A Little Bit of Everything

I must admit that I never finalized my "draft" from the previous postings so, I'm a week behind on my thoughts. To make it up to you I will include some fun materials I've come across since then throughout my post!

First and foremost, here is the Barack Obama music video I love so much, "Yes We Can" which was inspired by a speech he gave in New Hampshire.


Now for a little business(from last week):

Bolter says that "Graphics have played a role in printed books since the 15h century. With some important exceptions, such as atlases printed books have firmly asserted the primacy of alphabetical text. Printed books contain illustrations; they are texts...As our culture moves toward a greater reliance on electronic graphic presentation, the qualities or printed prose are being displaced or marginalized."

I do agree with Bolter that printed texts prove primitive except for the on going debate for people's preference to be able to hold a book in hand; there is something nostalgic and comforting about holding a book. This, I believe, will stay with our generation but such sentiment is sure to dissipate with future generations. Think about how there are already massive transcriptions of texts online such as Google books or the movement of periodicals and journals to online Databases. Google Book Search intends to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages toping out with a goal of 30 million texts over the next ten years. Online formats allow for delineated media and research via hypertext and hypermedia. There is an increasing preference towards graphics and video which leads me to believe for anyone to hang out in a library cross referencing and perusing through fictional novels seems something of the past if it has become available from the comfort of their own home.

Funny enough, by going onto Google Book Search, one of the first suggested texts to pop up was entitled "Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon." It's the almost the entire text and relevant to out discussion! I just skimmed through but here is the link!:


And for my next treat:


Now, to discuss Cybertime-
I had a question for clarification and I apologize if it seems elementary. Lance Strate says, "it is generally accepted among scientists an philosophers that time does not exist independently of action, motion and event, but is in fact generated by physical change (hence, time's relativity in relation to speed)." So, am I correct in saying that you MUST have motion/ speed in order to have time and that without motion, action, or event, that space (to most scientists and philosophers) might be considered to be a vacuum? I seriously think myself in circles with this.

In response to cybertime, I think that it has proven a great way to put into perspective the space in which we are interacting and placing data. Strate has presented an enormous amount of information and viewpoints throughout his essay, "Cypertime." The observation that VR does not change within time goes along with the idea of the virtual self and a previous discussion of creating a digital self/ society who could live on past human existence. I appreciate Strate's acknowledgment of how "although our physical selves are subject to the ravages of time, our dream selves are the masters of cybertime." He is correct in saying that meeting with out data doubles might inevitably be disturbing however again to continue on with the previous conversation of the perfect recreation of the digital self, would you not want to be best friends? okay just kidding.

Also, to pose a question, if we did indeed live in a surveillance society and a metadata organizer could sort and compile all the information traceable back to us, could a data double be created to simulate you? Information will eventually be available from an entire lifetime for some individuals and "clones" or AI who learn to simulate your being seem like a sci-fi meats horror film. After continuous discussion regarding these types of issues I almost think it will almost be inevitable.


And now for a video that I’m sure Ted will appreciate because it proves the harmful effects of Myspace (specifically in young children). This video is a bit disturbing and yet I'm sure the kid was a bit provoked but watch for a couple minutes. He answers a few questions about his habits amidst all the chaos. Also please note that this video is a bit offensive, I couldn't even watch it all. There is a bunch of cursing and brief nudity. Not in my usual taste but relevant to our ongoing discussion. So without further ado, here is "Kid Brother is addicted to Myspace"

Her are suggested spots to watch if you don’t want to be patient: 1:14, 1:50, 2:07, 2:50, 3:11-3:20, 4:11 and 6:30.

Online Advertising.

I'd like to comment on advertising more thoroughly. While "F Ng" has already commented on Camille Paglia's comparison of online (banner) ads with art, I would like to make a stronger argument that, in essence, they are most akin to hypertext in it's traditional sense. With increased market research and online tracking services, marketers are easily able to know what sites you visit, in what order, track bands, movies and books in your Facebook or MySpace "Interests" and then tailor ads to you and other very specific niche groups. For example, if you are searching cute pictures of cats, you may get an ad for PetSmart/Petco on your next page. Likewise, if tickets for your favorite Indie band go on sale for a local show, you will be shown ads directing you where to go in order to purchase them. This simulates hyper text (not just in the essence of it's definition but of it's functionality) in that we are actively being shown "links" which direct us from our current search into more in depth/ specific information and products, relevant to our initial topic. Additionally, think about Google ads. These are the epitome of the traditional "hypertext link" which allows for you to click on the hypertext and be redirected to a sponsored web site which fulfills the requirements of elements you've entered and submitted into the Google search field.

Can we comparatively say that online ads are as "intrusive" as Paglia suggests television ad spots have become? She comments that tv hosts "...sternly [stop] even the most high-ranking guest mid-flight to cut away for a series of eye assaulting commercials." While commercials have become an integrated regiment of advertising spots throughout television programming, research I conducted last semester shows that students felt more at home with commercials because they are expected. While I believe that online advertising will fade into the background of our online endeavors as we learn to "tune out" the blinking banners much like we have for commercial breaks, I still believe that we are just fighting the initial intrusion of commercialism on our (relatively)new media space. Despite pesky pop-up and pop-under ads, the viewer has a greater choice of whether or not to view the ads (and at our leisure at that). Online, we are choosing whether or not to watch or take advantage of an advertisement. We are an active consumer, no longer passively consuming commercialism, taking control of our information consumption and very ADD online habits. It is at this point in which we have become critics of what we see online that we will become "fascinated by advertising slogans, as folk poetry." (Paglia) They will become culturally integrated with our online experience if they have not succeeded in this effort thus far.

Gotta Hit the Sites Because I'm Always Surfin'

In her chapter "Writing for the Internet," Camille Paglia presents a generally positive and progressive take on the Web. While I may not agree with her methods of making text look attractive to lure in readers, I'm sure there is some validity to it. (See my comment on Ted's article.) I also found her candidness refreshing. Her article is written as if it were to be presented on the Web, as opposed to being geared toward the highly literate Academia. Paglia has a very good understanding of the "world" she's writing about, especially when she speaks to "The Web [as having] a weather, particularly when news events unleash storms of popular sentiment." [P. 268] She also is aware of how the internet altered her writing style. While she may write within the AP standard for a print paper, she finds herself more casual online. I have noticed the same pattern myself, where I'm liable to slip into a gonna or gotta. Both words, I should mention, are not picked up by the spell check of Blogger, Adium or Gmail. The same goes for alright. It just goes to show how the evolution of the internet has changed some interpretations of proper spelling.


About half of Stuart Moulthrop's essay "Getting Over the Edge" reads like an internet alarmist's diatribe. While the text progresses, it explores what hypertext real is, shriking the alarmist attitude and settling down for a reasoned argument of hypertext. Moulthrop is primarily concerned with how our understanding of an object can change with hypertext. As Moulthrop puts it, "The experience of reading for any two people who traverse its verbal space may be radically different: 'polylogue,' not monologue." [P. 259] While no two people can walk away from a book with exactly te same interpretation, hypertext means that each reading is inherently different, some will skip over a reference or read them all. It changes the reading itself. One the earliest, and best examples, I ever came across of a hypertext was this site which I believe I stumbled upon in 2003 or 4. It's very simple, and recently had a video added which defeats a little of the hypertext. The site is really just a teacher's rendering of the lyrics of "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel but it is meant to serve as a teacher's tool to recent United States history. Literally every word in the lyrics to the song is a link to another article. There are more, and better, examples out there, but this, to me, speaks to the usefulness of hypertext. Instead of just hearing the events, one can look a bit deeper and examine what "children of thalidomide" really means.


(Title from "Song.com" by The Damned, see below.)

Textbooks and Hypertext

In Stephanie B. Gibson’s essay about using hypertext to teach in the classroom, I agree with many of the statements she makes about the advantages and disadvantages of hypertext. The students might not be able to allow contributions or alterations, as Gibson has said, which does seem to be as limiting as textbooks, but perhaps it is because of the fear of someone providing the wrong information. Gibson says that it creates a type of hierarchy, (much like how a textbook is), but when it is information studied by scholars and professionals, is it really okay to allow anyone to add more information? “Any reader can add commentary and links, which then become part of the text” (279). This brings to mind the whole situation of who controls and corrects the information in Wikipedia. I suppose there would be some type of moderator to monitor any information though. (I’m not sure if I have the right idea here, so feel free to correct me in any misunderstandings I may have). In Gibson’s descriptions, it seems as if some hypertext acts like a “choose your own adventure” kind of book, where readers do not have any input, but just follow through until the end of the book.

On another note, I think that using hypertext would work best in an online course since it already provides the kind of setting necessary to use hypertext. If students have questions, they can easily post them for other students or the professor to answer. Plus, it is already an interactive environment and hypertext would just be addition to what is being taught in the online course.

Even if one were not given a choice in hypertext, students are still free to search out information on their own. I think that textbooks, though not as dynamic or interactive as hypertext, still allow students to search for more information if they want to. We all know the Internet serves as an effective research tool if you look in the right places. Hypertext, as Gibson mentioned, limits the students because they are given all the connections and information to them. With textbooks, yes students will have to read it, but they also have the choice to expand their knowledge on their own, and hypertext is just pushing that idea of choice in a smaller and more accessible package. Then again, maybe that’s just an ideal way of thinking, since I’m assuming many students are not willing to do the extra work, which is understandable because everyone has other things to do, nor do they often have to time to, in which case, hypertext would be a more effective method.