FINAL MIDTERM

Note to reader: While this ‘essay’ provides a variety of ways of reading (i.e. you don’t have to read it top to bottom) I, as the author, ask you read as if this were a print text. That is, the links all provide support for statements and claims that are directly related to the ideas present before and after. I believe reading it ‘top to bottom’ and 'left to right' would be beneficial to you. It is in this nature this ‘essay’ still adheres to modernist practices and linear nature. In order for me to feel like my ideas have been addressed, fully, please click a link and then resume where you left. You can feel free to jump from paragraph to paragraph and partake in the [ironic parody] "the labyrinth" of postmodern dis-cohesion after reading it through once. As the writer, I hope my italicized notes help guide you and give you direction.

(huh??)

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Alienation Shown Through Weblogs in Modern Day Society

The computer screen blankly stares. The white nothingness taunts and laugh, prods and pierces my eyes. My hands sit, idle. There is no soft rhythmic tapping of keys and no thoughts expressed through Times New Roman (aptly sized twelve point). Instead my pen scribbles flowing, barely legible cursive on cream pages. As my progression of thoughts nears completion, I set the paper down, the lines running parallel to rectangular keys. Here, I decipher the cursive and give them ‘proper’ typed form. This interaction between textual and digital aesthetic is nothing compellingly new or uncommon in the last decade due to the rise in technology and use of computers. In fact, it fully supports the notion of digital text conflicting with practice of printed text. However, it is within this very conflict problems arise. Not only does it change the linear nature of text in terms of space and time, it also, more importantly is adding to modern society's struggle with alienation. It is clear that computers and blogging are a literal and physical barrier between Real social interaction.


One such example of this change (or shift) in writing is found in the form of weblogs. Recently I began my own form of a blog. To backtrack momentarily I would like to pretext my ideology; I write and I thoroughly enjoy the act of writing. I also adhere to Derridian notions about consciousness expressed through language.
(http://dafunkmastameowmeow.blogspot.com/2008/02/derrida.html) So, in this sense, if writing is believed to be an expression of our consciousness then, logistically, if blogs are a form of writing, they should be an expression of consciousness. [It is a simple logistical equation Consciousness=Language then Language: Writing] In putting those two thoughts together, I realize that my writing should be an expression of my thoughts and I should, after writing, feel a certain physical closeness to the words. That is they are my expression and it should be understood that directly correlated to my thoughts. That stated, I thoroughly disliked my blogging experience. Upon my first entry, I wrote:

http://dafunkmastameowmeow.blogspot.com/2008/01/rambleramblephoto.html


Did I grow as a writer? No. I steadily found myself at distance from the computer screen, and thus, the words on the computer screen, and even more so, the thoughts that the very words were meant to express. I felt a type of cognitive distance rather than an attachment to the very blogs I created. The machine was a literal and physical barrier. I did not feel like I could interact with the text or that the thoughts upon the blog were mine.I believe this was due to the fact that a lot of the objects posted were a not a direct expression of me, they were ‘youtube’ videos or photographs I had taken with my 35mm film camera. Even now, I still feel a distance between my posts and my thoughts, more so than I normally do when I write. Perhaps this distance, was, in part, due to no one commenting or interacting with my blog. I went in with expectation of difference between the ‘normal’ (as defined by Modernists) printed writing I partake in and the newly discovered blog I was interacting with.

My blog writing was put in the "public sphere", in accordance to what Miller and Shepherd argue. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.htmland I had "hopes" of people reading it. However, with no one commenting it began to have a facade of being private. I began to think I was writing for myself and no one else. The clear, binary categorization of public vs. private was upheld and since I believed it was private, it did not correlate to alienation and false interaction of a social blogging network.

*****

Blogs, instead of unifying people are slowly tearing apart the very instilled social fabric. “[A] classification [of blogs]into two “styles,” based largely on content: an original filter-style, where the blogger is primarily an editor and annotator of links, and a later, more personal “blog-style” weblog, where bloggers engage in “an outbreak of self-expression” (Miller). In this sense, perhaps blogging does give the individual expression, but the same principle cannot be applied to the larger, societal whole. Overall, it is causing lingering feelings of alienation and blogging is filling the place of social, "Real" interaction.

With my experience with blogging, I concluded that blogging can creates a feeling of alienation and a false reality of social interaction. As Sherry Turkle stated in her essay, Virtuality and its Discontents: Searching for Community in Cyberspace, “Searching for an easy fix, we are eager to believe that the internet will provide an effective substitute for face to face interaction. But the move to virtuality tends to skew our experience in several ways” (504-505). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry_Turkle) Computer interaction is not Real and is not a substitute or place holder for face to face, three dimensional, which I deem real interaction.

(note:while these two paragraphs appear redundant reading one before the other changes perspective of the rest of the paper. Instead of combining them into a large paragraph, try reading one before the other and vice versa)

It is clear that machines foster interaction on some levels, but it is no substitute for Real interaction. For an example of this, I am going to use Myspace.com. Since Myspace is public domain, I am going to do a type of case study of the Myspace persona "Rooskie".

Here, Rooskie states that she is a twenty five year old female, an owner of a dog and recently heartbroken from her breakup. Her headline reads, "I must admit, you brought in RELIGION… for I never believed in HELL TIL I MET YOU." Already, we get a sense of the image or appearance she is trying to convey to those who visit her page. Blogging is even farther removed from reality because it is, (adhering to a Neo-Platonic sense) farther removed from reality of ideas in it's hierarchical form.[http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/platform.htm] It ventures into the realm of appearances.

Here is one such example of an apperance and a blog posted by "Rooskie"
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=77607038&blogID=120736540

(note: please also read the comment that was left on her blog)

What I found most compelling about this blog is the informal nature (as if it were a casual conversation) and the emotive voice of the author. While writing could be an expression of emotion, reading her blog and looking at her site, I realized she in a way is socially distant from many. She does not have a slew of friends, only 60 total (opposed to the hundreds of "friends" other people have on Myspace) and is now single from her boyfriend/husband she described in 2006. Her purpose of Myspace seems to be social interaction and meeting people via internet. However, she appears to be somewhat alone in "Real" life. (note: not that I believe there is anything wrong with being alone in real life. Lest not judge and over-generalize without ever having met this person, I am merely stating her appearance, not her substance. I believe judging her substance would be counter-productive to my overall ideology addressed in this blog/paper/writing)

What should be noted here is the interesting fusion of private and public domains. Much like the analysis provided by Miller and Shepherd (see above link for actual article). Rooskie has a private life that is being placed on a public domain. The once clear binary categorization of private/ public has now fused into indistinguishable type of togetherness. Her blogs, informal and conversationilist in style fuse together private and public and, in doing so, show the type of alienation that is a bi-product for many bloggers on a larger scale. It is because blogging relies heavily on appearance and not actual representation of reality or any real interaction that it fosters alienation.

I would argue that the computer is a literal barrier between people and it adds to the alienation of modern society.
While I am not advocating alienation and modern society in a completely negative light, (lest not be hasty) I do foresee a change or alteration that will be expressed in attitudes of social interaction. Blogs will have their proper place they just have to get there.

(Note: I am not going to make rash elementary theories as to where blogs belong. I have too heavy of modernist baggage to carry...)

Since blogs are an outlet and a form of communication that incorporate video, text, and photo in one medium, they allow for a new type of interaction. Blogging is a literal block of computer and technological mediation that furthers ideas about reality and interaction in a Neo-Platonic sense producing something to this effect-



Well, not literally, in the form of Man as duck, of course, as evolutionary theory [ http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/EVOLUT.html ] tends to think otherwise. But if we're in a world of contradiction and lack of cohesive value of both social and cultural norms. The internet, and more importantly, blogging is hastily speeding up this lack of cohesion. Oh, and lest not forget, Karios jogging alongside, almost out of breath. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos It is this combination that is fostering the natural progression and lack of cohesive value and alienation.

Where this shift in blogging and social interaction is headed is vastly unknown. With exponential technological increase, we might, as Duckman bleakly states, "have to drag our butts off the Sealy http://www.sealy.com/ every morning." Hopefully clad without the feathers and beak.

Or in a rather jovially, maybe there will be no butts at all to drag off the bed,01010101010010101010101010000000011111101110001010101010101010010

Derrida

Derrida believes that language is a direct expression of our conciouss, and that conciousness itself does not exist outside of language.

take II

Alienation Shown Through in Weblogs Modern Day Society

The computer screen blankly stares. The white nothingness taunts and laugh, prods and pierces my eyes. My hands sit, idle. There is no soft rhythmic tapping if keys and no thoughts expressed through Times New Roman (aptly sized twelve point). Instead my pen scribbles flowing, barely legible cursive on cream pages. As my progression of thoughts nears completion, I set my paper down, the lines running parallel to rectangular keys. Here, I decipher the cursive and give them ‘proper’ typed form. This textual and digital aesthetic interaction is nothing compellingly new or uncommon in the last decade. In fact, it fully supports the notion of digital text conflicting with practice of printed text. It is within this conflict various problems arise. Not only does it change the linear nature of text in terms of space and time, it also, more importantly is adding to modern societies struggle with alienation.

One such example of this change in writing is found in the form of weblogs. Recently, I began my own form of a blog. To, backtrack momentarily I would like to pretext my ideology, I write and I thoroughly enjoy the act of writing. I also adhere to Derridian notions about consciousness expressed through language.

YOUTUBE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoKnzsiR6Ss

In putting those two thoughts together, I realize that my writing should be an expression of my thoughts and I should, after writing, feel a certain physical closeness to the words. That said I thoroughly disliked my blogging experience. Upon my first entry, I wrote:

http://dafunkmastameowmeow.blogspot.com/2008/01/rambleramblephoto.html


Did I grow as a writer? No. I steadily found myself at distance from the computer screen, and thus, the words on the computer screen, and even more so, the thoughts that the very words were meant to express. I felt a type of cognitive distance rather than an attachment to the very blogs I created. The machine was a literal and psychological barrier. I did not feel like I could interact with the text or that the thoughts upon the blog were mine, per say. I believe this was due to the fact that a lot of the objects posted were a not a direct expression of me, they were youtube videos or photographs I had taken with my 35mm film camera. I eventually found it easier to post images rather than words. I still felt a distance between my posts and my thoughts, more so than I normally do when I write.

Perhaps this distance, was, in part, due to no one commenting or interacting with my blog. I went in with expectation of difference between the ‘normal’ (as defined by Modernists) printed writing I partake in. The blog writing was put in the public sphere and I had hopes of people reading it. However, with no one commenting it began to have a facade of being private. I began to think I was writing for myself and no one else. This notion, I recognize, is contradictory to the nature of blogs, and does not make any logistical sense. Yet, I felt valid in stating that my blog writing was for me.
It was also at this time, I had a brief and momentary appreciation for blogging. I recently discovered that my brother, age 15, had a blog. This was the only feeling of closeness I experienced blogging. I wrote,


So I found out that my little brother, age 15, has a blog where he too posts 35mm pictures of stuff he shoots.http://http://benwhirlsandswirls.blogspot.com/oh, the digital age...


http://dafunkmastameowmeow.blogspot.com/2008/02/family-love.html



With my experience with blogging, I concluded that it can create distance when people are physically close, while simultaneously creating a feeling of closeness to those who are physically distant. However, for someone who feels like they write in high frequency and think about the act of writing, composing a blog was unfulfilling and empty.


On a larger scale, I believe that my experience with blogging in a way is a symbol of the alienation experienced in modern society. It is clear that machines foster interaction on some levels, such as bringing people who are at a distance closer together. However, it hinders interaction to those who are physically close and possibly cause feelings of psychological alienation. For an example of this, I am going to use Myspace.com. Since Myspace is public domain, I am going to do a type of case study of the Myspace persona "Perfectly Flawed".
http://http://www.myspace.com/melanieblahblahblah


She is a twenty-five year old mother (of a dog) living in Tacoma. Her headline reads, "I must admit, you brought in RELIGION… for I never believe in HELL TIL I MET YOU." Her blogs, brief and informal give strangers like me, a view into everyday occurrences. Here is one example from May 13, 2006,


dogs are exactly like little kids... believe me i know.. so chris and i have a boston terrier named bosco.. well we had just one.. i got the great idea that bosco needed a friend.. and the poor little friend i found was going to be killed. so before i even started letting it all sink in, i found myself driving home, with what u might ask? another baby boston named brutis in my lap....now at this point in time the hardest thing was telling chris, that he, well, um was a proud new father of a baby boy. ( still sorry babe for just springing that one on u..) so here i am thinking woohoo! bosco will love his new little brother, and there will be no more destruction of the house. hahaha...... boy was i wrong..... not only is our new son brutis, a puppy, but the biggest pain in the ass.. somehow in this whole, bosco needing a friend, i forgot that puppies wern't just pigme versions of big dogs.. but they are puppies... so here i am now, pulling my hair out on a daily basis, cleaning up accidents, guarding the furniture, and still can't find one of my favorite vans shoes... not ot mention being both boston terriers, they are creatures from another planet... but after all the hair pulling, yelling, buying stock in carpet cleaner, and still wondering where that damn shoe went... i relize that they are my children.. and when i come home from work at night and find the two at the door ready to kill me with kisses and snorts... i relize it is all worth it....
The comment on the blog was as follows:
"I completely agree...look at my two minature pinschers on my page! Frickin` children of satan. They may drive me crazy but I love at the end of the day or anytime..when they jump all over you and know your their mommy! Poor us..single mothers...their daddies will be back soon! Oh, and I made the mistake of finding a friend for my dog Norman also...and him and Chester together....are crazy!"

What I found most compelling about this blog is the informal nature (as if it were a casual conversation) and the emotive voice of the author. While writing could be an expression of emotion, reading her blog and looking at her site, I realized she in a way is socially distant from many. She does not have a slew of friends, only 60 total (opposed to the hundreds of "friends" other people have on Myspace) and is now single from her boyfriend/husband she described in 2006. Her purpose of Myspace seems to be social interaction and meeting people via internet. However, she appears to be alone in "Real" life. The question that arises from this particular scenario is the following- Is the interaction between the internet ‘e-friends’ compensation for the aloneness she feels in ‘real’ society? Or does it add to the alienation of individuals among society? Is the computer a literal barrier between people or does it foster interaction?

Will it make people like this?



I would argue that the computer is a literal barrier between people and it adds to the alienation of modern society.

While I am not advocating alienation and modern society in a completely negative light, (lest not be hasty) I do foresee a change or alteration that will be expressed in attitudes of social interaction.

Since blogs are an outlet and a form of communication that incorporate video, text, and photo in one medium, they allow for a new type of interaction between viewer/author. This interaction will be the focal area of change. While it adds literal block of computer and technological mediation thus furthering some aspects of alienation, it will allow for a new form of interaction. (no conclusion, here… I don’t know what this means, I need to mull it over and let myself think about it, as to not come to any rash ideas based on a paper deadline)

notes on blogging.

entry 1

I feel like blogging isn't my thing. I don't really know what I'll ever gain out of it. I figure, if i want to share an idea, i'll share it- just not over the medium of the blog.

entry 2
I wrote something, scribbled on a napkin that I might put up on the blog. If not, I hope that videos work... MIA is worth sharing.

entry 3
god, posting pictures is so much easier than actually writing. I don't h ave to say anything, the pictures can do it for me. the subject is left to figure out what I'm trying to say. Its more open


entry 4
MY BROTHER HAS A BLOG! what!? i can't really believe it. Maybe blogs can unite people....

blogblogblogblog.

This blog was started as part of my English Studies Writing Class. We are exploring writing in the digital age, hypertext, hyperwords, hypermedia.. hyperhyperhyper. Not only is it fasinating the way in which writing itself is changing, it makes me want to close my laptop, shun technology and be a luddite.

*
I've decided I am going to write my paper,on this very blog. Ha, how POMO of me. As I wrote in a recent email. I'm a Pomo Ho. Postmodernism can have me anytime anywhere. Under the sheets, ontop of the sheets, outside in the grass, in the library, you know, as long as it is in the right context and I can multi-task at the same time. It's a POMO world...

So part of the process is going to be posting my rough drafts. By rough, I mean, terrible. The wording, generalizations and weird, possibly incoherent thoughts. Not only is this scary for me, (I'm a bit insecure about my writing in general) it will be strange to see how the essay it progresses. The shitty rough draft is due tomorrow at 2. I still have to crank out four pages, and I have to be up at 7 am, and I have radio and work until class. fuck me. So I have to get it done now. bah Procrastination. Stress.


edit: It's 215 and I just "finished" my rough rough draft.... so I will post the new version here. I'm tired, with 4 hours of sleep and no dolla billz to buy tea, its rough. baaaaaaaaaaaaah



Katherine Bouck
English 301

POMO HO.

Title: Crux of the New Technological Advancement at Conflict with Ideology of Modernists
ramble ramble ramble.ramble ramble ramble.ramble ramble ramble.
ramble ramble ramble
Note: Rough rough draft. I have ideas in mind about how to make this a Postmodern paper, via blog, but I had to start with the modernist notion of writing a paper, per say, getting my shitty rough draft/discovery draft out of the way... plus I have to work out the kinks of getting it online via blog and hyperlink.

The computer screen blankly stares. The white nothingness taunts and laughs, prods and pierces my eyes. My hands sit, idle. There is no soft rhythmic tapping of keys and no thoughts expressed through Times New Roman (aptly sized at twelve point). Instead, my pen scribbles flowing, barely legible cursive on cream pages. As my progression of thoughts near completion, I set my journal, open, its binding running parallel to rectangular keys. Here, I decipher the cursive-ridden words and give them ‘proper’ and acceptable typed form.
(Transition needed, symbolism of the cultural clash shown through my personal experience)

[temp thesis:] Society is a state of transitional flux. While technology has undoubtably made its heavy presence known- ie, society is still feeling the effects of cultural clashes. The old ways of modernists are giving way to the new advancement of Postmodernism. While transitional phases are difficult, technology and more specifically, digital aesthetic (ie- digital use of image, word, video) will implement change, in human cognition. Technology is going to change the very way we think. Since life is a reflection of the human experience, (or vice versa?, transition needed here) Blogging encompasses all the aspects that will effect and change literary theory. (how to tie into cognition?) Not only is there a different text/reader/author relationship, it incorporates the multi-faceted realm of the digital aesthetic. What remains most interesting about blogging is the way it changes the idea of writing and thus the outcome of writing itself. (Where will this take us?)

Recently I began my own blog. (Bah) Writing and I have a close, personal relationship. It is with words, my world is given form and meaning around me. (Trans) I went into blogging with my own bias and hesitations. Real writing should not be in blogs. It should be in published books, read by editors. You should be able to run your fingers over the text. There should be a tangible nature in the act of writing and reading. It is this tangible, real relationship of the text that allows it to be such an effective means of communication for our cognition. (Research theory needed here, how we have information stored?) Or so I perceived. I had spent my whole life valuing what those in books said. What they wrote, their ideas. Little did I realize that I was a Paradoxically Ironic Postmodern taught in a Modernist Educational System (off topic?) Writing, while it is arguably, less Real in the digital realm, has many benefits, perhaps the long term effects of societal movements, like blogging will be beneficial to society overall. Or maybe just adding to Schriller’s theory of alienation in Modern day society. Transition.... youtube video??

Writing on paper is two dimensional. You erase and insert text, the mistakes and marks smear, it leaving a form of permanence. Digital aesthetic does not. As a computer user, we can erase our blogs from existence, we can erased and edit our posts. As if they never existed at all. The fact that you can manipulate text, spelling, grammatics within a document says volumes as well. The nature at which you read texts online also differs greatly. Link to the cyberarts.

Upon reading a text online, you are interacting with it. It is no longer static, in a way it becomes an extension of yourself. Touching the keyboard and interacting with the text. ??


(My blogging experience)
I thought blogging felt less fulfilling. I am a Romantic. I hold true to ideas about writing and what it means to write. I want the pen to touch the paper. I want to see my thoughts as words upon a paper. In my first blog, I even wrote about my ideas about writing. I write for me. Not for you. Not for anyone. Those words are mine, and mine alone. However, there was some type of love, or attachment I began to develop to my blog. I take a lot of photography with my 35mm camera. While words are mine, and mine alone, my images are not. I found it satisfying to put my images somewhere. It holds the illusion that people will actually look at them. I also found it neat to post random things, such as music videos or blurbs of thought.
However, as I think about what I gained as writer I am unsure. While I love writing, more than words can express, ineffably so... (bah reword) I don’t know how I feel about blogging. I like reading other people’s blogs, but there is something unassuming about putting, in a sense, a piece of yourself into the abyss of cyberspace. How can someone be comfortable doing so? The lines are blurred, between once binary categorical organization of personal vs. private. (bring in sourse Blogosphere, link)

(Effects on society)
So what does this hyper-environment do? While making rash assumptions is easy, it is difficult to judge. I believe we are still in a state of change. The internet, blogging, youtube and wiki’s are just now becoming prominent. We are living in a Postmodern age that still adheres to clashing Modernist values. Students still engage in a classroom where they, often times know more about technology than teachers. We still value printed text more so than hypertext. We still get our newspapers to our door. Some people do not have email. [more examples needed] I am not going to make brash statements, only predictions. For it is still in a state of change and one cannot make bold assumptions.

I predict that society will become more alienated, more so than Schiller and Nietzsche predicted. Machines have, and always will be a barrier for human, social interaction. They were in the past, and they are now. As society is progressing (or regressing? What is that theory of societal progression that Jungsik talked about, a 3-d graph… find out) Perhaps there will be a time where people interact less and less. Instead of calling you will text, the realm of the material world will steadily give way to the technological realm. I think the value of printed text will steadily become faint, lessening with time. It pains me to say so. As a lover of books, whose life is dedicated to the ideology behind words. (Too mushy?) I hope that people realize that words, upon a page, Real words and not mere binary code.. (the difference between the two, as shown in the link from cyberarts or perhaps a photo here? Of binary code?)

One thing is certain. Things are changing, far beyond the Aristotelian ideology once thought. Essense is change and change is essence. However, what cannot be determined is the state of this altercation.

I will always sit and scribble cursive on paper. My first drafts will always have the rough transposited (transpose) nature of choppy paranthesis and I will always value writing more on paper than on computer. While postmodern nature of digital aesthetic is interesting study, I find the modern world a bit disjointed and disheartening. I strive to find a whole out of pieces, a bridge between the Modern ideology and the Postmodern world, whether those pieces exist, I have yet to find out.

text/image.

I've been really into documentary photography lately. I think there are some things a word can say that an image cannot. I think there are some things an image can say that a word cannot, and there are things texts/images can do together that neither of them can do alone.

I know, I know, not a stroke of genius, it seems fairly obvious...

Nan Goldin does an amazing job. Not only are her color photographs, breathtaking- the composition and use of color is something I aspire to. She says a lot with her photographs without using words at all. That's talent.





EE Cummings, hands down is one of the most inventive writers/poet I have ever read. Not only does he use simplicity in his favor, I always feel like I can relate to something he writes, on a literary level and personal level.





























together, something happens/changes... I wish I could read what Ed Templeton wrote on this photo.

Family Love.

So I found out that my little brother, age 15, has a blog where he too posts 35mm pictures of stuff he shoots.

http://http://benwhirlsandswirls.blogspot.com/

oh, the digital age...