Monday 18 April 2011

Week 7 (chosen blog)

Thanks new media, I’m eternally grateful for your contribution to the break down on menial labour and tedious office work. Instead pencil pushers, wage slaves and desk jockeys, we have flexi-workers, cybertariants and technobohemians. Titles of which sound far more appealing and to be honest, fun. A sentiment i know many of my new media colleagues share. 

With great innovations in new media; examples include skype, google docs, shoutbox; the face of  modern employment has been drastically altered. Prior to our information age, there were the pre- industrial and industrialised labour periods, both characterised by the hands on application of labour. These days work is intangible and done around the clock. In this weeks additional reading Thompson suggests that the speed in which work can be done due to new media has begun funding corporate bottom lines. “Time is now currency; it is not passed but spent”. Corporate professionals working in this age take work home, juggle several projects at a time and as a result are now experiencing a poor work/life balance. And when work becomes life there is the potential of this happening ...


REFERENCE 


Gill, R. (2007). Informality is the New Black. In Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat?New Media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures: 24-30 & 38-43.


     E. P. Thompson, 1967, Time, Work-Discipline & Industrial Capitalism, p. 304, my emphasis


(Video)


Blakelewisfan1. " YouTube - boredom.wmv ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web.                  18 Apr. 2011. www.youtube.com/watch?v=drhq8szZiUk.


Lockergnome. " YouTube - The Office : Second Life is the same ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3d_fqDcN1s. 


(Links)


"You're welcome.." You're welcome.. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. http://generationrepulic.blogspot.com/


"Skype - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype 


"Google Docs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_docs

"Shoutbox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoutbox











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Sunday 10 April 2011

Week 6 (chosen blog)

I think it has stemmed from having a mother who is an unsympathetic ER nurse. She often said to me “I don’t care if you aren’t bleeding to death”. Therefore, I found it difficult to relate new media health as this weeks topic of study. I am aware that obviously the internet is easier, cheaper and faster than a trip to your real doctor. And in the case of hypercondirac's, they are able to google the rare diseases they think they have instead of clogging up emergency rooms.



 However, I must be in the minority when I say I just don’t trust the internet. Call me old fashioned but when it comes to my health I put my faith in the hands of someone I know slogged it out at 5 years of medical school, not an anonymous individual online.


However in terms of new media and well-being, I will be frank, I am a closet Googler of fad diets, fat burning berries, age suppressing wonder grains and DIY beauty treatments. I trust the internet with research regarding my own vanity. I trust forum participants who tell me olive oil is good for split ends. I trust yoga instruction videos on youtube.com.

I do not trust the internet however with matters of health, I maintain that it is best left to professionals. No matter how over-priced, inconvenient and running behind schedule they are.

For some more thoughts on this visit the bagatelle.


REFERENCE

·       Lewis, T. (2006). Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521-539. Available on CMD.

(Links) 
(Video)

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Sunday 3 April 2011

Week 5 (chosen blog)

 “Gemma is at the fox, getting ‘slizzard’”. “Rhys is eating steak”. “Jess is cooking dinner for her man”. “Hannah doesn’t care!”

Our life, as suggested in this week’s reading by Mark Deuze, is now a media life (Deuze, 2011). There is no longer a clear separation of the two. The iPhone plague which has now swept our society relates explicitly to another theory offered this week known as the Age of the Thumb (Bell, 2006). The manner in which we can now carry the internet around with us in our pockets has lead to social interactions being documented on social networking sites, instead of being developed face-to-face. People don’t live in the moment, they live online. An explanation for this was offered in the tutorial, people think tagging themselves at hip clubs with 20 friends makes them seem cooler. Once again social capital is at the root of this behaviour (Pearson, 2009).




I can relate to wanting to increase my social capital. I only chose the very best photos to be my display picture. I untag myself if the photo is hideous. I even occasionally complain about hangovers so people know I had a big night prior. Though as my pockets are iPhone free, I must say I'm good in comparison to others. Its basic common decency to look at a person when you’re talking with them, though with the iPhone and the constant documenting of your life conversations now occur with heads down and thumbs moving to spell out a new endeavour to gain social capital.  

Reference 

(Video) 
  • footynutguy. " YouTube - Facebook Song ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSnXE2791yg>.
(Hyperlinks)
  • "iPhone Sales Statistics Australia | Nokia Sales Statistics." The Age - Business, World & Breaking News | Melbourne, Australia. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2011. http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/apple-threatens-nokias-dominance-20100521-w0f7.html
  • "Incompatible Browser | Facebook." Incompatible Browser | Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2011. http://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/visualizing-friendships/469716398919
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