foodforthought

Split personality. Are we ourselves online?

2008-12-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

Out of all the articles we have read, this one by Emily Gould seemed most difficult to relate to for me. It is called “Exposed”, and she does just that. She reveals to her readers the most intimate details of her past life as a self-diagnosed, attention-loving “oversharer” on the Internet. It seems to me that “oversharing” is something we do in order to feel affirmation from the world around us. It's like we need to be validated or acknowledged, empathized or sympathized with. But where does this lead?

According to Gould it lead to a very destructive pattern of disclosing information that would inevitably come back to hunt or hurt her. She lost several relationships to her “addiction” to the attention she received online. Now I'm no expert, but in my opinion this process of “oversharing” devalues our real problems by turning them into something to be entertained by. Granted, some of her blog readers responded back about experiencing similar of life's difficulties, but many also bashed her and degraded her and her stories. Seems more self-destructive than anything.

I don't think that the process of blogging and oversharing on the Internet is the way to go in order to find answers to our relationship problems. By doing so, we start to become the person we portray online. Maybe at one point a situation seems desperate and so you blog about it. Minutes later a change of attitude may occur, but, oops...too late. The whole world already thinks you are like “that”. Why not instead find like-minded individuals who communicate still via the internet, but a little more privately than on a public blog such as Gould's Gawker? I just am concerned what happens when our true self doesn't coincide with our online persona anymore. Do we feel compelled to still internalize this “online persona”? I can see where Gould is coming from, yet I cannot relate. I think it's silly and immature to spread your personal life all over the Internet. Then it becomes a public life and isn't it important to separate the two?In my eyes, yes. It is very, very important.

"less IS more"

2008-11-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

Where has this article been all my life?

Even though Virgina Postrel argues in her article "Consumer Vertigo" that "abundant choice doesn't force us to look for the absolute best of everything" (5) I actually disagree with her and agree more with the people she critiques. Sorry Virginia.

This wave of social critics argues that the amount of choice we have these days actually stifles us and compromises a true feeling of freedom. According to them, the amount of choice we have is actually causing a lot of stress rather than the relief of having options.
These critics say that:" We're increasingly unhappy, riddled with anxiety and regret, because we have so much freedom to decide what to do with our money and our lives" (1).

I couldn't agree more. I become so overwhelmed by the amount of choices presented to me at places like the grocery market, coffee shop, restaurants and clothing stores that I get a feeling of claustrophobia. I have found a way to combat this, which I will discuss shortly, but for the longest time I would walk into a place not really feeling that I needed anything and I would leave 30 minutes later feeling discontent and crabby about everything there is that I "must" have.
Then I got home and later in the day would notice that I forgot all about those things I so desperately "needed" hours ago. The choices and thus the implied pressure to buy, made me unhappy even though I was perfectly happy just minutes before entering the store.

Of course one cannot just stop going places to avoid this "merchandise attack". Even the Internet is full of overwhelming selection. So I came up with another plan: I make a list of what I need, I find it (or not) and I buy it. If I ever feel really pressured by the products I think I need, I buy them and return them the next day. By the way, returning useless stuff is way more gratifying than buying it. Over time this list-making has become more metaphorical and I have simply developed a different mind-set regarding the choice of product out there. I truly feel that "less is more" and try to live by that motto as much as possible. I often end up buying nothing if the choice is too plentiful ( this was well described in the article by a study about the connection between amount of choice and purchasing motivation). "Having too much choice seems...to have hampered later motivation to buy" (3).

Of course Postrel argues that most of us wouldn't like to go back to a world with fewer options and that abundant choice is what allows us to "find the extremes in those things we really care about" (5). I don't agree here either. I don't think that a world of fewer choices will cause me to loathe myself because I can't find just that exact thing I am looking for. I am short and it's nice that they make jeans in short now, but before that was the case I would just buy them and hem them. Problem solved, and I did not suffer from loss of self-esteem because the average person is taller.And maybe having short jeans to chose from isn't the problem. But having about 20 different styles and colors in my opinion is.

She makes a valid point about habituation and that we usually stick with something once we have chosen it out of a larger choice offering. However, this was also the case before choice was abundant. Some people liked their Ford and some their Chevy. No identity-crisis happening there. So why do we need 8 billion cars to chose from? Probably because we take for granted the lives we live. Yes it's nice to pride yourself in being able to commit to one of the 8 billion choices out there and "satisfice" ( not holding out for an even better deal).

I however think that it is even nicer to not have to feel pressured into committing, but rather to have fewer choices that don't stifle us from feeling free.
Free to explore other things in life. Other cultures, other traditions or even just exploring one's own soul. I am free to sit and ponder...what a great feeling of deeper satisfaction. Superficially choice in products may seem fulfilling, but in the long run the material things don't last. It is good to make this realization before we are too old to "stop and smell the roses".

So I stand by my motto that "less" is indeed "more".

What the "google"?

2008-11-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

In the article “ Is Google making us stupid?” American author Nicholas Carr tries to understand what the Internet is doing to our brains. He suggests that it has impaired our ability to read and interpret long pieces of writing because of the way the information is delivered to us. According to him we receive this information as a “swiftly moving stream of particles” (2) that causes us to become distracted and as a result disengaged.

I read this article and the first thing I did was to Google the author's name. Five minutes later I had a context in which I could place this anonymous person. I discovered information about his educational background, his other publications, and his main areas of study within a matter of minutes. I would not, however, have gone to the library and checked out his biography in order to try and find out the same facts. Thanks to the Internet and the easy facts I gathered from it, I was more interested in this article and therefore read it more deeply and with more devotion.

I was especially intrigued by his comparison of the Internet to the Industrial Revolution and Frederick Taylor's Time-and-Motion Studies. Frederick Taylor's studies were concerned with maximizing speed, efficiency and production output. Carr says that “what Taylor did for the work of the hand, Google is doing for the work of the mind” (7). He is so critical of this effort to maximize efficiency of thought and I don't really see why. Don't we want to maximize the efficiency and output of our brains? Isn't that what people go to college for? I actually would have to agree with the Google founders in that we become more productive as thinkers when we have faster and more accurate access to information.

Carr also criticizes the faster information access when he says, “the human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive” (7). I do not agree with this statement. I fact I think that he is contradicting himself. If we are actually receiving more information and if we are receiving it faster, doesn't that mean that our brains are trained and challenged more? Doesn't that mean that our brains are in fact becoming faster processors with bigger hard drives? I would argue yes. And in my opinion that is a positive effect the Internet has on us.

In my personal experience I feel that I have become much more informed on a wide array of subjects due to the Internet. Carr would argue that I am becoming a “pan-cake person” who knows little about a lot. This is a strong point because certainly it is good to be more intensely devoted to some issues or subjects than others rather than just briefly skimming the surface of many topics. However, if I hear of something that I am unfamiliar with I am much more likely to “Google” it and find out the most important information rather than to read a 300-page book that might never even deliver the same results. If a topic is of particular interest to me I will take the time to read those 300 pages, but in the meantime, the Internet can help me expand my basic knowledge about many things. So really I can chose to be a “pan-cake person” in some less important areas and a more deep-thinking and “muffin-like” person in others. Thanks to the quickly available information on the Internet I can have my cake and it, too. I can know a lot about a little while still learning little about a lot thanks to “Google”.

I am convinced that the Internet provides us with a great opportunity to fill in the blanks left behind from reading longer more complex writings. I don't think that it distracts us from the “real, important” information out there but rather that it trains us to think on multiple levels and to become more engaged in the overall process of learning just because it makes information so quickly available.

So, in contrast to Nicholas Carr, I actually think that Google is making us smarter. It is encouraging us to become more involved by finding out more details through this forum of readily available information called the Internet.

How strong is your brand faith?

2008-11-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

This speech that Naomi Klein gave about the effects of branding on us and on products themselves seems, at first, convincing. She is very witty and funny but that doesn’t get me to buy whatever she’s selling. I don’t believe in her product, so never mind the brand.

I have become familiar with several media and culture critics over the last few months of my course, and honestly, nothing she says is really that revealing or revolutionary. In fact she says what others before her have said more eloquently. One of those critics was Edward Sapir who also criticizes our culture for putting too much emphasis on irrelevant things such as the cut or color of a piece of clothing. He did however concede that we are what we are and that new trends and new fashions will always emerge as a way for people to create and recreate their identities. The fact that she “brands” herself as this non-conformist, no-logo, anti-branding, savior-of-humanity type person would probably really irk him.

I myself, feel offended by what she claims to know about the exploitation of our “being” by the evil branding strategies of companies. I am fully aware, whenever I choose a product, whether I chose it for substance or for style. When choosing for example a type of shampoo, first I look at the price, then at the scent and then at the brand. I only consider the brand however if I have heard bad things from friends or family about this product and am trying to avoid buying "crap". So, either I chose something and it's a no-logo and a good deal, or I chose something and it happens to be a logo because it was a good value or because I have heard that it works well. Whether this particular brand has good marketing strategies really doesn't concern me.

I also think that it is totally fine to choose let’s say a Mini Cooper over a Chevy because it makes you feel “Euro” and “hip” as supposed to “American” and “traditional”. What’s wrong with creating our identity by association? We do it all the time in other areas of our lives too, whether it is the circle of friends we chose or the political party we support, most of the time we feel more complete in our identity if we feel reaffirmed in what the things we associate with represent or at least claim to represent.

I don’t necessarily create my identity though association with brands but I still do it by associating with “types” of products. This “type” of shoe over “that” type of shoe rather than this “brand” of shoe over that “brand” of shoe. So I don’t see the big problem whether you feel good because you identify with NIKE shoes or because you just love running shoes in general.

Naomi Klein states that what companies want are “not so much consumers, but a tribe of brand faithfuls who will follow your company”. I can only speak for myself here and based on my own experience this statement is so far from the truth. I will follow a product, not a company brand. I went around my house to see how affected I was by this “Meany-branding culture”. Turns out, not at all. Everything I own is first a good product and then a commodity. When I buy something, price and quality set the standard because the “brand” really doesn’t matter at all. And if a brand stays for something that only that brand stands for, and really stands for, like maybe Macana’s (really funky one-of-a-kind Italian shoes), then I follow that brand, but only because I followed the product first. So sure, maybe branding is “ a giant meaning sucking vacuum”, but who cares. If you buy something because it means something to you on an emotional or practical level, it still helps you to complete whatever emotional or physical need you have. For example, my Macana’s are AWESOME because they a really, really comfortable and they make me feel happy.

Now if somebody make’s a similar, more economical version of them I will desert my brand like a “bad brandie” and move on to the next most valuable product. In the context of advertising, I am still a good consumer, because I do buy things based on their quality and price. So really, in my case, companies could save themselves a lot of time and money in regards to branding and just focus on making a product of good value that can sell to a greater variety of consumers than just their “good brandies”.

Going "mind-numb" ? Thoughts on Zengotita

2008-11-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

The theme of numbness seems to go right along with the way previous authors feel about the role we play in society. Zengotita’s ideas regarding the numbing of our minds and the use of Nietzsche’s definition of stupidity as a clogged, numbness of the mind really made this idea of an anesthetized existence more tangible, in my opinion however, a certain paralyzing effects of media overload and that we can no longer discern real from fake.

I believe that throughout history people have always been required to adapt to the complexities and changes of life. I have to agree with the author that we are living in a fast-moving world where we are flooded with so much information that we are forced to process it quickly, if at all, and move on to the next thing which can be very challenging. But how is that any worse than trying to survive plagues and poverty or horrible wars? I think that we are sophisticated enough degree of numbness in necessary in any case.

People like Adorno and Horkheimer who are wishing for a simpler more traditional time and Zengotita himself pin our mental "loss of feeling" to the media. They all seem to agree that we have fallen ill with the “Media” , but I think we decide how much we can and want to absorb. Some people like to channel surf and some like to stay on the same channel and even mute the commercials. It is all about choice, which according to this and other articles we are voluntarily surrendering. I don't agree with this point of view at all. I am of the generation X and I feel more connected and informed than it seems my parents or even grandparents ever were. I have so much more access to information about the world thanks to the Media. Granted, I do feel, sometimes, overwhelmed by the amount of information surrounding me, yet I have felt that because of that I am numb. There are certain times in everyone's life where numbness can help us get through the hard times and I am glad that Media are available for that use, if I CHOOSE so.

For example, when I feel stressed or tired or sad it feels good to be able to turn on the TV or the Radio and just tune out for a bit, become numb. And I really don't think that that's a bad thing. People have always tried to find ways to distract themselves from every day problems. Back in the "good old days" maybe there were coffee houses or the community would have a festival or a book would be read. Today we have different media available to escape from reality. I am sure that all of our previous authors, including Zengotita would wag their fingers at men for saying this, but I am convinced that I control what media I make us of an when to let it in far enough to become numbing, not the other way round.

Media Autobiography

2008-11-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

I remember growing up that my mom was always very strict when it came to watching TV. In fact up until I was 10 I believed that there was some kind of special mechanism in the TV that would let her know if I had secretly watched it in her absence. She encouraged reading of books or magazines, music and fostered arts and crafts in our home as an alternative to electronic media.

I remember seeing shows on TV when I was at friends' houses that I had never even heard of . I also never played a video game except for Tetris and Super Mario Land on my friend's game boy. I never felt a void due to this regulation. In fact I never really wanted to watch TV except for together with my mom when we watched "Kommissar Rex" every Thursday at 20.15 and sometimes Wheel of Fortune before that. I did get to watch a lot of plays at children's theatres to which she would often take me. I remember that instead of watching early Saturday morning cartoons like many of my friends I listened to my favorite children's and teen stories on tape and children's records in my room while waiting for my parents to wake up.

These days I have developed a strong passion for film. Especially big budget epics and low budget foreign film (French and German film being the favorites). I will admit that from time to time I get sucked into several reality shows but I try to not let them dictate my life or schedule. For a while there we had TiVo and I hade become quite the pro at never missing and epsiode of anything. I even began to feel stressed about all the shows that were on, that could be watched...so many shows...so little time. When I realized how attached I was becoming to little pixels on a screen I cancelled my TiVo.

Now I actually don't have a TV at all. My husband and I have created a media room where we like to watch movies, but that's it. Other media for me are definitely magazines ( I have a subscription to Condé Naste as well as Glamour). Music and Books are also a big favorite, especially when it's cold and rainy outside. All in all I am thankful for my mom's guidlines I received at a young age and that, despite brief moments of weakness, I have been able to make media a positive and educational part of my life. Through careful selection it does not control or waste my time but rather enhance my life quality.

Media Free Day Oct.11th 2008

2008-11-04T15:20:00.000-08:00

The idea of waking up in the morning and not immediately proceeding to check my online-banking and e-mail would have seemed impossible just two days ago. Yet, an entire day spent free of any kind of electronic media allowed me to see that life is quite pleasant without the pressures put on us by electronic media. I had so much extra time on my hands that I actually sat down and started sewing. The nagging voice in the back of my head went away after about one hour, when I finally surrendered myself to the media-free existence. This nagging voice usually urges me to be “up to date” at all times, and to make sure no unknown activity is taking place in my e-mail inbox or on my online bank accounts. All of a sudden I had this weird feeling of liberty and I didn’t feel obligated or stressed to go online and check on all my usual sites.

I don’t watch a lot of TV as I have no cable and I watch movies 3-4 times a week on the big projector screen in my “movie room”. I find reading or doing projects around the house just as satisfying, thus, in all honesty, not turning on the TV, radio or projector was pretty easy for me. The computer however is my gateway to the outside world, especially since my family live in Europe and Asia and I communicate with them on a daily basis via Skype. Therefore, I would not be able to continue this kind of an experiment for more than approximately 24-48 hours. Because even though I enjoyed not feeling as pressed for time, the next day quite the opposite ensued and I was more busy than usual trying to catch up with the rest of my life. In the 24 hours that I refrained from going online, I had missed 5 phone calls from my mom in Germany, 2 instant messages from my friends in Germany and an e-mail from my dad in Taiwan. I didn’t tell them about this experiment to make the experience more authentic, and the chaos following my absence from the online world for a mere 24 hours was quite disconcerting.
Everybody was worried about me not answering back, especially my mom, who also tried to reach me via my cell phone. In retrospect, maybe I should have informed her, as I seem to have caused her a fair amount of worry. But then again, in real retrospect, I wouldn’t go missing online for a whole day ever again. The feeling of being so disconnected from everybody else really made me uncomfortable. It was okay not to be able to “Google” any trivial fact at the drop of a hat, but the isolation felt by not communicating via the internet or at least vie text messaging on my cell phone was not something I would chose to repeat.

On a more positive note however, I did discover some things in the far depths of my mind that I don’t usually find myself contemplating. I actually began to ponder a simpler life as we had discussed it in class. I found myself agreeing more and more with the critics of our mass culture and consumerism and felt this sudden strange urge to live more modestly. I wanted to make something, so I sat down and sewed a curtain for the bedroom. I also just sat on the couch, patted my cat and looked out the window. I really want to do that more often, because it is indeed very fulfilling. I also made myself tea, more than once, lit some pumpkin-scented candles, got some cookies and just enjoyed them. Not while typing away on the computer as usual, but just by eating, drinking and really taking in the flavors and smells in front of me. This might sound strange, but I did somehow feel more traditional and whole and it felt good to “slow down and smell he roses”. This day of introspection and reflection had a much larger impact than I ever thought it could have. I felt studious and intellectual, just sitting there with my tea and my cat reading for school. Reading for school and trying to get into it rather than just getting through it. I even decided to do away with the TV and donate it to the International Law Journal office at TU law. They can use it more than I can.

Movies are still a great way to relax and learn and I will always love them. I also will continue to make good use of the computer, but with some modifications. Instead of surfing Perez Hilton’s latest gossip, I will pat my cat. Instead of checking my e-mail 5 times a day, I’ll check it once and use the left-over time to read another chapter in that book that has been sitting next to my bed for months now. I already feel less stressed by being able to minimize my dependency on the online world. It can be very helpful and make life easier, but if one isn’t careful it will consume you and you will develop this strange co-dependency. We end up needing the internet as much as it needs us which makes me more empathetic with people like Mills and Ewen who fear that we are getting lost in our own, skewed reality.

I know now for a fact that I do not need the electronic media as much as I thought. I can minimize my dependency on it by doing exactly what the critics suggest I do and look into myself and look at my life and analyze what part of it makes me happy and whole. I received ten times more a sense of accomplishment from making something (curtains, tea, painting furniture etc.) than I ever have from being up to date on the latest balance of my accounts, the latest gossip news or the latest e-mail forward. I am not saying that talking to my family is not really, really fulfilling. It’s just that doing it with less of a time pressure and feeling more spontaneous is very liberating. Granted, the 8 and 13 hour time difference doesn’t help the situation, but it definitely inspired me to start writing letters again, which I used to do all the time before Skype, when phone calls were very expensive.

All in all I feel very lucky to have had this short but affective experience and I wish that everyone could become more aware of what he/she really needs by participating in their own media-free day. We are really not as high-maintenance as we think, at least I believe that, and this might sound too simplistic, but if we could all do with just a little less we might in the end feel all the more rich.