So I just spent the last hour reading back over my blog... and I really want to thank all of you that took the time to post.
What i noticed the most, aside from many insightful comments, was that I've been using this blog as my soap box for highly opinionated rants, I appologize; however, I am a creature of habit and a man of consistency, so without further adeau, my final rant of the semester:
(some scholarly ideas are going to be touched on here without much credit. Mr. Kierkegaard please dont sick the attack dogs on me... No... not the ones with the bees in their mouths.... and when they bark they shoot bees!! aaaaahhh!(I really hope somebody caught the Simpsons reference there))
Our modern technology is amazing. really, its bloody magical. imagine if you were some medieval peasant and you were somehow teleported into modern times... its inconceivable... you'd have a bloody jammer! but then a magical healer would come by and shock you back to life by touching metal to your chest. where am i going with this? im not all too sure... but that would be pretty cool, and i remember that my original intention had something to do with digital devices...
well have all these devices we carry all the time and our peasent friend would wonder what they are... we use them to improve our communication, improve our memory, aid our hearing and our vision. We have digital technology that improves and extends the human senses. its amazing.
but what the hell are we using it for??
cell phones:
Our conversations are so mundane... small talk this, lindsey lohan that. sure we can keep in touch with people more consitantly and currently. but ask yourself: who do you really know? I mean really... I know more about the true personality of my girlfriends cousin who I rarely talk to on the phine and that I've only on met on 4 occassions than I do about "friends" I've known since highschool and talk to on a regular basis. The enhancmenet of communication offered by cell phones has killed the "occasion" equally as much as facebook has killed the highschool reunion.
digital cameras:
Flickr is also full of the mundane... take a look. Sure there are some exceptions, but a vast majority are simply ordinary... without value.
bah!
Im going to cut to the chase here. its not the technology that I have a problem with, its our over use. we have become a society of of quantity over quality. for everything. and its resulted in everything becoming normal... and drained the meaning and pleasure from the small things in life.
Im such a pessimist.
But, image if every phone call was important, if every picture was beautiful and meaningful... if we used these technologies to discuss and catalog aspects important to all of society, instead of contending ourselves with our own little world of the trivial...
Luckly i see change coming. I'm really down with this citizen journalism, its pretty awsome, sifting through all the normalcy to find the exceptional... kinda like digging for gold! I heard that jeans were invented by gold diggers... its about time everybody got back on the same page in society , just like everybody wears jeans, and attatched value to the exceptional and started using this technology (digital technology, not jeans technology) for a purpose.
What is the purpose though, what is the epistome of the portable digital device?
I still don't know, I just know what it isn't.
ps:
Im going to go show up at my friends place with a case of beer and absolutely no warning... when was the last time that happened to you?
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The jogger and waterfall in Lynn Canyon park.
So i go for a jog through Lynn Canyon on most days. Without fail, there is always somebody on the bridge or walking through the forest not even looking at their surroundings, but at the small screen on their video camera. I think I may have touched on this before, but I still don't get it.
Or maybe I do. The technology seems to be an instrument used by the individual to increase their memory, and their desire to share their experiences with others. But what will they really be remembering, and what are they really sharing? There must be about 109839021378219798.012 (calculated to the exact decimal place by totalrandomguess.com) videos of someboady walking over the suspension bridge that are all basically the same: shaky footsteps... nervous laughter, a cool waterfal, and me jogging by in the background. None of these films capture the true experience and the emotions generated by being in one of the most beautiful places in the universe.
Instead of flying halfway around the world, save your money, save your time, and just look on youtube; because with that camera glued infront of your face, your missing the real experience.
All your really contributing to is helping "the man" profile and track down all canyon joggers so that once the canyon jogger holocaust comesdown, I'll be the first to go... thanks alot!
Or maybe I do. The technology seems to be an instrument used by the individual to increase their memory, and their desire to share their experiences with others. But what will they really be remembering, and what are they really sharing? There must be about 109839021378219798.012 (calculated to the exact decimal place by totalrandomguess.com) videos of someboady walking over the suspension bridge that are all basically the same: shaky footsteps... nervous laughter, a cool waterfal, and me jogging by in the background. None of these films capture the true experience and the emotions generated by being in one of the most beautiful places in the universe.
Instead of flying halfway around the world, save your money, save your time, and just look on youtube; because with that camera glued infront of your face, your missing the real experience.
All your really contributing to is helping "the man" profile and track down all canyon joggers so that once the canyon jogger holocaust comesdown, I'll be the first to go... thanks alot!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
No couch? Stupid!
I get it. I understand video game consoles... video games are awsome! I love sitting on my couch and shooting aliens for an entire afternoon (take today for example....)
What I don't get are these stupid portable gaming devices. These devices are the sign of the true addict and social deviant! Avoid these people at all costs folks; not much of a task considering they are usually busy avoiding you.
Can somebody please explain the appeal? How can you engage in a portable gaming consol without a portable couch?
What I don't get are these stupid portable gaming devices. These devices are the sign of the true addict and social deviant! Avoid these people at all costs folks; not much of a task considering they are usually busy avoiding you.
Can somebody please explain the appeal? How can you engage in a portable gaming consol without a portable couch?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
crappy pictures of a great rock concert
So I was at this awsome rock concert over the weekend; Matt Mays and El Torpedo, if you've never heard them, you should. It was at the Commodore, which is the best venu in Vancouver in my opinion, the crowd was awsome, and their playlist was compiled of all the fan favorites. Wicked show. So I'm rocking out like a maniac spilling crown and cola all over myself, my girls friend is smacking everyone around her with her hair whilst head-banging, and there is a continuous flow of sweaty bodies surfing over head: as far as I'm concerned, this is what rock concerts are all about, this is what I pay my money for.
However, there was a great number of people that apparently pay their money for far different reasons. Looking around there was an obvious amount of people with their cell phones focusing on their small little screens and recording crummy little pixelated videos - extremely poor representations of only a fraction of the over all experience.
Whats the deal? I'm spilling my booze all over you and you don't even notice because your too busy missing the show by recording something your going to post on Facebook and then never watch again.
However, there was a great number of people that apparently pay their money for far different reasons. Looking around there was an obvious amount of people with their cell phones focusing on their small little screens and recording crummy little pixelated videos - extremely poor representations of only a fraction of the over all experience.
Whats the deal? I'm spilling my booze all over you and you don't even notice because your too busy missing the show by recording something your going to post on Facebook and then never watch again.
What happened to living for the moment?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Over the weekend i met up with a bunch of family i hadn't seen in a long time. One of my favorite cousins pointed out my new phone and compared it to the old peice of junk i used to have. This got me thinking about the "alternative" ways i used to use my cell phone..... it truelly was a multimedia device.
Sure i used my phone for communication, but half the time that invovled getting somebodies attention by throwing it at them from across the room.
I didn't much like the checkers or tetris games it came with, so half the time it was used as a puck, baseball, or a hacky sack.
And no it couldn't play music, operate a GPS system or shoot lasers, but it sure could open a bottle of beer! how many Iphones can do that?
RIP Nokia model what-ever-you-were: you truelly brought people together. Your replacement couldn't hold a candle to your rugged nature and i doubt it would skip half as many times before meeting its own watery demise.
Sure i used my phone for communication, but half the time that invovled getting somebodies attention by throwing it at them from across the room.
I didn't much like the checkers or tetris games it came with, so half the time it was used as a puck, baseball, or a hacky sack.
And no it couldn't play music, operate a GPS system or shoot lasers, but it sure could open a bottle of beer! how many Iphones can do that?
RIP Nokia model what-ever-you-were: you truelly brought people together. Your replacement couldn't hold a candle to your rugged nature and i doubt it would skip half as many times before meeting its own watery demise.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Mind reading MP3 player!!!
I don't know if this has ever happened to you... its happened a couple times where I have my mp3 player on shuffle, I'm listening to a song, with another song in my mind then bam!!! that song comes on next... Is my mp3 player reading my mind?????? This got me thinking a little bit.
There are technologies out there like the neuroswitch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWe5YVV9dWs if adapted, advanced, and combined with portable devices like the Iphone which are perpetually "connected" could have very ominous consequences.
What say you?
There are technologies out there like the neuroswitch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWe5YVV9dWs if adapted, advanced, and combined with portable devices like the Iphone which are perpetually "connected" could have very ominous consequences.
What say you?
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Follow Up...
First of all, thanks for all the responses. I'm glad that I'm not the only person that has these inklings that all is not well in the era of the techno-takeover... I like the ring of that, that term already taken Ted? Well anyways....
I'd like to start off with a quote from Neil Postman which i really believe sums up one aspect of my thoughts and maybe what Sarah and Jenna are alluding to--
"The uncontrolled growth of [communications] technology destroys the vital sources of our humanity. It creates a culture without moral foundation. It undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living."
When the day comes- and it will unless some things change (like me being the supreme ruler of the galaxy!)- that people rely entirely upon digital technology for communication, when we absolutely ignore all those physically around us unless they are using the same technology.... will we still be considered humans?
Now this far-fetched (or not so far-fetched) idea of mine (and others) brings me to Ted's questions: "why is convenience bad? How does technology contribute to it? How, then, does technology promote conditions that support laziness? "
Convenience isn't bad per-se, but like everything else there is a balance:
Lets be honest here, if i didn't have a remote control for my TV, I would turn it on, find the first channel that appealed to me, sit my lazy ass down on the couch and watch that channel (stupid subway commercials and all) until I was bored of the TV, really wanted to change the channel, or that stupid subway monkey drove me homicidal. Thankfully i own a remote control, and i haven't killed anybody over my pathological hatred for the subway advertisers. But I digress......The advent of the remote control and other devices like it (any real-time comm. tech.), not only breeds the conception that switching our focus is as easy and convenient as the "flick of a switch" and requiring minimal physical manipulation, but this expectation also becomes a standard demand on all future technologies.
The advent of portable digital communication devices are the product of this. As we have discusses in class, all the lines that society has constructed are being blurred: you can be somewhere, but not physically there. Convenient huh? Sure it enables us to be more efficient and effective, but to what ends??? So we can create more technology that makes things more efficient and effective and convenient? So we can be efficient and effective while conversing with friends, so we can be efficient and effective while pondering our lives or the meaning of life itself? I don't even have time around all this digital saturation to ponder the meaning of life anymore... not to mention it has apparently already been answered: to be efficient and effective.... and convenient.
When McLuhan says "The medium is the message"... the message is that we value convenience over all else. And where is the balance to that?
Lazy expectations that everything should be easy, that everyone is always and readily available, and more frighteningly, a laize-farre approach to the direction that technology is leading us... as long as it makes life "easier" . And Jesse ( sorry to pick on you) when you say that, " I think it's another way to connect" I would have to disagree with you and say its just a way to disconnect from the things that are really important, and essential, in this world, and distracting all the while. We should start asking some questions before our porty-digi-tech has us completely distracted.
However, allow me to finish on a bright note, and another quote from the MC of the comm. world and say, "There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening."and contemplate i will... until heroes is on... or the canucks game... or.... you get the idea.
I'd like to start off with a quote from Neil Postman which i really believe sums up one aspect of my thoughts and maybe what Sarah and Jenna are alluding to--
"The uncontrolled growth of [communications] technology destroys the vital sources of our humanity. It creates a culture without moral foundation. It undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living."
When the day comes- and it will unless some things change (like me being the supreme ruler of the galaxy!)- that people rely entirely upon digital technology for communication, when we absolutely ignore all those physically around us unless they are using the same technology.... will we still be considered humans?
Now this far-fetched (or not so far-fetched) idea of mine (and others) brings me to Ted's questions: "why is convenience bad? How does technology contribute to it? How, then, does technology promote conditions that support laziness? "
Convenience isn't bad per-se, but like everything else there is a balance:
Lets be honest here, if i didn't have a remote control for my TV, I would turn it on, find the first channel that appealed to me, sit my lazy ass down on the couch and watch that channel (stupid subway commercials and all) until I was bored of the TV, really wanted to change the channel, or that stupid subway monkey drove me homicidal. Thankfully i own a remote control, and i haven't killed anybody over my pathological hatred for the subway advertisers. But I digress......The advent of the remote control and other devices like it (any real-time comm. tech.), not only breeds the conception that switching our focus is as easy and convenient as the "flick of a switch" and requiring minimal physical manipulation, but this expectation also becomes a standard demand on all future technologies.
The advent of portable digital communication devices are the product of this. As we have discusses in class, all the lines that society has constructed are being blurred: you can be somewhere, but not physically there. Convenient huh? Sure it enables us to be more efficient and effective, but to what ends??? So we can create more technology that makes things more efficient and effective and convenient? So we can be efficient and effective while conversing with friends, so we can be efficient and effective while pondering our lives or the meaning of life itself? I don't even have time around all this digital saturation to ponder the meaning of life anymore... not to mention it has apparently already been answered: to be efficient and effective.... and convenient.
When McLuhan says "The medium is the message"... the message is that we value convenience over all else. And where is the balance to that?
Lazy expectations that everything should be easy, that everyone is always and readily available, and more frighteningly, a laize-farre approach to the direction that technology is leading us... as long as it makes life "easier" . And Jesse ( sorry to pick on you) when you say that, " I think it's another way to connect" I would have to disagree with you and say its just a way to disconnect from the things that are really important, and essential, in this world, and distracting all the while. We should start asking some questions before our porty-digi-tech has us completely distracted.
However, allow me to finish on a bright note, and another quote from the MC of the comm. world and say, "There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening."and contemplate i will... until heroes is on... or the canucks game... or.... you get the idea.
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