Katherine's phone addiction


In today’s day and age, I find that there is a strong relationship between technologies and their users, and after reading the story about Katherine you can see why. I chose Domestication of technology for my frame work as its idea is that technology embeds itself in our everyday lives and becomes a major part of what we do. Katherine’s life revolves around her phone, and what is going on in the realm of social media. In the story her phone is almost an extension of her body, like an extra finger. Although, there are benefits of these devices which can bring safety to users when they find themselves in a predicament, but the negative aspects outweigh these. Users find themselves on their phones more then they should, like Katherine who opens and closes apps repeatedly and consistently. An example of this can be an anxiety disorder called nomophobia, this irrational fear results from being unable to use your phone or having no service, even a dying battery. This can be demonstrated in the case of Katherine as she does everything with a phone in hand and is on it to the end of time. I feel that this psychological disorder shows relevancy as it fits so well. Katherine is at a point where she cannot go without her phone, this is obvious based on her actions, and how the first thing she does upon entering the car is turning to social media. Another point about Katherine is the way she goes about her social media, she makes sure to only post her coolest moments in order to get the most likes and even deletes posts that didn’t live up to her expectations. The story of Katherine also mentioned how the notification box is her favourite part. I found this interesting because this box is one that basically says, “hey, somebody is paying attention to you,” which to me is the sense of gratification which most users are looking for these days. I chose to use the framework of domestication of technology, because of how it has come to be such a chore, users feel the need to always be on it, and continuously refreshing feeds to see if anything has changed within minutes.

Comments

  1. Lauren WilkinsonOctober 4, 2018 at 3:19 PM

    This was a super interesting point of view! I also thought that domestication of technology best described the anxiety caused through interaction with new Digital media, as shown by Katherine and her phone addiction. The phone is definitely used as an extension of her body, as many people these days use it, however I thought it was interesting you think that the negatives of such devices outweigh the positives. The textbook had some interesting ideas in relation to the argument of domestication of technology in which they used examples like 'just because a pedophile exposes himself at the park, doesn't mean we ban parks". I agree with this perspective because as the mobile phone has brought about some unnerving experiences, it has also created freedom, connections, experiences, opportunities and much more that I would personally say outweighs some of the negatives. All in all it was a great post and really interesting to recognize both sides of the argument!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Social Media Anxiety

I came across this article that unfortunately has started to seem a little too relatable for many. It talks about social media anxiety and the obsession over likes, follows, what other people are doing, and all other feelings that are a result of us being over connected with the rest of the world. The article showcases examples of people who even become physically sick when logging on to social media sites. While that may seem as an extreme example, the scary truth is that more and more people are reporting social media anxiety everyday because of pressure, fear of missing out (FOMO), and ‘Compare and Despair’. I found this to be very relatable to the article we previously read about Katherine and her obsession with her phone and social media. Katherine was constantly worried about getting online approval from her friends, how many likes she got on her photos, how many comments and so on. While the article never directly claimed she had social media anxiety, many of her a...
Read more

Blog Post #3

Due to the freedom we have for the post this week, I took the time to really think about what I wanted to write in my post. My first thought was to discuss sports but I wanted to try and discuss a topic that could create more discussion. As most social media users have learned over the last few days, former SNL actor Pete Davidson, and pop star Ariana Grande have called off their engagement. While the speed at which their relationship seemed intense, at the end of the day, shouldn't we be more focused on the wellbeing of each of these individuals who very well may be walking away from the loves of their life? I would think it is safe to say that those of us in this class won't garner as much as attention on social media if and when we find a life partner. These individuals are only a handful of years older than ourselves and are under the microscope of the media every day of their lives. We may never know exactly this relationship didn't work out, and honestly, we as comple...
Read more

Just a social human-being

I want to draw on ideas from this week’s reading to share upon how this perspective has provided me some insights into why social media practices vary from person to person.  In society where there is a strong reliance on social media for interaction, connectivity and information, it is uncommon to encounter someone that does not use any form of social media whatsoever. The social practice of meeting a neighbour or starting a conversation with someone you see on a public bus has decreased because of the overlap of our public and private lives. Therefore, because there is less sharing exchanged exclusively with people solely immersed as beings in a public space, I believe that even those that attempt to resist the use of social media feel the need to be connected. I argue this because Dunbar suggests that it is the animal genetic make-up to innately want to share to build connections and respect.  I chose to address the idea of people resisting social media because I ...
Read more