effects of the correlation between technological & social evolution.

Introduction

There is no doubt that the advancement of information technologies and extensive social change correspond with one another. We speak everyday of the lack of skill that the Founders generation has, and that their noses are always to their ever-improving phones. Today’s culture of “always-on” connections raises troubling concerns regarding interface communication and social skills, as well as obstacles to the maintenance of a diverse world.

“Always-on” Connections

Swift advancement has been the main focus of the technological landscape for more than the length of my life, but has transcended to a new level of rapidity in the twenty-first century. This constant state of improvement is likely to continue to improve by a factor of one hundred with each forthcoming decade.[1] In this constantly evolving socio-technical world, we know that social institutions and technology share in the process of shaping one another, and this has had staggering effects on how youth culture chooses to interact with their world.

According to Wynn and Katz, the utilization of information technologies “do[es] not constitute a space apart from ordinary reality,”[2] as is characterized not only by the heavy reliance on digital commerce today’s population embraces, but also by the bonds formed through digital media. Information technologies are deeply bound up with the rest of the world, making the formation of relationships through a technological vehicle all the more possible, and probable, primarily through the Internet as well as today’s digital devices.

Technology and Education

Arguments are continually made for the incorporation of technology in the classroom, as it touches most other areas of youths’ lives. Ryan Sparrow, instructor of Graphic Design and Multimedia in the Department of Journalism at Ball State University, claims that information technology is crucial to his students’ study, and that it plays a significant role in preparing them for work in the media industry that is constantly in technological flux.[3] Sparrow encourages his students to engage with their technology, because that is precisely how their professional audience shares, engages, creates, and analyzes their daily lives.[4] But beyond the discipline of Journalism, should this infusion of technology in education be applied? Research shows that students’ attention spans last an average of fifteen minutes, and many return from a timely Social Media break feeling refreshed for their next fifteen minutes of paying attention,[5] but it is yet to be seen how this tactic works across other disciplines.

On the other hand, Assistant Professor of theatre and dance at Ball State University, Drew Vidal, argues against technology in learning, urging students to learn to be present in the moment and be open to their surroundings.[6] He writes that “many crucial modes of learning are not encouraged by our information technology systems,” such as those including face-to-face interactions with other persons and other social and learned behaviors.[7] Today’s information technology separates us from the life of our surroundings, both literally and figuratively. When one’s eyes are perpetually blocked by his or her phone, what is he or she really seeing and experiencing? A digital world that is separated from the reality of its viewer’s eyes? Or a digital world of its viewer’s own design? This question is yet to be answered.

Changing Diversity

The world is not homogenous; many languages are spoken, clothes worn, and rituals performed. Information technology plays an influential role in the gradual shift toward homogeneity to which delocalization is contributing.[8] Consumers’ tastes, cultures, media, and technical standards differ widely throughout the globe, but as globalization proceeds and technologies are becoming used the world over, this diversity of peoples decreases.[9] For instance, English is regarded as the language of technical standards, and this shift is attributed to the benefits of cross-cultural compatibility, but what does this mean for cultures with a different language tradition? The availability of and access to technologies, whether that be an information technology or language (cultural) technology, increases cognitive dissonance in these circumstances, because peoples may believe that these technologies will allow them to get what they want, be that resources or power.[10] As a result, indigenous languages are dying out, local musics and texts are conversing with other global traditions and transforming, and information technologies are being fused with social institutions. Technology as it stands now is moving the world toward one of shallow diversity and dependent globalized traditions.

Conclusion

The “unidirectional nature of basic technological evolution is matched by the unidirectional nature of social delocalization.”[11] Personal relationships are no longer tied to particular times or places; everyone is tied to everything at any time. Every bond that is forged is competing for attention through the device in hand every second of the day.[12] There is now a technological basis for these relationships, but since the technology shapes those relationships, and vice versa, there is no predicting what form those interactions will take and how they will play out on a global scale. Today’s “always-on” connections reveal distressing associations with interface connections and social skills for contemporary youth culture, as well as a possible barrier to continuing diversity. These issues are playing out not only in the classroom, but also on the international stage. Information technology’s role in the continuing development of these qualities suggests a troubling future in the twenty-first century.

 

[1] Agre, Philip E. 2000. “The Market Logic of Information.” Knowledge, Technology, and Policy 13(3): 1-6.

[2] Agre, “The Market Logic of Information,” 1.

[3] Sparrow, Ryan. “Should Students Unplug? No. Vice vs. Value: Faculty Debate Technology in the Classroom.” In Ball State University [database online]. 2015 [cited January 20 2015]. Available from http://cms.bsu.edu/features/alumnus/summer-2015/should-students-unplug-no.

[4] Sparrow, “Should Students Unplug? No.”

[5] Ibid.

[6] Vidal, Drew. “Should Students Unplug? Yes. Vice vs. Value: Faculty Debate Technology in the Classroom.” In Ball State University [database online]. 2015 [cited January 20 2015]. Available from http://cms.bsu.edu/features/alumnus/summer-2015/should-students-unplug-yes.

[7] Vidal, “Should Students Unplug? Yes.”

[8] Bernard, H. Russell and Pertti J. Pelto. 1987. Technology and Anthropological Theory. In Technology and Social Change., eds. H. Russell Bernard, Pertti J. Pelto. 2nd ed., Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press. 359-68.

[9] Agre, “The Market Logic of Information,” 5.

[10] Bernard and Pelto, “Technology and Anthropological Theory,” 364.

[11] Ibid, 365.

[12] Agre, “The Market Logic of Information,” 3.

gallows hill or proctor’s ledge?

Hear ye, hear ye! Groundbreaking moment in history occurring! The site of the hanging of the infamous nineteen (of the twenty-four) accused “witches” of the Salem Witch Trials (my favourite historical happening OF ALL TIME) has been officially identified!

A team of scholars, encompassing members of the Salem State University and University of Virginia faculties, have uncovered the scene of one of the darkest moment’s in the history of early America…and it’s behind a Walgreens. #howAmerican

By triangulating GPR (ground-penetrating radar), high-tech aerial photography, & historical witness testimonials, scholars claim for certain that the rocky area known as Proctor’s Ledge is in fact this long sought-after site.

Historical accounts of these tragic hangings suggested to past scholars that Gallows Hill provided the location for the witches’ deaths. But in reality, gawkers of this intemperate time in history would not have been able to see Gallows Hill, located just up the road from the site, from where their accounts were taken. So by comparing the topography of these accounts to the GPR findings (from which the 1692 topography can be deduced), UV professor Benjamin Ray defends his claim wholeheartedly.

Since 1936, this particular stretch of land has been owned by the city, at which time local historians and attorneys were purported to have defended Proctor’s Ledge as the actual execution site, despite overwhelming local legend. Salem, then, has dedicated itself to memorialise the site of this gross injustice, but in a tasteful manner likely to be in downtown Salem.

I’d now like to interject some commentary: The so-deemed “witches” of this hysteria were ostracised, feared, & rejected. Why, then, would it be presumed by past historians that these individuals would be hanged on the same gallows upon which non-witches were hanged? Despite the fact that everyone being hanged was determined guilty or evil in some respect & all were being put to death, magic & witchcraft were not to be messed or mingled with. The determination that the site of these deaths was located away from Gallows Hill seems to be an almost common sense assumption.

This would make more sense, though, if it weren’t for the lack of burials. Scholars determined that the soil of this region was not deep enough to have included the burials for these individuals (not that witches would receive any semblance of a dignified burial anyway), but wouldn’t it make sense to select a location separate from the usual gallows upon which to hang the witches & simply leave them there in death? This makes sense to me, the anthropology major, but whatever historians of days long gone.

So, on the coattails of this historic discovery, never let us forget the misfortunes of our past, the misgivings of our elders, & the sheer stupidity of early America. This is one of the darkest, ugliest, most radical, & most fascinating periods in our history, & now we are finally able to embrace the shame & appreciate change.

new media as avant-garde.

Introduction

New media has arguably many definitions and applications, but one aspect cannot be denied: new media lies at the heart of technological progress. New media is a progression and adaptation of avant-garde style thinking and techniques that were originally groundbreaking in 1910s-1920s visual arts, design, and film[1]. Artists and designers of this period created entirely new sets of media languages that preceded the computer communication styles that are highly relevant to media today.

New Media Throughout the Century

Artists and innovators of the 1920s were concerned with filtering reality in new ways to viewers and representing as much information as possible[2]. New media of the 1920s consisted of innovative techniques in filmmaking, photography, and printing technologies[3]. The 1920s was the last part of the decade during which new techniques were being constantly originated and developed. Beyond this decade, existing techniques were simply further developed, intensified, or mixed[4]. These techniques became the foreground of later practices of manipulation of pre-existing media and software-based cultural production[5]. Thus the 1920s are considered to be the most innovative decade of the twentieth century in terms of actual media production.

As the thought of the 1920s reappeared in the 1990s, the word new took on an entirely different context; new was now associated with the word media. This new media came to reference not only cultural forms that necessitated digital distribution (i.e., CD-ROMs, Web sites, computer games)[6], but a media revolution in the then-technologically developing landscape. The “new media avant-garde is about new ways of accessing and manipulating information” through the techniques of hypermedia, search engines, databases, image processing, and visualization[7]. Rather than being concerned with representing the world in new and different ways to a set of viewers, the new media of today addresses the access and use of previously existing accumulated media.

How Avant-garde Became Contemporary Computer Technology

Filmmaking and Photography

The computer, as opposed to the wave of innovation that characterized the 1920s, has acted not as a catalyst for the invention of new forms of media, but rather as a strengthening of existing technologies.[8] A direct example of this is the adaptation of the photomontage or collage style of photography that emerged during the 1920s into the “cut and paste” technology[9] that is considered basic in our technologically adapted time. Avant-garde strategies that characterized the new media of then has directly influenced the construction and development of the new media of now.

A number of other avant-garde techniques have been transformed into conventions of modern HCI, and now function as strategies of computer-based labor.[10] The strategies that developed in the 1920s to awaken audiences’ minds and open them up to the possibility of interaction with film[11] are reflected in the adaptation of Lissitzky’s use of moveable frames. Lissitzky’s technique has manifested itself in the form of multiple, overlapping windows, pull-down menus, and HTML tables[12], within which users can interact with the near-endless amount of information available to them simultaneously. To users today, this aspect of HCI is assumed, but the avant-garde thinking of the 1920s set this foundation for users as a technique for digital data management and manipulation.

Typography and Printing Technologies

The 1920s revolution in typography and printing technologies revealed a hierarchy of type sizes, a simplicity of geometric elements that simultaneously placate the user’s eyes while maintaining his attention and guiding him throughout the page, and the benefits of black versus white in terms of aesthetics.[13] These elements of design have transcended both time and media into the design of Windows 2000 and MAC OS systems today embody Tschichold’s statement that “the essence of the new typography is clarity.”[14] This is represented by the modern presence of dark type on a neutral face, clean geometric window frames, and the notable hierarchy of pull-down menus,[15] elements of design that we encounter and experience each time we use a computer.

Conclusion

The 1920s avant-garde notions of innovation in the communication landscape became materialized in the form of the computer[16] during the end of the twentieth century. What were considered to be radical aesthetic notions at the start of the twentieth century evolved to become standard computer technology at the century’s close. The “old media avant-garde”[17] of the 1920s, as exhibited through visual arts, design, and film, have manifested in not only the layout and design of present-day new media, but also in the daily practices of human-computer interaction. The technological communication techniques that we employ today represent a new stage of the avant-garde.

 

[1] Manovich, Lev. 2002. What is New Media?: Eight Propositions. In “New Media from Borges to HTML,” commissioned for The New Media Reader., eds. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort, The MIT Press: 1-15.

[2] Manovich, What is New Media?, 12.

[3] Manovich, Lev. 2003. Avant-garde as Software. Artnotes: Journal on Art, Science and Technology. https://www.uoc.edu/artnodes.espai/eng/art/manovich1002/manovich1002.pdf.

[4] Manovich, Avant-garde as Software, 2.

[5] Manovich, What is New Media?, 12.

[6] Manovich, Avant-garde as Software, 1.

[7] Manovich, What is New Media?, 13.

[8] Manovich, What is New Media?, 12.

[9] Manovich, Avant-garde as Software, 3.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Manovich, What is New Media?, 12.

[12] Manovich, Avant-garde as Software, 4.

[13] Manovich, Avant-garde as Software, 5.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Manovich, Avant-garde as Software, 6.

[16] Manovich, Avant-garde as Software, 3.

[17] Manovich, What is New Media?, 13.

library humour.

As a lifelong humourist myself, I find all forms of humour, from sarcasm to snark to dry to dark to slapstick to quirky to the what are you talking about? kind of humour to be crucial to my day-to-day life. I often say that coffee runs through my veins & that the smell of old musty books is my oxygen, but really, laughter is the focus of my entire life.

So when I encounter something that is just too funny and too real, I embrace it wholeheartedly. And so, I present to you: @LousyLibrarian

While @LousyLibrarian, who is slowly taking over the world of library humour on Twitter, has chosen to remain anonymous, his/her quips are notably true (and sad) for librarians at least the nation wide. Here are some of his/her highlights:

“The only things librarians love as much as cats are space heaters.”

“‘My library card isn’t working.’ ‘I’m not an expert but I think that might be because it’s a hotel room key card.'”

“‘I requested a book this morning. Is it there yet?’ ‘Depends. Did you click the “Defy All Laws of Time and Space” box?'”

“Am promoting the new Grisham to hipsters as an artisanal melange of hand-crafted lawyer book cliches.”

“Patron: ‘Someone here was unpleasant to me five years ago.’ Me: ‘Wow, that’s impressive; you’re like a grudge archivist.'”

“Once I weeded a Patterson in Reno just to watch it die.”

“‘We’ve got a problem with a patron.’ ‘Which patron?’ ‘The weird guy with the weird pants.’ ‘You’re gonna have to be more specific.'”

“We have an informally designated napping area in the library. It’s called the library.”

“I enjoy our weekly chats about whether Lisa Gardner has a new book out yet. The same way Sisyphus enjoyed his little hikes.”

“For my Halloween costume I should have dressed as a stolen Blu-ray; then I could just not be here despite what all the records say.”

“‘Do you have any recommendations for someone who just doesn’t like books?’ ‘How about this nice stapler?'”

I don’t know who or where you are out there, @LousyLibrarian, but YOU ARE CRUSHING IT.

women in the workplace.

In recent years, we have begun to witness a surge in the number of women entering & holding high-power positions & entrepreneurial roles on the global stage. *’bout damn time, amirite!?*

As Sallie Krawcheck (CEO & founder of Ellevest) writes in an article included in her #BigIdeas2016 series “We’re Entering the Golden Age of Female Entrepreneurship – and It’ll be Amazing,” women are finally breaking through that glass ceiling & making their professional mark on the world. In this article, Krawcheck outlines a few outstanding reasons why we are experiencing this influx of female empowerment:

• Start-ups with female leadership teams have been PROVEN to yield more success than companies run by all-male teams.
  • First Round Capital (a venture capital firm that specialises in providing seed-stage funding for tech companies) published a study that revealed that female teams perform 63% better than all-male leadership.
• If you haven’t realised, we’re like actually surrounded by a hoard of brilliant women (what a concept, right?)
  • Aside from all of the incredible women that have graced “the Industry,” the business world has been hiding some real gems in the copy room. Here are some greats: Sara Blakely (founder of Spanx), Anne Wojcicki (CEO of 23andMe), Jessica Alba (The Honest Company co-founder), Julie Wainwright (of The Real Real), & seriously so many others.
• There is (finally) a growing environment in which female entrepreneurs are actually being supported – even admired.
  • While there are some official networks that financially, etc. support women-owned businesses, there is a recognition that women supporting women in the workforce is just as important of a network. We no longer live in a world in which there is one seat at the table for a woman in corporate America. Those days are long gone.
• The decreasing cost of technology & other business-y things.
  • The landscape of labour is changing – that’s just the way of the world now. Consultants are being hired. Freelancers are replacing full-time, benefit-sucking employees. Outsourcing & videoconfrencing are replacing face-to-face meetings in locations with soul-crushing leases. Making the workplace more affordable has opened the door for women to finally walk through.
• The entrepreneurial spirit transcends age.
  • Entrepreneurship has become an equal opportunity opportunity. You don’t have to be twenty to have a start-up, yo.
• It has been made significantly easier to obtain funding for female entrepreneurs.
  • One word: crowdfunding. Nuff said. No, but there’s also this growth in women-focused crowdfunding venues, for-women loans, and tax breaks for women-owned corporations. The times, they are a’changin’.

The impact? MORE BUSINESS GOING ON IN THE WORLD. We’re just now starting to climb out of our abysmal economic past, & these businesses are only going to help. They will create jobs, inject more money into the economy, & be run by competent, skilled individuals, who just happen to be women. And guess what? The world is not going to end. #progress