In Herring’s conclusion she predicts that 5 years into the future (which was 2009) that internet technology would become further integrated into our daily routine and therefore would lose some of its luster. Herring (2004) describes CMC as “slouching towards the ordinary” as the convergence of two conflicting trends: “it overestimates the novelty of much CMC, and underestimates the effects of social forces such as mass popularization, according to which mundane uses of technologies tend to co-opt their destabilizing potentials over time ” (p.27). On the other side of that, it troubling that as a result, I would be insulated from being exposed to those of differing opinions that could give me a more well balanced view. As a person using the internet, its a definite perk for me to be able to connect with people that share similar interests as myself. In particular for me, tribalism is both exciting and frightening. Not to say that there aren’t some alarming facts coming out of the research.
While I do think that these fears need to be explored and studied by scholars, I find it equally important that we base our voiced opinions on the outcomes of this research, rather than voicing opinions only informed by our fears. I’ve certainly had those thoughts, but I’m glad that this week’s reading challenged us to be more moderate and to look back and see that other technologies that we have come to take for granted have been treated with similar negative rhetoric. Baym argues, “the language and forms of evidence may have changed, but the concern that communication technologies make us dumber is as old as writing” (p.26). When reading over the blogs from week 1 and the comments that followed, it seemed that at least of few of us in the class were of the opinion that all of this technology is degrading society’s ability to interact meaningfully in person. I guess I have my parents to thank for having HBO when I was little.īaym’s discussion of the dystopian visions and rhetoric surrounding new technology seemed timely to me after our first reading.
This film gave me a healthy dose of paranoia about the internet at an early age, similar to other films that Baym describes in chapter 1 like “The Net”. Using the IRC function they conspire to get him home and the required hijincs ensue. In the film a bank associate (Whoopi Goldberg) gets caught up with a British spy stuck in Russia. The film referenced in my blog title is the only reason I knew what Baym (2010) was describing as Internet Chat Relay Chat in her review of early synchronous chat technology (p. Picture of IRC from Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986)