Hybrid Assignment 13 – Jessie Salfen
The two biggest concepts from this class that I am walking away with are, first, that the internet is not living up to the potential that was promised by those who promoted it as the future. Our internet use is reigned by advertisers who have crippling control over the majority of our online practices – social, commercial, and informative. However despite our dissatisfaction with the methods advertisers manipulate our online interactions, we are not doing nearly as much as we could, or should, to change the situation. The second concept from our readings that have influenced me is the history of the New Communalists, Stewart Brand’s influence of online and American society, and the way the two have built the information culture we embrace today.
Reflecting on these two concepts, I wonder how much more I would have comprehended and subsequently been moved by Astra Taylor’s book had we focused on her writing the second half of the semester after reading Fred Turner’s book the first half of the semester. Turner’s explanation of the New Communalists’ ideals being entwined into cybernetics was well thought out and really painted a clear picture of the intent of the internet and how the New Right twisted its potential- which leads right into Taylor’s views. In retrospect, Turner’s book is a very natural and informative pathway to Taylor’s passionate outrage. That being said, the Trebor Scholz collection of essays were informative but the concepts were too intricate for the amount of time we gave them. I do enjoy dismantling academic literature, but I felt alone in deciphering the text and it was never made clear if my understanding of the concepts were either on or off the mark. While it was good to write the hybrid assignments of my understanding, ideally we could have spent much more time discussing the concepts in class, or spent more than just one week on each of these involved essays.
Now to think back to the first day of class and how digital media structures my daily life – I still have the internal struggle to not look at my phone first thing every morning. This class has made me much more aware on how long our society has been driving toward this social-technical-information based culture. I am just as adamant about refraining from overt social media use and now weary about the excessive buying of new tech equipment which you can imagine, makes me really fun at parties.
