Identifying the Media Life
Let me start with an intriguing quote that Heidi Cutlack mentioned in her blog:
“When it all come’s down to it, the power lies in the hands of the common Social networker; which do you prefer? The cyber world or the real world?”
The nature of that statement reflects the opinion of many people who’re panicking because of the belief that, “Their life is lived in, rather then with media.” as aptly put by Deuze in his article “Media Life”.
If we begin to look at it from the perspective of media (in all it’s forms) becoming an unextractable extension of our identity, our lives becomes irreversibly modified. (Deuze, 2011). They become objects for communication as manifestations of information, as a form of identity politic, and as sites of anxiety and control. (Bell, 2006)
Our lives are increasingly revolving around communication, in our social lives, in politics, and much more so, in our own personal field. The TSD, or ‘Truman Show Delusion’ is an example of how “one is always aware of (the possibility of) the scripted and broadcasted nature of everything else.”
The merging of personal life with interpersonal displays increases proportionally with the increase of mediated communication.
Google’s April fool’s joke on “Gmail Motion”, tricked millions of users into believing that they could finally send email messages with just a webcam and hand gestures.
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While they admitted it’s a prank, they also said “Gmail Motion doesn’t actually exist. At least not yet…” - this, is a classic example of how we are becoming increasingly dependent on mediated communication to facilitate our interpersonal displays.
References
Deuze, M. (2011). Media Life. In Media, Culture & Society, Volume 33, issue 1, pp. 137-148
Bell, G. (2006). The Age of the Thumb: a Cultural Reading of Mobile Technologies from Asia. Knowledge, Technology, & Policy, Summer 2006, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 41-57
Bibliography
Gmail Motion Official Website, <http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html> accessed 2 April 2011
Heidi Cutlack “Performing me: Maintaining Visibility on the Social Stage” <http://heidicutlack.tumblr.com/post/4124230030/performing-me-maintaining-visibility-on-the-social>, written on 28 March, accessed 2 April 2011
Katrina Amy, “Social Politics”,
<http://katrina-amy.tumblr.com/post/4150526924/social-politics>, accessed 2 April 2011
Rebecca Newman, “New Media, Influencers and Ethical Approaches”<http://becnewmannewmedia.tumblr.com/post/4149370333/new-media-new-influencers-and-ethical-approaches>, accessed 2 April 2011
