Third Draft

So I just made little tweeks from my last draft, but definitely want to make some more changes tomorrow, but that will happen tomorrow:)

2nd Draft

So after working on my project most of this weekend, I found myself discussing my project with a friend about 4 hours ago. As we discussed it became clear that I needed to scrap and start over. My goal was to keep it simple, very simple, in order for a middle schooler to understand...

CLICK ME!

1st Draft

I definitely had recording problems so I need to redo that for my video...It is a work in progress, but it's a powerful start that I'm happy with...

Script

Argument: Plethora of choices and potential identities (what saturates us) has created a trend of people maximizing for the best possible being or choice.

Show picture of an apple and a rotten apple.
Ask the audience to make a choice between the two.
Reply: Not hard?
Put a picture of a green, red, and rotten, apple
Now choose
Put up a picture of golden delicious, granny smith, pink lady, etc.
(No music or very quiet simple music, would prefer back rounds be white colored for all of them and by the same photographer or artist.
Ask the question: Little harder now, right?


Start bringing in different symbols and objects of decision and choices and potential beings that one can take on in our society: Peanut butter types; coffee; use picture clips like the series used in Word Clipart.

Let's apply this choice to yourself
one paper character, taking on different identities in different contexts: student, work, social life, family life, volunteer, concert goer, football fan, etc
Trying to accommodate all these identities, maximizing in all the contexts in which we can be in.
(Want the paper to eventually be smudged and messy from erasing and drawing so many times)
Set the question: Where is the sense of identity?
(Quiet Music)(Like to have the sound effect of pencil writing and scribbling and erasing things).

What do we do?
Talking Head of Dan Wilcox, but would like it to visually have pictures streaming from interview of the "Mediocre Choice"

Script Pre-draft

So I have a few ideas for how I want to pursue my script.

Last week we discussed using stick figures(Nick's idea) as means as a video and I thought about drawing a stick figure of a person who has all these different 'selves' in their life, of course each self is dependent of the context of the situation. So essentially I would keeping drawing, erasing, re-drawing, and re-erasing the stick figure until the paper until the paper becomes one big messy blur of erasing marks. This would be a way to demonstrate the effects of saturation of the self.

I also though about going around and asking random people on campus what their definition of happiness is. I won't use the term "pursuit of happiness" because of its classic connotation, but apply it to the "pursuit of the maximizer." 'Maximizer' is a term used by Schwartz for people who must be assured and/or validated that the decision they made was the best one possible. Amongst the plethora of choices and decisions to make in today's postmodern society, they find the need to find the best thing possible.

I really want to keep a simplicity affect in my video so that one isn't 'saturated' with to much info, imagery, etc.


My biggest obstacle right now is connecting those two ideas and transitioning them well so that they create a big picture. You are saturated and your plethora of choices is overwhelming and distorted by the 'pursuit of maximizing.'

also want to add adaptation to identities and decisions and how we pursue maximizing

Outline

Saturated with information, voices, choices
-technological advancements
--printing press=>internet

Try to decide and satisfy needs amongst all choices, and information
-overchoice
--jean ex
--peanut butter

Pursuit of Satisfaction replaced with pursuit of happiness
-definition of happiness
-people's perception of happiness

Paper

Competition has taken on a new context than in the past. It previously had a connotation with a means of survival; the competition for food, the competition for mates and reproduction, the competition of space, etc. Its original context still exists today, but it is not as prevalent. Competition, in today’s context, is the fight to have your attention.
That said, today's competitions revolve around your choice of Vidal Sassoon or Pantene Protein, to gain your vote for the new City Commissioner, to gain your signature for the petition against a new parking garage, or to expose you to new ‘valuable’ information. The competition to capture your attention is centered completely around you, or at least your attention.
So why do we even submit our attention and our concentration to this hunger-deprived competition? It has become an act of validating ourselves or to gain a sense of belonging in our society. It’s as though the role of validation was reversed from us finding our sense of being, to the validation of a product, a cause, or the existence of information. Or in another sense, competition originally was for us to make a positive gain as opposed to losing it to the competitor.
This competition of all these different voices is a bombardment on you; the self. These voices “becomes a part of us and we a part of them (Gergen).” There is so much exposure to choices, information, values, and voices that it’s almost impossible to differentiate among them in order to create a concrete, constant, identity. Through technological advancements, it’s been incredibly effortless to expose our population to similar information, values, and voices. Since our population is absorbing the same information collectively, we are forming a homogenized identity, or no identity; like a flock of birds all going and coming from the same place.
It would be inappropriate to dismiss the technological advancements that have made this phenomenon so widespread. It began with the written word. It allowed one to write so that it could be persevered for time. The spread of the word exploded with the invention of the printing press; suddenly words could exist in multiple places at times. The ability to be in multiple places at multiple times is referred to by Gergen as multiphrenia. As modes of mass transportation and communication became more commonplace, the transference of written material was easier. The speed of dispersal of homogeneous ideas to many people increased with the advent of new communication technologies like the radio, then the telephone, the television, and finally the Internet.

Originally, we were concerned with the competition for your attention. However, since we submitted our attention, we are now concerned about the competition of voices and options within ourselves. How do we decipher all the information that we have received? How do we choose amongst the competing voices?
Let’s take a very simple example of Schwartz’s crisis of choice of jeans to undermine the difficulty of choice in identity.
At the Gap, you can find women’s jeans that are long and lean, curvy, low-rise bootcut, mid-rise bootcut, essential, straight, trouser, skinny, cropped, or capri. Not to mention you also have the choice of dark wash, medium wash, indigo wash, light wash, colored, distressed along with the choice of length. Let’s say after much trial and error of jean fitting, you find yourself deeply satisfied with a pair of mid-rise bootcut, dark washed, long jeans.
However, even though you have found yourself a great looking pair of jeans that are perfect for you, Schwartz states, that you will find yourself very dissatisfied later on because the rise in jean options has resulted a raise of your expectations. Your expectation has developed into jeans being only worthy if form-fitting. Otherwise they will be disappointing. This disappointment arises because your previously exalted expectations of jeans has faded, whether it is because of their faded satisfaction they had given you at first or because of the new change in jean fashion. Mind you, that if we were to add another ‘fit’ to jean categories at the Gap, the number of combinations will rise exponentially as well as your expectations. "Faced with this inevitable disappointment, what do people do? Some simply give up the chase and stop valuing pleasure derived from things. Most are driven instead to pursue novelty, to seek out new commodities and experiences whose pleasure potential has not been dissipated by repeated exposure. In time, these new commodities also will lose their intensity, but people get caught up in the chase, process that psychologists Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell labeled the hedonic treadmill. No matter how fast you run on this kind of machine, you still don't get anywhere (Schwartz)."

Once we redirect the jean example of rational decision-making back to competition of identity forming, the degree in which the choice holds has altered. The plethora of information and choices that constitute something, such as a moral dilemma, has become increasingly more difficult to tackle. It would only be rational to filter your options in order to find a perfect fit to the problem. Somehow, you find yourself contemplating many potential solutions. Only during certain situations do any of the potential solutions make sense.
Therefore, the most logical conclusion is depending on the context of a situation, the context determines how one filters information. One is no longer looking for the perfect choice, but the perfect choices (Gladwell).
To find the perfect choices, one needs to consider different contexts in which to make the perfect choices. So the perfect choice can only be made in its perfect corresponding context.
This means that the solving of a moral dilemma is more dependent on the context of which the moral dilemma is in rather than the moral dilemma itself. The context determines how one filters the relevant information that will respond accordingly. As there is a large array of contexts to be considered, in turn, there is a large array of rationalizations to identify with. These rationalizations, of course, depend on the context. By one being the owner of these different rationalizations, a pastiche identity is born (Gergen).
Nobody has to commit to any one identity anymore, since the context and information is so vast and ever changing. "Commitment used to mean for better or for worse, now it means throw myself into something and hope for that it works out (de Zengotita)." Whatever means we use to make a decision, we never fully have to commit to it anymore because we can redefine ourselves later on.
Currently, we are seeing a trend of ourselves so overwhelmed and eroded by the continuous stream of change and filtration that we either become helpless creatures or we just don’t care; “having seen it all before, one approaches a state of boredom (Gergen).” Thus one resorts the shoulder shrug of becoming a helpless creature to the process or just saying ‘whatever.’

The beginning of this paper stated that competition was centered around us and our attention, and we end up not caring. In the pursuit to progress as better humans, with high expectations, we have regressed, or as Gergen calls pregression. We have become upset or disappointed after the enduring and frustrating process of filtration. We started as people who wanted an identity that made us essentially happy, but were derived from that initial path onto an intricate road. Our pursuit of happiness has turned into a rationalization to progress when it once was a philosophical phrase that was not bound to the rules of rational.

As the context of competition changed to compete for your attention, the boom of voices and information was transferred through all the technological advances of the century. Unless information is worthy of your attention, it does not fall into one’s filtration process. Since we are constantly filtering information and identities based on the context in which we are in, identity is always and never is a consistent entity. The self at no one point can be identified because it is governed by its context. Due to the constant filtration and reframing of one’s environment, humans have pregressed to a point of submission where they no longer acknowledge and resort to a careless ‘whatever’ shrug. This all follows a line of rational, but it leaves us unhappy and dissatisfied in the end.

Gergen, Kenneth. The Saturated Self. 1991
Gladwell, Malcom. TED Talk: What we can learn from spaghetti. 2004
Schwartz, Barry. The Paradox of Choice. 2004
Schwartz, Barry. TED Talk: The Paradox of Choice. 2004
de Zengotita, Thomas. Mediated. 2005

Research Update

I have been reading critique reviews, one by Philip Wexler and another one by David A. Snow, Joseph Heirling. Both of them note that the evidence provided by Gergen is not empirical and narrow-based. Definitely could be something to look into.
I've recently picked up the books "The Paradox of Choice," "Consuming Desires,"The Pursuit of Happiness and other Sobering Thoughts."
I've definitely taken the idea of pursuit of happiness and its evolution into overchoice and the 'freedom to' do things (Schwartz,3). Its this original idea to pursue to do what makes us happy and how it evolved into a hierarchy of desires, needs and ideas.
The ideas in class that I want to touch on are how saturation has led to overchoice and with that overchoice come the paradox of choice. This saturation is a result of people's pursuit of happiness.

Methods

My initial plan of action was to read, read, read, and take notes make connections and hypotheses of the future of social saturation. Through all that reading, however, I believe that I will find myself applying social saturation from my own account and the books examples, and not that of a socially saturated society. My note taking can only do so much and create so little.
I've tried to wrap my head around possible ways to actually be more involved in the field of social saturation. I knew that asking people about their roles in social saturation would result with many question marks. Interviews would good if I was only fortunate enough to interview an expert on the subject. I find myself trying to figure out how I could document social saturation, but more importantly who? The answer was simple yet not so obvious.
People with depression.
Those with depression struggle with their significance in the world more than any other group of people. Medically it has been explained as a chemical imbalance in the brain, but when have chemical reactions ever been completely balanced?
Consequently, I have added a psychological approach to my research. I feel like this is a good choice because in the end, it's all about creating a new link or a new perspective on something.
In order to approach this new idea, I decided that I should follow depression blogs and/or chat rooms. With the few I have skimmed, I can't help but go through and pinpoint examples social saturation and how they note it's "importance" in their blogs.
If I directly quote blogs or chat rooms, I would then need to contact the person(s) responsible for the site to inform them of my observation.
As I read through blogs, chat rooms, and/or discussion boards, I will categorize different themes within social saturation.
It would only be necessary to ask for permission to observe from the account owner if I'm directly quoting and/or referencing a site within my research.
It still a question whether it would be ethical for me to participate in chat rooms or discussion boards.

Literature Review

My project is the research of the 'saturated self,' a term coined by Kenneth Gergen. It is the idea that people absorb a plethora of information, perspectives, ideas, etc, that self identity is lost in a blur of information. With the technology advancements in the past century, one is more prone to become the 'saturated self.' This saturation leads to an overchoice of decisions. With every value, an inevitable doubt arises counteracting that value. Gergen states, “each voice of value stands to discredit all that does not meet its standards (77).” The media’s ‘powers of artifice’ of many values are much more persuasive than actual reality or experiences(57). As time passes, many of these values, perspectives, etc are re-defined by new ideas or perspectives. This need for defining, redefining, etc is so that one continues to be a rational, structured being that does not search for answers based on emotions or looking for meaning beyond what is seen.

The reasons why saturation continues to be so prominent is our strong culturally ties to technology. To not be embedded in the digital age, as said by David Silver, makes you culturally unfit. Michael Wesch reiterates the importance of the conforming to this cultural norm because it shows who has the means and the power to access the digital space. For human beings to not conform to the cultural norms would be irrational or even just plain crazy.

Facebook and Myspace are example of some cultural norms within the digital age. These mediums of communication are used to create a large interconnectedness between people. This medium, unlike the email, one is able to shape some sort of an identity for oneself. Through this medium, however, Clive Thompson notes that not just one user, but other users can shape one’s identity as well with their wall posts, or pictures. So there’s a resulting mixture of people’s perspectives of a user. Attempts to create a bounded identity on Facebook with precise parameters and clear lines are unrealistic in the digital. Other users have the awareness and control to manipulate that identity.

These bounded identities are usually where one can see the discredit of values. A value that one person might try to uphold would quickly be disregarded by another value that intimidates the preceding value, which inevitable leaves one in a state of self-doubt. How does one have a bounded identity, if the boundaries of perspectives, ideas and values are blurred? If one looks at early 20th century ideas, identity had an entirely different meaning that was redefined by new ideas. Charles Comyns Tucker said in “On the Doctrine of Personal Identity,” “Sense of identity is a universal fact of consciousness, and nothing that does not destroy consciousness can divest a rational being of it." This viewpoint from 1906 argues, that regardless of any circumstance, a conscious, healthy mind is capable of having an identity. When reflecting back to the saturated self, it is a conscious struggle to form and identiy even if one rationalizes and conforms to the culture. To explain the reasons of such behavior is a part of human complexity that has been 'historically and culturally disjunctural (Whitehead).'


The largest limitation that I have found with the saturated self is the neglect to address the identity or self that is formed out of this social saturation. What is the end result to having overchoice, blurred lines, and social saturation? Does it produce cycles of stress and anxiety in individuals, or even depression? In order to address this, perhaps it would be fitting to have some psychological views of the media and its effect on an individual.
Another hole in Gergen’s study, is that he does not use much empirical evidence when discussing the saturated self. He does give examples, but it would be appropriate to add in the current social mediums of communication, especially on the internet. I used Clive Thompson’s example of media ecology to support this need of applying current case studies.

Where did you get that idea?

I find it easiest to use the analogy of a forest when referring to the world and the relation to the self. In this forest, the trees represent ideas, perceptions, information, values, etc. The grass and undergrowth represent the medium of communication in media; it determines how big, where, and when trees grow.
If one is to walk through this forest, the sights of the tress and the feel of the grass are different in different areas. One may enjoy and know some trees better than others, while others are ignored. The more time that is spent with certain trees, the better one knows the branches, the leaves, and the bark of the trees. At some point you may find that one only likes certain tress at certain times of the day or the year or once ignored tress are now more interesting. Perhaps one discovers new trees that weren't found before. After so long, one finds themselves on different sides of the forest always making time and agendas when to go to all the tress that one likes to spend time with. At some point maybe one forgets a tree that they usually visit and is eventually forgotten while others take their place.

Now imagine that one only looks at the forest from a nearby hill. From the view on the hill, one sees the entire forest from above and is always enraptured by the view. One may not be able to describe the forest in detail, but they can give a broad description of it, with locations, features, etc. One might not be able to see all of the forest from that point of view, however that is not the point of looking at the forest from that hill. Occasionally one might change from which hill they view the forest, but essentially it looks about the same from any angle.

Obviously, the first example is that of the book "The Saturated Self" by Kenneth J. Gergen. One who is within the delved deep within the forest experiences an overload of things to do and see. Eventually there is an overchoice and things become prioritized by time consumption and by other parameters; the places I go and why. The more values, perceptions, and facts that one finds and experiences, determines what one does.

The second example is taken from a 1906 publication called "On the Doctrine of Personal Identity" by Charles Comyns Tucker. His book states that few lapses of moments or single, simple perceptions conceals the beauty of the whole character. He uses the example that a ray of sunlight is in no comparison to the entire sun shining down upon you. He asserts, "Sense of identity is a universal fact of consciousness, and nothing that does not destroy consciousness can divest a rational being of it(8-9)." This sense of identity is intrinsic to human nature and is the core of our very being. In order to have that identity, one needs to be conscious of the 'big picture' and of it's future continuance; the beauty of the forest and it's forgoing existence.

Reaction to "No Sense of Place" by Joshua Meyrowitz

There is a recurring theme of media and behavior and their interconectedness. If a certain context or situation is in place, in this case one produced by the media, how does that influence, shape our behaviors? The environment in which we are in determines, in a sense, our sense of place i.e., who we are with, what time of day, where I am, etc.

It is not however only the environment you're in that molds one's behavior, it is the environment in itself that as well determines such behavior (16). Many surveys have been done on what is being viewed on television, how does it affect people, how do people feel about it, etc. but in the digital age to reconstruct overt communication between people is the challenge.

All these environments that we are shaped by make us change our 'identity,' in a sense. Through each context and identity we find ourselves trying to find consistencies in our behavior in order to create a concrete, collective identity that people and the self can identify. So if in each place we occupy, we have a different self, how could we ever find a sense of place?

Reaction to "Youtube and You" by Mike Wesch

Space obviously has a new meaning. One can control the space in which they vlog in and in what context it is viewed. This however does not entirely control the context in which the viewer sees it. Even thought the viewers are back sides of the mirror, we still don't see it the way they see it.

I think about the context in which many have this space and how that space is defined. That space cannot exist as Wesch said, without a computer, a webcam, internet etc. So in a sense those who can afford to have those things, belong to a digital hierarchy.

It is usually referred to as the digital divide, but even those who might have access to a computer might not have internet or a good internet connection. Or perhaps computers and/or webcams are not in the budget. And then there may be those who make sacrifices to have those things. So what does this say about the digital space?

For me, it says to have that power and means to have that space, almost is a given right to express one self how they please. Is the digital space the new hierarchy of discrimination? Is it so completely overt and unconscious that we ourselves don't recognize it as such. It's as though one is so concerned with the space they create that they disregard it's consequences. Which brings me to Jen Ferback's comment about 'one of convenient togetherness without real responsibility.' A togetherness in a digitally created space that removes all responsible interaction between people i.e., anonymous message posts, etc. Obviously this togetherness applies to those in which who can and choose to share that digital space. This space as become an abstract idea in which only the selected and willing can enter.

Reaction to "Ambient Intimacy" by Clive Thompson

This article was quite similar to the Silver piece that I had previously read. It covered 'weak' and 'strong' ties that are affected by the internet as well as the examples used to support them. 'Weak' ties are helpful for if one needs help with something business related, a whole bunch of people socially connected to you but perhaps not intimate with you would be willing to help out especially if it's something they know about.

Definitely, the most interesting part of this piece was that one should be active and identify themselves on Facebook, Twitter, etc, because now people have the awareness and means to shape an identity for you if you don't do it yourself. This makes me reflect back on our class discussion about creation vs consumption. Nobody is known by their consumption habits, but it's what they create that is of interest. So even though someone might be an adamant user of Facebook and keeps 'tabs' on their friends, family, and acquaintances, their identity on Facebook is what they say, upload, or do on Facebook that draws the attention. It might even be the comments, photos, etc that others put up that define that person more than what they write if they aren't actively creating an identity for themselves.

Of the case of me going to class. Unless I create a new idea or a new way for an idea to be viewed, I'm only a student paying out-of-state tuition fee to be there. Just another number in the grade books and the registrar books.

Reaction to "Media Ecology" by Lum

It's interesting the Lum continually uses 'intrinsic' when referring to the media throughout this article. The media is an 'intrinsic symbolic universe' that 'obliterate notion of time and space' because of it's 'intrinsic biases(Lum,29;38;33).' The meaning of intrinsic is inherently belonging to a thing. So in a sense, the media has created its own nature of things.

The very nature of the media is formed by human invention of the physical and symbolic forms that are used to transmit and decode information. Lum states that these 'physical and symbolic forms inherent in different communication media presuppose correspondingly different biases (Lum,33}.' Here again she reiterates the idea of the very nature belonging to these symbolic forms, as though these things in themselves have their own 'natural' course.

Lum does not give much insight into what this inherent nature of the media is but that it exists and we see its consequences in the world around us. This is well supported by the analysis of elderly significance in a digital age, especially in oral based cultures. The amount of information, wisdom, experience, etc that an elderly person had was valued and sought for from people. However, the access and amount of information that one receives from the internet by the age of 21, originally took a lifetime if not more to learn.

It's easy to document the intrinsic results that accompany the media processes, but the theory of understanding the intrinsic complexity of media interactions is a complex subject.

Reaction to "Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards: Cyberculture Studies 1990-2000" by David Silver

The idea that stand out most in my mind after reading this article is those who are 'culturally unfit' due to their availability to the Internet, a.k.a. the digital divide. Those cannot exercise their identities on Internet or their multiplicity of identities.

Gergen refers to this idea as 'multiphrenia;' being in more than one place by means of technology. This article expands on how the 'multiphrenia' movement became so popular. People were able to accomplish things online and offline as well. The Internet created a medium of interaction without having to actually be in a place but virtually being there. Over the decade, a dependence of 'multiphrenia' developed because it allowed people to be more productive on all ends of the social and business spectrum.

This movement caught on so quickly with the competition of being productive as the next business. So if your competitor has become more productive due to the Internet and emailing systems, one would have to adopt that system in order to say in competition. Somewhere in the mix, this became applied personally as well. If one can be 'on-top' of things in the business world, then why not the social life?

Currently, all these self-investments of time and energy are so culturally bound that to be without such things reflects negatively on a person, making them culturally unfit.

Reaction to "Post-Human Antrhopology" by Neil Whitehead

When reading this article the recurring theme that I noticed quoted in the one of the first paragraphs of the paper. On the third page Freud is quoted the “uncanny” occurs where the accepted structure of a world is violated, “when the boundary between fantasy and reality is blurred” (Freud 2003: 150). The blur of lines between fantasy and reality seem to be more readily blurred in the digital age.

I like how Whitehead made the distinction that very erotic and extreme things are all connected to the 'pyschopathology of individuals and not the milieu of the U.S.(12, Whitehead).' When indeed we can see these kinds of things or ideas in movies, in the media, or wherever the technological road meets our 'potential exotic self.' This obviously blurs the lines between the 'uncanniness' of blaming specific individuals the result of such extreme things when it's not hard to find such things within the surroundings of the U.S.

Another way in which we see lines being blurred is when 'fetished sexualtiy is represented as self-empowered and an erotic response to the threatening and potentially toxic nature of off-line sexual encounter, especially for women. Within in this example, there are couple ways that fantasy lines are blurred with reality; what I would like to call a 'phanto-reality.'
First we have the idea that real life encounters are toxic since one has less control over many factors in a face-to-face encounter. This makes me think that perhaps at some point intercourse will be seen as too much of a 'toxic' risk and the engagement of virtual of sex will be more common.
Secondly there is the self-empowerment by engaging in fetished sexualtiy. Since when did the self-empowered engagements of success and power get replaced with fetished sexuality? It is a new value that could soon bombard the U.S.
Thirdly, my idea of phanto-reality is seen in this example. Phantom pains are commonly known in amputees when nerve endings are sending signals to the brain which are being interpreted into the feeling of still retaining that limb. So 'phanto-reality' is feelings and experiences that happen in a virtual manner.

To explain the reasons of such behavior is a part of human complexity that has been 'historically and culturally disjunctural(23, Whitehead).'

Research Continuation

Still in the process of reading "The Saturated Self." Would like to continue on reading with "Future Shock" so that I might hypothesize future consequences of the technologically connected human. With that hypothesis of the future, I would like to include clips from the movie Walle, as an imaginative illustration that so many already are familiar with.

I think I want to follow into the direction of choices and how they are so easily devalued by other perspectives or standards. For instance if I sit down to watch a show for enjoyment I could later be saying to myself..."couch potato," "lazy," "unproductive" etc. It's the inclination to listen to listen to so many other voices, other than the one that originally had you sitting down to watch a show in the first place.

Hoping to have ideas keep developing as I keep researching and reading. There are so many angles in which to tackle this that I've found it most useful to take what I'm learning and apply it personally to myself...In this I've found more ways in which I might be able to tackle this project.

Reaction to "Wealth of Networks" by Benkler

To me, the weakening of human connections is a result of the networking communities. If you're having trouble and the only way to contact that person is via the internet, they might not have access to it or currently unavailable so one is left with an email of something of that sort that does not address that problem upfront. It is given time to marinade and become in a sense less significant since it is put off. Even if there is the instance of communicating via IM so that a 'here and now approach' can be used, the human emotion, language tone, etc is lost. Regardless of the means of communication i.e. telephone, internet, etc, at least one of the five senses is lost in translation. Without the use of all five senses it's hard to derive or duplicate its significance since it already is being handed down from the original source. From the original source, information could be lost or dismissed, and with the addition of loss of sense(s), information loses it's goal to achieve an aspect of re-experiencing the situation.

I've found myself to the point that if there is no one available here and now to communicate to, then the significance of the problem declines and so does a persons self worth. There tendencies to reach out for help diminish and a person is left alone without any sense of direction, which ultimately ends up in more confusion or misdiagnosis under such duress.

This is a bit of a psychological point of view, but it's to address that even if people are multiplying there connections among people, it does not however include the face-to-face interactions, and creates a platform of disconnected, just enough to get by, relationship.

Relfection of 'Virtual Ethnography' by Hine

I like how she notes that ethnography, because of it's methodology, doesn't rely heavily on hypotheses. It's focus is trying to extract reason and understanding of human interaction in the world. She does note however that the original methodology of going to site is a large part of ethnography because it separates it from analytical approaches. I think she does neglect the fact however, that people who do an ethnographic study of the internet most likely have an emic perspective; their upbringing and knowledge of the internet is from an insider's knowledge and understanding of the internet.

I feel like her overall indication is how do we set up means of studying a digital space when ethnography is practiced by using the five senses to describe a culture in it's environment. It also seems that the internet is mostly a place of products, how do you document behaviors and characteristics of the internet when the reason or development of something is "back-staged" or hidden. There in lies the question of authenticity if the information we are receiving is "authentic" because it is a product of another person or work, when the source, the means, etc are not apparent. Not just the information provider but as well as the ethnographer because they are researching something that everyone has an access to and can take their own account on the subject matter as well and disregard that of the ethnographer. It's almost as though it's more important to create a means of setting up an experience, rather than telling accounts of what those experiences are or were.

Final Trailer (mp4)

Final Proposal

For this project, I have jumped from idea to idea and from subject to subject, without feeling moved by any of the topics. I found myself in a vortex of information that provided nothing but confusion and disappointments.
Finally, I came across the term the ‘saturated self;’ the concept caught my attention and reeled me in. Saturated self describes the theory that we are bombarded with so much information, values, and perspectives, that self is unidentifiable among the masses, much like losing a single bird in a flock of birds.
What sense of self do we have in a world that is so strongly connected by the internet and other networking technologies? Will the world become a place where the only reality we have is a technological one? Gergen states that some people live secluded in a techno-reality, where there is no one with whom to construct a world of meaning, reality, and value. There is no one with the issues of expression and control or good and evil.
Without an understanding of the current condition of our cultural absorption, a reorganization of ‘self’ may be lost among a myriad of voices, values, and perspectives. Consequently, we will find ourselves in shock in a future we have bestowed on ourselves; in a state of depression because of all the choices, information, and lifestyles that are available to us.
The goal of my project is to delve into the saturated self and attempt to “carve order out of chaos (Gergen, xviii)” in the vortex of technology. I will look at the means by which we saturate ourselves with technology today, how technology reverberates into our lives and even onto future generations.

Final Trailer

Vortex of Technology

Research Proposal

I know that the mouse controls the cursor on my screen and the cursor has the power to enter into the digital space of the internet, but a human mind controls the mouse. What can I surmise about the identity of the person between their digital reality and their actual reality that they occupy? As an anonymous user, a person becomes less identifiable, not only to other people with which they interact with through the internet but to themselves as well.
It is within this anonymity of internet users that the identity of the self diminishes, resulting in the crisis of importance. Over the past century, with the exponential development of technology, evidence of significance and self identity of individuals has faded. A loss of belonging to a community or a culture has created an “undifferentiated emotional hunger (Garcia-Montes, 4).” A hunger, P. Cushman claims, is satisfied by mass consumption (Garcia-Montes, 5). This mass consumption, which can be seen as consumerism, is practiced by the internet by providing mass amounts of free information that definitely surpasses the information any person can provide.
The project I am proposing to do is a historical and current investigation in order to make a connection between the technologic advancements and the fading of self significance. Historically, an investigation of Emile Durkheim’s theory of anomie (slowly coming to the point of moral degradation due to the Division of Labor) for the reinforcement or early accounts of fading self significance. The psychology theory of nihilism that was thoroughly explored by Nietzche will also relate to the theory of anomie. Through these theories it will make it possible to see how outside forces have continually guided our self identities and behaviors over the past century and how the current effect of little human interface has made individuals lose their sense of self significance.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

The beginning

TBA