Blog Post #2 - Our new pets

Katherine Pommerening, the young girl who's absorbed into her phone seemingly more than anyone. At least that is what it seems on the surface, but we as a population have put the shutters over our heads. Everyone is glued to a piece of technology just as much as Katherine, we use our laptops to create things and our phones are beside us waiting. It's like our cat or our pet fish. Just as Baym stated that we've domesticated our technology.  I believe Katherine is just a step farther than some of us would like to admit, we all do the same thing she does. She uses her phone as a revolving door of information, talking to friends or looking at memes she is absorbing the information that is flown at her subconsciously or not. This can be seen as both a positive and a negative. Technology has been so integrated into human life that its hard not to be engulfed just as she is.

 To answer what kind of anxieties are caused at the thought of this, I agree with Baym that "The social concerns that we voice when we discuss technology are concerns we would have even if there were no technology around" (pg. 55). Baym further explains that the concerns are surrounding of the true self, relationships with others and the situation surround you and different people around the world. Each of these morally raised questions would persist even with the lack of technology. Katherine "wants to get better at her phone. To be one of the girls who knows what to post, how to caption it, when to like, what to comment" is a mirror image of before technology for when you want to be more popular, likeable, and a desire to be accepted in her social circles.

 This outrage over cell phones are just like the belief of internet users prior to 2000, it was a norm that the internet was dangerous. That was less than 20 years ago, the use of cell phones and social media are still in its infancy and it is already so normal for us. 

 Here is an interesting extension of the information surrounding the theory of Domestication of technology!

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 2, 2018 at 4:31 PM

    Great post!
    Do you believe that as technology continues to progress and advance, that our society will continuously be 'shocked' and 'concerned' that these new technologies are harmful? For example, as you mentioned, today parents are concerned social media is absorbing too much of their children's live hence deeming it to be dangerous, so the new form of social media or whatever it may be, will it continue to receive a backlash as harsh as this or will it possibly die down and always become a normalized thing in society?

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  2. UnknownOctober 2, 2018 at 5:41 PM

    Great post!
    I thought that the example you raised of how domestication of technology is like owning another pet, was a very clever example to explain this phenomenon, as well as put things into perspective. Until reading your post, I had never thought about technology, like my phone or laptop, as a pet figure, but now I can see how it is VERY much like that. Do you think there is a way to un-domesticate our technologies, or do you think that it has gone too far to the point of there being no return? Overall, this was a great post! And I enjoyed reading your supplementary article!

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  3. UnknownOctober 7, 2018 at 12:02 PM

    Hi Josh,

    I think Baym's notion that the concerns we have about technology are concerns we would still have without that technology is an interesting one. I certainly agree that the concerns are based in fears we already have like how you explained that Katherine "wanting to get better at her phone" is the same fear as wanting to popular. That said, however, I believe that these new technologies, although great in many ways, are actually making these anxieties worse. To continue the example of young girls and social media, the ways in which these children are constantly comparing themselves to each other and celebrities can be really negative on their emotional health. Sure girls have compared themselves to each other for centuries, however, the ways that social media allow people to display the absolute best aspects of their lives for people like Katherine to compare themselves to and to compare how many likes they get is a development that only these social medias have allowed for.

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  4. Lauren CarltonOctober 7, 2018 at 1:47 PM

    Hi Josh!
    I agree with your post completely. In some sense, I believe that the younger generations may even take better care/ more time with their technologies than they do with their actual pets. I also agree with your statement surrounding Katherine wanting to get better at her phone. I think the younger generation is faced with more anxieties around being popular becuase not only do they have to be popular in real life, they also have to be popular through technology. I see constantly with people my age feeling self conscious as they compare them selves on technology to the people they see online.

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