of the patients. Many studies have been done to research the effect of media on people who are predisposed to psychological disorders. How does advertising and popular media affect these thought processes?

Out of all psychological disorders, eating disorders are one of the most dangerous. Anorexia and bulimia have high relapse rates and often lead to death. According to multiple authors, “There is considerable evidence that exposure to attractive, thin female models increases depression, guilt, shame, stress, anger, and body dissatisfaction in women at risk for eating disorders” (as cited by Fister & Smith, 2004, p. 394). Are the images portrayed in media partially responsible?

Recently, one 14 year old, Julia Bluhm, voiced her opinion on the appearance of women in magazines. She started by creating a petition asking Seventeen magazine to present women in a more realistic manner. Over 84,000 people signed and supported her cause.

In response to the petition, Seventeen has agreed and created a Body Peace Treaty. The treaty involves simple things that promote a healthy self-esteem and has been signed by 87,743 members. In July, Bluhm told her supporters:

Seventeen listened! They're saying they won't use photoshop to digitally alter their models! This is a huge victory, and I'm so unbelievably happy. Another petition is being started by SPARK activists Emma and Carina, targeting Teen Vogue and I will sign it. If we can be heard by one magazine, we can do it with another. We are sparking a change! (Bluhm, 2012, para. 2)

Will this new petition in place targeting Teen Vogue be equally successful?

If our magazines, our advertising, our marketing began to adopt this ideology, what would that mean for women at-risk for anorexia and bulimia? Would the prevalence of these disorders decrease? But perhaps this is just another example of the “can do” girl: “…the self-branded girl [that] is encouraged to be self-reliant and empowered, especially within a consumer context” (Banet-Weiser, n.d., p. 283).

References

Banet-Weiser. (n.d.) Branding the post-feminist self: Girls’ video production and YouTube. In M. C. Kearney (Ed.), Mediated girlhoods: New explorations of girls’ media culture (pp. 277-295). New York: Peter Lang.

Bluhm, J. (2012). Seventeen magazine: Give girls images of real girls! Retrieved from http://www.change.org/petitions/seventeen-magazine-give-girls-images-of-real-girls

Fister, S. M., & Smith, G. T. (2004). Media Effects on Expectancies: Exposure to Realistic Female Images as a Protective Factor. Psychology Of Addictive Behaviors, 18(4), 394-397. doi:10.1037/0893-164X.18.4.394

Seventeen. (2012). Body peace treaty. Retrieved from http://www.seventeen.com/health/tips/body-peace-pledge