PUBLIC SPACES

PUBLIC SPACES



With the advent of cyberspace all of the components that make up culture have been affected.  Space is no longer physical space but the spaces we inhabit while connected to space.  We can buy a house in Florida while relaxing in California.  If necessary we can participate in global politics or create a push toward global restructuring.  An individual can relocate to the United States from India and still keep in touch with their family in India.  Why is this important?  It allows people to travel within parallel universes.  They can participate in their new culture while still observing the customs of their own. 

Never before has immigrants been allowed to participate in two or even three cultures at the same time.  How will this affect the United States?  It will be interesting to find out.  Prior to the internet many of our newest citizens lived together in neighborhoods that reflected their past cultures.  Eventually however as the children of immigrants attended American schools they became more Americanized. For example: many of Italian, German, Irish, Mexican descent spoke their native languages in their homes,  as they became more Americanized the mother tongue gave way to English.  The first and second generation immigrants crossed the lines of ethnicity and married outside of their ethnic group.  Although there are still neighborhoods that keep the traditions of first generation nationality there are fewer and fewer of these subcultures in the United States.  It is why the U.S. is considered the melting pot.

As we evolve into cyberculture first generation immigrants can remain connected.  It is yet to be seen if there is less or more of the melting pot result that is presently being seen in the U.S.  Although Nayar did not actually comment on the assimilation process and how it has affected the U.S. without cyberspace it stands to reason that as the cyber culture becomes more advances the subcultural dynamics will change.  No longer are people restricted by travel and time.  We can be in two places at once and participate in two cultures at once.

Many business men still are required to travel across the ocean and across the country however, less often and with less expense.  Financial arrangements, international deals, the sharing of new technologies can be done in cyberspace without physical restrictions.  With the click of a button meetings can be held while physically the participants are thousands of miles apart.  This has changed radically the business culture.

The availability of global participation in all areas of our lives has changed our lives long term in ways we have not even discovered yet.  Presently according to Nayar the cyberspaces are primarily American with the language predominately English.  As countries become more technologically advanced in the opinion of this observer there will be other languages and cultures that will mix with and transform cyber culture.  Not only English, but Chinese and Russian are now only a click away how long before these languages are spoken as often in cyberspace as a part of a cyberculture.  Global cities are already linked by finance, data, and ideas.  It is only a matter of time until they are linked by language.

Global restructuring is part of public spaces.  Unfortunately it is not equal or democratic.  Many continents such as inner Africa have large areas that do not reap the benefits of technological advances, public spaces, or cyberspace.  Those that hold the Technological advantage can easily prey upon those without these advantages.  However, because of cyberspace the crimes against third world countries and their indigenous populations seldom remain a secret.  Children and women who are forced to work for low wages, horrible conditions, and long hours cannot remain a secret sin for long in the world of the world wide net.  Human rights activists and organizations do not need offices in every town, in every country to stop the abuses of the poor around the world.

Cyberspace has allowed us an entire range of tools with which to obtain information in places that we are physically not present.  Webcams, electronic tracking, digital traces are technologies of surveillance.  Private is no longer private but by the use of these tools the babysitter cannot abuse children, thieves cannot longer steal without being caught, and employees who steal from their employees are more often caught.

Religion has also been changed by the use of public spaces.  At any time of the night or day and regardless of the religion you may belong to you can access a service or spiritual guidance on the internet.  For the most part this is a comforting though however, cults reach out and recruit members for the good of their pockets and not the spiritual growth of their human disciples.  It is probably a good thing that Charles Manson or Jim Jones did not have the use of the Web.

Finally, the sharing of public spaces has changed the face of crime.  A criminal can rob a bank without a gun or violence and a lot more effectively.  “Identity theft” is the new mode of crime.  Criminals do not steal a material item but passwords, numbers, accounts, and identities that can be used to possess the material objects that they deem are important for them to possess. Ponzi Schemes are possible to pull off because of Cyberspaces.

Without the restrictions of physical barriers the world is rapidly changing and yet many things have not changed.  The strong still prey on the weak, children are still abused and exploited, and thieves still operate to take the property of others even though it may not be material property.  Religion and faith is still important to many people and in many cases culture specific.  On the other side of things it is easier to catch the perpetrator that preys on the innocent and catch those who take the intangible property of others.  It will be interesting to see if a world of public spaces that do not have a physical nature assists the evolution of humanity in a good way or a detrimental way.

JOHNNY DEPP

 JOHNNY DEPP

an American actor

JOHNNY DEPPLONE RANGER

Native American spirit warrior JOHNNY DEPP

Tonto recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid, a man of the law, into a legend of justice.

 a man of the law, into a legend of justice. The two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.

Pirates of The Caribbean

JACK SPARROW Johnny is awesome and brilliant

SUBCULTURES

Subcultures

                Subcultures are cultures that are outside the mainstream.  The mainstream culture has a tendency to support the status quo.  With the rise of cyber space subcultures can develop with little risk of the people involved becoming discovered.  Yes, we all have digital footprints but there is the element of anonymity that cyberspace provides.  You can say anything with in in reason and be anyone you want and if you do it carefully enough you will not be found out for what you are.  Since subcultures often times disagree with the mainstream population this element of anonymity serves the purpose of those who wish to be unique in their acceptance of government and corporate strongholds.  Many of these individuals express themselves through the internet and other technologies others go much farther and actually commit cybercrimes.

  Cybercrimes actually can range from hate inducing speech to credit card fraud and identity theft.  Any type of subversive activity can be found on the internet.  For example there are web sites that fish for personal information so that they can use that information to invade a bank account that is not theirs.  There are web sites that promote all types of adherent sexual behavior.  Including but not limited to child pornography, incest, and other taboos. 

 Crime and subversive criminal practices are similar as technology becomes more sophisticated so does cybercrime.  Cybercrime requires more technological advances to assist in the control of the offenses made against the unsuspecting victim.  One of the more recent applications available to the general public is an application that will change your voice and allow the perpetrator to register a different number when they call.  For example a man calls using a women’s voice from what appears to be A Domino’s Pizza Parlor.  He can say that you won a pizza but he needs the credit card number to pay for the tax and delivery charge.  The call will actually register for the Dominos store when in fact the caller is just trying to get the card information so that they can use it for themselves.  This is just one of the scams that the subculture of cybercriminal can use in their arsenal to get personal financial information.

   There are legitimist means of voicing ones opinion if you do not agree with the structure and principles of government and corporation.  One of these methods is blogging.  Blogging is not really a subculture anymore because of the diverse topics that are communicated on the World Wide Web in this media.  Blogs are a form of writing that expresses the views of others on line.  Blogs can present oneself in a persona that is acceptable to the author.  Unfortunately blogs can be factual or primarily fiction.  That depends upon the writer and their need to present facts that have been verified.   Blogs are only as good as the writer regardless of the focus of the blog.
            Webcams are an extension of the blog.  The technologies of self-representation can now use the Webcam adds to their autobiographies.  What does this mean the Commentator can show who they are as well as tell who they are?  They can also tell and show how others are.  Many people have been captured on phone video and their secrets have gone viral.  Reality TV could be considered part of the webcam sub-culture.  Webcam sites run by women have gained popularity in the last several years.  Many of these sites are run by women as self-representation.  Women can decide to place themselves in pornographic situations but they control what they present to the world.  This is a way of altering gender power whether it objectifies women or not.

            Hacking is another undesirable sub culture of the cyber world.  Hacking represents a more dangerous form of sub culture.  The computer and Internet generate a more novel threat to individuals, corporations, and nation-states.  Person details may be stolen and sold to third parties, emails can corrupt your hard drive by spreading viruses and messages/information without any truth may be spread by placing them on websites.

Stealing identities by stealing a password can allow a person to steal an entire identity.  Cyber stalking has resulted in cases of child molestation.  Many hate groups such as whit supremacist and extreme right –wing groups run hate campaigns using the Net called cyber hate.

        

    New technologies bring new methods of perpetuating subversive subcultures.  The technology comes first, the abuses second, and finally a way of dealing with the abuses third.  The legislation for the restriction of internet offenses is not yet a part of our world.  Many do not want regulations because they feel that our first amendment rights are being violated.  Others want controls on everything.  There is one thing for sure to keep up with the subversive subcultures there must be some type of controls levied upon the internet community.

BLOG chapter 14

Nostalgia Of The Young:

What is Nostalgia? Nostalgia is best described as a memory or long for the past, reminding the individual of an event or something that occurred in their life. Nostalgia includes emotion on both ends of the spectrum like happiness and sadness.  If Nostalgia was a taste it would be a lemon pie, tart with an underlying sweetness.  It is with this emotion of Nostalgia that we greet the new technologies that we are confronted with daily.

 Gone are the days where you pick up a phone, call a friend, and talk for hours.  Our lives do not fit this concept.  We are too busy to spend this much time “communicating”.  Instead, we must be satisfied with simply connecting with as many people as we can.  Is it any wonder that people look at the past with Nostalgia?  How many of us experience communication that expresses emotion to each other in meaningful ways? 

Should we actually be settling for texts that communicate the important details of our lives?  Is it appropriate for a spouse to communicate to her significant other that she is pregnant.  Is it more important to be practical as well as personal to ask your partner to marry you in a text message?  Is all communication supposed to be quick abrupt and impersonal.  What does this do to us as people?  Are we relegating emotions as something that belongs in the past in order to keep up with digital world technology?  Our new technologies change daily.  We as a generation are becoming technology junkies and we are missing communication techniques that our mothers and fathers employed.  Should this bother us? I think that it should.  I believe that we can have both the digital world of technology along with excellent communication skills.  I do not think that it is necessary to put our entire lives on Facebook.  I also feel that good communication begins with trust.  We have the best tools to communicate with than any generation thus far and yet I fear that we are abusing them.  You very rarely see an individual under the age of 25 without a phone, tablet, iPod, or laptop with them.  How many times have you been in a coffee shop, seen two people together, and yet they are texting someone else on the phone.  What happened to the basic rules of good interpersonal communication?  How can you be a good listener if you are more interested in answering the last text that talking to the person that you are with?  How can we bond with who we most want to be with if when we are with them we are texting someone else?  When we fail to make a personal connection with other people with new technology we have the ability to join a fantasy reality like “Second Life”.  In virtual realities like second life we can communicate on a personal level with other people who want to pretend to be someone other than they are rather that actually working to become the person that they really would like to be. As a generation I feel that we have lost the much of the human bonding that we as a species need for positive mental health.

In my opinion digital technically advanced technology has flooded our lives and given us a different set of rules and expectations of others.  Unfortunately the rule book is a secret and we are floundering attempting to find our when our human side fits with our technological side.  Facebook, twitter, dating sites, and sites for true confessions have given people a new way of communicating and dealing with the emotions and pressures of today but how much of our technology helps us work though our problems and how much does our technology actually help us avoid our problems.

Our country has been faced with multiple tragedies involving shootings in schools and other public places by individuals who are mentally unbalanced.  Our answer to restricting these incidents would be to control the access of guns in our cities in states.  I do not feel that this is the only answer to this very serious problem.  As a nation I think that we have to pay attention to the way that we are communicating with each other.  A virtual reality site would be psychologically devastating to person who is not reality based.  The virtual reality war games can have a pathological effect on someone with violent tendencies.   For unstable individuals, to suggest that it is ok to kill thousands of people in a video game, how big of a stretch is it to suggest its ok to kill groups of people in a movie theater, mall or school.  Are video games, virtual reality games, true confession sites, Facebook and twitter bad?  I don’t think so but I think that they have done additional psychological damage to the psychologically impaired.  Technology has changed so quickly that there has not been enough time to evaluate the positive and negative effects of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWBbg5GzGw4

Attention to each other is what we are lacking as our dependence on technology increases.  Young teens can multitask texting while they are doing other things but they are losing the ability to focus when asked to attend to a new concept or skill.  I have experienced the results of broken relationships due to too much dependence on technology and not enough attention on interpersonal skills.

Finally, technological advances are wonderful but we are allowing these advances to control us.  We should not throw away what we have learned from interpersonal contact.  It is rude to text while the person that you are with is sitting across from you expecting conversation.  It is insensitive to place personal information about another person on the internet without discussing it with them first.  It is alright to let someone hear your voice when you want to tell them you love them, and if you do something to offend a friend it is better to tell them you are sorry than text them an apology.

           

chapter 11-12

CHAPTER 11 Reduction and BETRAYAL and Chapter 12 True Confessions.

Galina

 

                Men learning to move as women, Women discussing depression, and software engineers attempting to gain a second life what is this description of?  It seems like this is the description of a science fiction adventure but it is not it is today and todays virtual reality.  I absolutely am in awe of the people who are creating avatars. What is the effect of the Avatars and Second life?  Are we becoming a society who values fantasy instead of reality or are we simply a resourceful society who have found creative outlets for our inventiveness?  First, there is much to admire in living through an avatar.  For individuals who have lost limbs or have a devastating experience it gives them an opportunity to work through trauma as another individual.  I see the psychological advantages of the individual who had lost her leg practicing by acting through her avatar.  I also see the psychological advantages of the person who is getting over a traumatic event using avatars to do it. However there are other areas of the Second Life trend that are a little scary.  For example:  I see the psychological advantages but I also see the Psychological pit falls.  The book mentions that virtual reality games and internet games can be addictive.  It states that people become so involved in their virtual lives that they ignore their real lives.  I also see that many psychological disorders are caused from an individual’s inability to separate fact from fantasy.  It seems that inventing an avatar to live in a virtual reality almost encourages a blur between fact and fantasy.

 

 It would be wonderful to be able to sit all day and interact in a world where the participant choses and has total control over their environment and life.  The problem is if you are unable to interact in the real world it will not be too long before the internet is turned off and fantasy is turned into cruel, real, reality.  Most of us are addicted to technology in one way or the other.  Very few of us feel comfortable leaving our cell phones at home or not checking to see if we have a text message for several hours but I would hope that those of us who are gamers are still able to operate in reality

As concerned as I am about creating a virtual world and living in it, I am even more concerned about the true confession website.  There is no such thing as privacy on the web site.  If the people who are putting their secrets on line think that they are anonymous.  If it is not enough that you might be busted for your deepest secret there is a possibility that someone may share the same secret.  An immediate bond can be formed as the book suggests and the person who has done something immoral, illegal, or just plain mean all of a sudden feels better.  I am not so sure this is a good thing.  We all do things we are ashamed of but if sharing that shame makes us feel better what is to keep the secret holder from becoming desensitized and repeating the offense.  Most of us need to talk about our sins.  In my opinion that is why there are priests.  All of us need to forgive ourselves for their wrongs but this requires acceptance of guilt and the ability to change our actions.  From what I read in Chapter 12 it seems like the true confessions web site helps us rationalize our deeds not change them.  

 

Chapter 10 No Need to Call

The electronic device, the motion on the screen and the moving of the fingers that keep on taping away.  Our device gives us the opportunities to stay connected and up tone with the closest people we talk to. In this particular chapter 10, lays out different ways to keep in touch and how it allows us to be alone with our thoughts, emotions, that isn’t shown on the device but knowing that messaging and texting is becoming a huge deal in the Second Life of Technology.

However, while getting the understanding behind the ability to text and message, in which is more convenient because it allows you to still multitask and do something since both hands are free. Texting also in some cases provide some privacy.  The negative points behind texting and messaging is people are losing effective communication skills. It’s a lot harder to know what people are talking about through text instead of talking over the phone. Other reasons that messaging has a negative effects of text is that it’s very addictive and distracting. A recent Pew Internet and American Life Project survey estimated that it is said that it would be hard to give up their mobile devices, up from 38% in 2002. 57% of a majority of teens view their devices as their key towards their social life. In this case, having a social life is being drawn to the electronic device, rather than having the social life with people around you or being present with someone. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Negative_effects_of_text_messagingt

Texting and Messaging can also lead to bigger problems like Texting while driving.

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Testing-Text-Messaging-Drivers-Video

 

Texting and messaging has been the biggest component in our daily lives. It puts us in a state of mind of wondering the Second Life, in our own little world and losing the effectiveness of Communication skills. I believe that texting in general is very addictive in my circumstances, because I get the tendency to want to pick my device up and want to text my boyfriend a lot. I have the tendency to become worried because my boyfriend doesn’t text me or what he is trying to say in a text message.

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-klein/texting-romantic-relationships_b_1821646.html

 

 

In our world, we have so many ways we can escape with technology, like TV, Facebook, computers, cellphone devices, and so much more.

Chater 8 Alone together- Always On

Alone Together

Chapter 8 blog

“Always on”

Galina

 

            In the novel, Alone Together, chapter 8 Always On gives the readers an idea that the two words “Always On” indicates that we the people are drawn deeply into our technologies. In this case, our electronics like: cellphones, IPods, Ipads, and computers. Throughout each generation, humans make new products, create technology and birth ideas.  As a civilization the human race is in overdrive and every year the technology profession makes new inventions that are reliable as well as useful.  New electronic technology and the devices brought to us are changing before our eyes. Technology and connectivity to social networks becomes a way for most of us to live two lives; one life in the flesh and one virtually. It is the ability to participate in a virtual life that has been made possible during the reader’s lifetime.

            It is relating in cyber space with other people that has drawn our attention towards the latest objects and electronic devices to make the use of the internet easier. Being able to stay connected is becoming the new way of experiencing life.  When a glitch appears and individuals are unable to stay connected it causes problems in all areas of our life.  Important emails are not sent, questions go unanswered, and friendships can become damaged because of the inability to communicate.  In many ways we have become slaves to our technology addicted to a new form to connection as well as depending on it to stay connected with other people.  Human beings are becoming more dependent on their devices to do the work for them.  In Chapter 8, the author points out that the use of electronic devices has taken control to such an extent that we are seldom without a cell phone or a computer.

            Within the world becoming more electronically chained or addicted to technology has its negatives and positives effects.  In the Chapter reviewed, it’s broken down by sections on specific topics that express multiple points of view regarding our dependence on technology. Much of our technology has taken over our daily lives and our futures.  As people get more attached to human-made devices, there is face to face interaction between people. Communication is more about technology than human emotion.  The technology becomes first while our experiences become second to the technology, therefore we miss much because we are distracted. For instance, traveling to Spain, experiencing its beauty and culture, was wonderful but there was the temptation even the draw to listen to an IPod or use the cellphone.  The use of the cell phone or IPod distracts from experience the reality of what is going on around us and therefore we are unable to enjoy the here and now in this case Spain.

            Technology as it relates to communication has given men and women different and diverse ways of staying connected and communicating.  The technology generation has a different way of acting, responding, connecting and even multitasking. This is a massive change within our societies, Communities, and with the rest of the world.  The author calls this the new “notion of time.” Having different electronic devices has a huge impact on our societies. Technology does allow each individual to do more and be yet being less and further removed from others. Connectivity in the new world has a lot to offer, such as people can do just about anything they need to do at any time and from anywhere with their electronic devices. Multiple different devices and the use of being connected will make it better for us with others wherever they are. Technology has become the Second or virtual Life of all and whether we like it or not we are always on.