Digiexpiration

(Discount concert tickets, 2010)

    I think the most common way I rhetorically manage memories is by making the choice to take a picture or to not take a picture. This also goes even further if I decide to delete the picture at a later time, keep the picture to myself, or share it with other people. By choosing to share a picture I choose to share the memory; I can show the picture to someone that was not present during the event but because they saw the picture or pictures they now have a memory of what I thought was important. Now if I were to add and expiration date to the picture so after a certain amount of time it would cease to exist is that me saying that after this certain amount of time it is not important anymore or that someone should no longer remember it? I don't know I think that there are benefits to expiration dates especially when it comes to personal information gathered by corporations and government agencies. The longer they have this information the more likely it is to be used in a way that it was not intended to be used. Then again I also find it convenient for corporations to keep information in their data base; for example I regular use Target's data base when I return or exchange items because I know if I use any form of payment with the exception of cash or a gift card they can look up my transaction so I do not have to worry about keeping track of a receipt. This data base dose have an expiration period of around a year I believe this time period seems to be appropriate because most items you cannot return after that long. If I had to choose information to have deleted or expired it would probably be pictures that have made their way onto social networking sites. I can't control what other people put on their pages. So I do not always agree with the pictures people display and I can't stop a picture from being tagged onto my page before it is made public. I can always take it down once it is up but by then the memory has been made by people that have seen it, at least for as long as they can remember it. Overall though, I think that while I may not like the pictures now, when I am older I will look back on them and laugh, but who knows.

 Refrences:

Discount concert tickets, . (Designer). (2010). expired.gif. [Web]. Retrieved from http://discountbvdtickets.com/

Final Blog

(buzzbeauty.com,2010)

    In the book Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color Victor Villanueva uses the term racelessness. I believe this is an important term because in today's society so many people are in fact raceless. They deny there culture in order to fit in better in order to be more American. It seems that it is creating generations of people that do not even know who they are. For example we see people every day of all races that bleach their hair blond (even if they should not because it does not work with their skin tone), they wear contacts because they want blue eyes. I feel that racelessness is producing generations of people with negative self-image because they do not feel that it is good to be their race. They do not see people in media that look like them because the people that have mass appeal tend to be those that are racially ambiguous or racelessness. I could apply this to assignment two and three by addressing this view of racelessness in how it is shown in marketing material for the different companies. I am an avid watcher of model shows on TV and one of the things they are always looking for are models that are racially ambiguous because they are more versatile.

Villanueva, V. Bootstraps: from an american academic of color. Urbana, IL:

i love <3, Initials. (Photographer). (2010). Re: blond asian hair. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.bubzbeauty.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=26503&sid=4a4ed1dd64699ce8fa9429f450150795

According to Villanueva in Bootstraps which path did the people that succeeded take?

1. Concession
   
2. Racelessness
   
3. Optimistic
   
4. El bloque
   

For Villanueva in Bootstraps biculturalism does not mean the tension within, which are caused by being unable to deny the old or the new.

Digiraces: Menu Choices

(PBS, 2010)

    Race: the power of illusion (PBS, 2010) site has not moved past the "menu driven" (Nakamura, 2002) concept of race when identifying the people in the game where you separate them into categories you can only choose one category to put them in because that is the category they identified with. This leads me to believe that when they were asked to identify their race they were given a menu driven concept for identifying there race in the beginning. This could lead to incorrect identification in the game because several of those people do appear to be of mixed race. Many people I know are mixed and if a form asked for them to identify their race and the do not allow them to choose more than one answer they do not answer it at all. The other problem that I have witnessed in regards to identifying race more so in interview than in self-report people will ask what are you most of, which discounts the other part of you and if your half and half you just have to choose a race. One section I noticed on the Race: the power of illusion website that they went away from the "menu driven" (Nakamura, 2002) concept of race when they showed the map of the world and differences between the features of the people in different countries on a continuum rather than a menu style where there is no gray area (PBS, 2010) .



Nakamura, Initials. (2002). Cybertypes: race, ethnicity, and identity on the internet. New York:

    Routledge.

PBS, . (2010). Race-the power of an illusion. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm

DigiRaces

(Free online games, 210)

    Cybertyping is the same as stereotyping but on a cyber-level. Cybertyping describes how cyber culture is promoting stereotypes more so than helping to break them (Nakamura, 2002). Identity tourism often times promotes Cybertyping. Identity tourism is when someone uses a cyber-identity to explore a different culture, race, or part of the universe (Nakamura, 2000). The problem with identity tourism is people do not research the race or cultural they are trying to portray. This results in inaccurate pretrial of that race and generally people fall back on the stereotypes. People tend to represent themselves as stereotypical caricatures of the race or culture being portrayed. For example in the game street Fighter 2 an Asian female with black hair, straight cut bangs, with her hair in a bun, and chopsticks holding it in place, while wearing a kimono. In reality most people in Asia do not walk around wearing this in everyday life just like the stereotype that all Asians know karate which also is not true. The game Street Fighter 2 demonstrates several types of identity tourism. The first type is gender exploration you can choose what gender of character you would like your fighter to be. The second form of identity tourism that the player can choose the persons race. The race you choose in this game can also dictate the way your character looks so the race you choose is coupled with the attire the character will be wearing. This limits that amount of choice available to the player to control the amount of identity tourism. The third factor of identity tourism is that as you fight other players the setting changes to different locations around the world. So although people do not mean to promote stereotypes they do often times without even realizing it. Just by doing the simple act of choosing of an avatar to represent them in a game they promote these cybertypes.

References:

Free online games, . (Photographer). (2010). Street fighter 2. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/central/

Nakamura, L. (2000). Race in/ for cyberspace. London, England and New York, New York: Routledge.   

Nakamura, L. (2002). Cybertypes: race, ethnicity, and identity on the internet. New York: Routledge.


 

Mario the Princess and Luigi

Mario Characters

("Super-mario-bros-2-usa-characters.jpg‎," 2009)

    I am going from memory here my computer was blocking me from playing. The princess of course represents the stereo typical needy female that can't do anything for herself she has to be rescued and led to safety. She has a pink dress on with a crown, pink pumps, and jewelry this is totally inappropriate dress if you are being held captive and are trying to escape. In real life even if that is the outfit someone was wearing when they were captured they would figure out a way to tear of the bottom of the dress to make it more manageable and they would have probably used of the torn of skirt to tie back their hair, broke the heels of the shoes, and defiantly ditched the tiara and jewelry or at the very least stashed it somewhere where they could find it later. So not only is the princess helpless and weak she seems pretty stupid too I don't think you can get any more stereotypical than that. On the other hand Mario is your stereotypical Jersey Shore Italian meat head he has a stockier build and seems to take the lead on getting the girl. He fights the King and takes the girl with him. Mario always seems to be leading the way. On the other hand Luigi is the classic side kick role he needs to be friends with the meat head for protection and so maybe he will get a girl by association. He is tall and gangly kind of like the awkward kid on the playground kids use to bully. He tends to be the follower and is softer he doesn't get the blue overalls with red shirt he gets the second best color green shirt with the blue overalls. Toad is the brains of the group he is the one that does all the work and Mario gets the credit for.

    I think this game has limited gender subject configurations the only one that I believe may relate is the positive role model (Schleiner, 2001) for the time the game came out. The princess may have represented how parents wanted their daughters to be prim and proper really girly. I definitely don't believe that she represents the Frankenstein monster, a drag queen, or a dominatrix, or a queer female gaze. (Schleiner, 2001)

References:

Schleiner, A. M. (2001). Does lara croft wear fake polygons. Leonardo, 34(3), Retrieved from    http://www.jstor.org/stable/1576939


Super-mario-bros-2-usa-characters.jpg‎. (2009). [Web]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Super-mario-bros-2-usa-characters.jpg    

Virtual Courage

                                     ("Which is avatar and which is actor")

I think Avatar does a good job representing gender roles. They have strong male roles as well as strong female roles at times they show both the females and the males having stereotypical emotional outburst. I do not think that showing those are good or bad I think they are stereotypes for a reason because they hold some truths. However the sex roles seems to be blurred for example Dr. Augustine's character has a lot "masculine" characteristics she sits with her legs open, slouching, demanding her cigarette. Her actions are not those you would equate to being lady like. In contrast to her Dr. Dileep Rao is softer, gentler person, he seems to be patient and takes into account the feelings of the people he is talking to he is not aggressive and in your face not even when he was helping them escape. So no I do not believe Avatar dichotomizes gender roles or sexes at least not stereotypical sense. Avatar definitely supports Stone's idea of "cyborg envy ("Sociology Environment of Cyberspace")" The perfect example of this is when Jake first gets into the avatar and is supposed to be getting tested by the Scientist but instead he gets up and starts walking around and ultimately ends up running outside(James). For him to go from being wheelchair bound to be able to move and run around even if it is through the use of an avatar feels good to him to the point that in the end he decides to stay that way preeminently. The payoff for cyborg envy is that people get to experience something different than they would in their normal everyday life whether it is a different world, meeting new people, or running instead of having liquid courage they have virtual courage.

Works Cited

James, Cameron, Dir. Avatar. Twentieth Century Fox: 2009, Film.

"Sociology 304." Sociology Environment of Cyberspace. Sociology 304,Winter, 1999, 01Apr1999. Web. 1 Oct 2010. <http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/m3099.htm>.

"Which is avatar and which is actor." SciFi Pulse.Net. Web. 1 Oct 2010. <http://scifipulse.net/?p=18564>.


 

 
    

we are our computers?



http://www.aresluna.org/attached/computerhistory/ads/international/apple/pics/annual96-masterthemedia1


I thik this picture is a good example of what Lupton was talking about in the Embodied Computer/User.  Its like he has become one with his computer and the different monitors show different sides of him.  I think it may also be trying to say in order for us to be complete we need our computer because it completes us. The very top screen has words on it in smaller text like they are his thoughts the second screen shows his eyes almost like he can see the world through his computer screen.  The screen by his mouth also has text but it is bold and bigger font as if he is speaking through his computer and the bottom image is of his chin and neck with text on it and I have no idea what that could mean. Overal this advertisement is definitely pushing the concept that man is one with his computer and may even be incomplete and unable to communicate without it!
The most significant thing I have learned so far in this class is definitely that the subject of technology promotes a lot of rhetoric everyone has an opinion that they wan to express.  As far a citing a specific source I would say I liked the Forbes reading just because I think there is a lot of truth to what she was saying even though I do not think we are becoming cyborgs.   I think I will definitely just look at technology through a different set of lenses so to speak because now I will be looking for the real meaning in things.
Lupton,D. (2000). The Cybercultures reader. New York: Routledge.

Communities

"Peg Communities"- as a coat pegs on which we choose to temporarily hang parts of our identities(Bell, D., 2000).I believe that people that are part of virtual communities cary who they are in real life over to the virtual community and carry who they are in a virtual community over to real life.  I think if you are true to yourself you are the same person in both communities.  I think that there maybe an aspect of yourself that is brought out more in one community than it i in another simply because of the nature of that community.  For example someone who is a wow player probably brings out a little more of their violent side out in the game than they do at church but that is because that is what that game is about doesn't mean that they are putting a certain hat on a peg.  I believe that being a part of multiple communities is a way to make sure all the dimensions of your personality are shown I think the use of a computer to do it makes no difference. I think that if your are part of an online community that can be just as cohesive if not more so than someone who ice fishes for example you are not necessarily with a lot of people while ice fishing but it may be something you discuss with other ice fishers when you are at work and it brings you closer together just like if you where a gamer it would bring you closer to your gaming buddies.  Another group that does not necessarily do an activity together but is still brought together by the activity is people who watch big brother or survivor or any other show you want to name Grey's anatomy each person watches it on their own time on the TV computer or cell phone and then they have discussions about what they saw with people.
Refrences:

Bell, D, & Kennedy, M. (2000). The Cybercultures reader. New York: Routledge.

http://halo.xbox.com/en-us/games/halo3/
www.worldofwarcraft.com
http://www.onlinepokerxperience.com/
I choose these three gamming communities because I think it will be interesting to see how much they are simmilar and different.  My three communities are Halo, World of  Warcraft, and Online Poker Experience.

Yahoo!

I would agree with the statement"the features of the Web that have become so standardized we no longer think of them as new or different(Brunett, R.,Marshal, P.D.)" because it's true I can not think of a single web page that doesn't have the same basic icons. Sure the way they look may have changed or become more inventive but they still serve the same basic purpose they work as a link to get you to another page. The other element that is very obvious to me is the magazine layout which can also be likened to that of a news paper. It resembles magazines because of the bright colors and fonts used, it also has sections such as fashion, horoscopes, and celeberty gosip. On the other hand it is like a news paper because it has auto adds, job searches, and sports sections, as well as the latest breaking stories for today which is also what it has in common with the news broadcasts from t.v. The yahoo site also has elements from gossip t.v. shows such as entertainment tonight and tmz because it has popculture stories like the ones on there today about Selena Gomez, Merideth Vieira, and Marilyn Manson. I think the thing that makes yahoo's site as well as the sites of so many other companies msn and iwon to name a couple is that they have all these elments combined into one convienent place. I do not have anything to contrast because I agree with them that things are the same just presented in a more polished form than days of old!Yahoo!

Brunett, R., Marshal, P. D. Web theory: an introduction.81-83

DigiDivide

What exactly is the digital divide?  The digital divide is a continuum of digital literacy.  It varies from those who have never even heard of a computer to those that have the latest and greatest technological gizmo known to man.  It is no longer about the the haves or have nots because peoples literacy varies so much.  It becomes more about having access and taking advantage of the opportunity to use technology to your benefit and not about just acquiring the item and using it as a paper weight.  I will use my mom as an example she enjoys buying devices because she thinks its cool to have although she does not know the first thing about using them and tends to only learn the very basics for operation.  She does not use the device to it's full potential and often things not even to a quarter of  it's potential.  She is an example of someone who has full access but little to no literacy and without literacy what good is the device or having access to it?

Well a metaphor that comes to mind is the cell phones of today because they are customizable.  I believe the Mac Windows metaphor is outdated.  I believe that not only because the dynamics of the "Corporate Culture"(selfe and selfe, 1994) have changed but so has peoples access to technologies.  Now there are kindergartners running around with Internet capable cell phones.  Reality is that people of all nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and genders are able to represent themselves in today's digital interfaces.  I believe this is a better example because unlike the old application Icons a person is able to choose what they put on their home screen.  Each app they choose  represents them in some way and so does the apps they do not choose.  It is no longer a one size fits all when it comes to computers or just technology in general we now live in a time of customization the more custom the better!

Pictue of Iphone 4(wekipedie IPhone 4)
Refrences:
Selfe, Cynthia L. and Richard J. Selfe, Jr. The Politics of the Interface. CCC 45.4 (1994): 485-488.

Warschauer, M. (2002). Reconceptualizing the digital divide. First Monday, 7(7), Retrieved from
       http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article

Wikipedia.IPhone 4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4

Rhetoric

   1. "Rhetoric is the human use of symbols to communicate." (Foss, Trapp, & Foss, 2001) To me rhetoric is simply the proclamation of ones beliefs whether it be over religion, politics, fashion, or just life in general. I think everyone has their own belief system I believe we all communicate it to each other in different ways whether it be through the written word, the way we dress, television, music, or anything else you can think of. I think another way to describe our rhetoric would be our world view I do not believe rhetoric to be meaningless because I think it meant something to the person or persons that felt it was important enough that it should be shared with the world through what ever form of communication they thought to be appropriate at the time. So if it means something to one person chances are it may be meaningful to someone else as well so it must have some value even if you just find it to be entertaining! Do I participate in digital cultures? Of Course I think it is very difficult not to in the area of the world we live in. I participate in T.V. viewing I am a reality t.v. junkie, I am a facebooker, I also enjoy checking out You Tube, I love texting (so I do not have to hear peoples voice and they tend to be strait to the point when they have to type out all the words!), I like taking pictures and looking at other peoples, and I definitely enjoy using the Internet, I am also trying to get all my text books as e-books on a kindle so I do not have to carry all of them around. So yes, I am multi-digitally cultured!  This is rhetorical because what does it really mean?

 2.(Hungrybear9562, 2010)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1.Foss, Karen, Trapp, Robert, & FOSS, SONJA. (2001).
        Contemporary perspectives on rhetoric. Waveland Pr Inc
 

2.Hungrybear9562, . (Photographer). (2010). Yosemitebear mountain
         giant double rainbow 1-8-10. [Web]. Retrieved from
         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI