Comments on: Accretion http://blogtrax.blogsome.com/2008/09/25/accretion/ This is the meta blog of DrJoolz and Guy Merchant Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:27:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha by: Guy http://blogtrax.blogsome.com/2008/09/25/accretion/#comment-681 Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:00:04 +0000 http://blogtrax.blogsome.com/2008/09/25/accretion/#comment-681 Hi Laura, what an interesting set of questions. I suppose my feelings about our relationship to technology are anti-deterministic. In other words I don't really subscribe to the view that technology ever 'does anything' to us, although I know there are some pretty potent risk discourses currently in circulation. Rather I would say that technology reflects our ambitions, projects and socio-cultural contexts. Perhaps this doesn't happen entirely in an individual (agentive) sort of a way but in a rather wider sense - our uses of technology reflect the zeitgeist. So I would suggest that the emergence of multiple identities as a way of seeing ourselves is primary and then our self-narrativisation in new media environments flows out of that. The wiki mindset, or the Facebook network explosion seems to me to express the times we're living in. How's that? If you flatter us with 'well-informed' you'll get a response sooner....or later. Hi Laura, what an interesting set of questions. I suppose my feelings about our relationship to technology are anti-deterministic. In other words I don’t really subscribe to the view that technology ever ‘does anything’ to us, although I know there are some pretty potent risk discourses currently in circulation. Rather I would say that technology reflects our ambitions, projects and socio-cultural contexts. Perhaps this doesn’t happen entirely in an individual (agentive) sort of a way but in a rather wider sense - our uses of technology reflect the zeitgeist. So I would suggest that the emergence of multiple identities as a way of seeing ourselves is primary and then our self-narrativisation in new media environments flows out of that. The wiki mindset, or the Facebook network explosion seems to me to express the times we’re living in.

How’s that? If you flatter us with ‘well-informed’ you’ll get a response sooner….or later.

]]> by: Laura http://blogtrax.blogsome.com/2008/09/25/accretion/#comment-680 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:29:57 +0000 http://blogtrax.blogsome.com/2008/09/25/accretion/#comment-680 Hello, I am rather interested in the subject of identity and virtual communities and by mooching about between blogs and sites have discovered yours. It is an interesting read. Just wondering If you could give me some feedback (yep nice blogging lexis for you there) on some unanswered questions I have come across whilst researching? Firstly, do you think that the relationship that individuals have with information technology directly effects our identity? So far I've established that in the past mechanical technologies still left us with a certain amount of mastery over them (e.g. cars, tools, typewriters) yet now the relationship with technology is perhaps more symbiotic. I don't yet know if the encouragement to have a multiple identity from blogging, gaming and virtual communities is detrimental to an individual or the community. Is the 'decentred view' of the self a good thing? It is perhaps encouraged in these post-industrial times yet I would like your view on whether virtual communities, a new multiple style of thinking, a new 'wiki' mindset is a shift that is positive shift or not. Sorry this isn't really a comment on your posts, you just seem well informed on the subject and I'd like to hear your musings on it. Laura Hello, I am rather interested in the subject of identity and virtual communities and by mooching about between blogs and sites have discovered yours. It is an interesting read. Just wondering If you could give me some feedback (yep nice blogging lexis for you there) on some unanswered questions I have come across whilst researching?

Firstly, do you think that the relationship that individuals have with information technology directly effects our identity? So far I’ve established that in the past mechanical technologies still left us with a certain amount of mastery over them (e.g. cars, tools, typewriters) yet now the relationship with technology is perhaps more symbiotic. I don’t yet know if the encouragement to have a multiple identity from blogging, gaming and virtual communities is detrimental to an individual or the community. Is the ‘decentred view’ of the self a good thing? It is perhaps encouraged in these post-industrial times yet I would like your view on whether virtual communities, a new multiple style of thinking, a new ‘wiki’ mindset is a shift that is positive shift or not.

Sorry this isn’t really a comment on your posts, you just seem well informed on the subject and I’d like to hear your musings on it.

Laura

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