Wendy Chun – Programmed Visions, (book, pp. 1-2, and optionally pp. 3-10)
I felt like this reading started out defining what new media exactly is, and it essentially explained that new media studies all center around software, which is what all new media have in common. I thought it was particularly interesting how he mentioned that we can’t truly know what is going on behind software, how someone really feels or acts vs. how they portray themselves online. This is something I’m super interested in because I know there is a lot of disconnect in this particular area.
Matthew Fuller – How to be a Geek (book, pp. 12-14, and optionally pp. 63-71)
The article describes being a “geek” as someone who is super informed and excited about a topic, and not be afraid to share about said topic with little regard to the fact that others may not take interest in the topic that the “geek” is sharing about/being enthusiastic about. I thought this was a perfect definition of geek, and I feel like we all have a bit of this geekiness inside of us. I find it quirky and interesting when someone geeks out about something, but it can be a bit much if it is a recurring thing. I am not surprised that geeks run a lot of the corporations because I feel like it’s logical that people who are super enthusiastic about something become leaders in that particular subject. I found it super interesting and relatable how they talked about how geeks often mute themselves and pass themselves as underwhelming, because I feel as though I tend to not talk about or express things that I have lots of interest in because I feel as though it isn’t socially acceptable in general.
Geert Lovink – Sad by Design (podcast w/ Douglas Rushkoff, 60m)
The podcast is talking about the changing political environment; the fact that there aren’t many traditional social movements – there are protests, but these protests do not gain as much support or participation. It seems like they are crediting this to social media platforms which allows users needing to give little effort to “support” causes, but not actually join them. Personally I think that this is true, because the ability of the internet to give us instant and quick results have bred a society that looks for instant gratification and results, and putting in little effort to get big results, and people like to turn a blind eye in order to not feel sad or negative.
Soren Pold – New ways of hiding: towards metainterface realism (article)
The article talks about how people have stopped trusting “commercial meta interfaces” by installing blockers, ads, and clearing their cookies, bringing us back to the topic that we covered last week about surveillance/privacy. As people start becoming more aware of how a bunch of our information is being recorded and sold off to companies, more and more people try to take measures to prevent this from happening. The work that Ben did on Facebook (Safebook) that is mentioned in the article aligns well with the topic because it is a method of data obfuscation through hiding Facebook content.