Networked Generation

 
» from Zadie Smith’s 2010 review of The Social Net­work & You Are Not a Gad­get: A Man­i­festo:

 

    “Soft­ware may reduce humans, but there are degrees. Fic­tion reduces humans, too, but bad fic­tion does it more than good fic­tion, and we have the option to read good fic­tion. Jaron Lanier’s point is that Web 2.0 “lock-in” hap­pens soon; is hap­pen­ing; has to some degree already hap­pened. And what has been “locked in”? It feels impor­tant to remind our­selves, at this point, that Face­book, our new beloved inter­face with real­ity, was designed by a Har­vard sopho­more with a Har­vard sophomore’s pre­oc­cu­pa­tions. What is your rela­tion­ship sta­tus? (Choose one. There can be only one answer. Peo­ple need to know.) Do you have a “life”? (Prove it. Post pic­tures.) Do you like the right sort of things? (Make a list. Things to like will include: movies, music, books and tele­vi­sion, but not archi­tec­ture, ideas, or plants.)

    But here I fear I am becom­ing nos­tal­gic. I am dream­ing of a Web that caters to a kind of per­son who no longer exists. A pri­vate per­son, a per­son who is a mys­tery, to the world and—which is more important—to her­self. Per­son as mys­tery: this idea of per­son­hood is cer­tainly chang­ing, per­haps has already changed. Because I find I agree with Zucker­berg: selves evolve.”

— Zadie Smith: “Gen­er­a­tion Why?“
Novem­ber 25, 2010 | The New York Review of Books
 

Network Experience

      **Impor­tant: com­plete urgent group tasks over week­end (see prior email)

 

Stage I Medi­ated Com­mu­nity— Project: “Ensem­ble Experience”

 
 
 

M 09-Sep   Read for dis­cus­sion: Face­book & Phi­los­o­phy (2010) (PDF in D2L)

    — chap­ters by: Bogost (21–32), Butera (201–12), and Fraser & Doyle (215–30)

      » Focus/Activity: Media Stud­ies + Rhetor­i­cal Sit­u­a­tion 2.0
       
      — notes/quotes here (Google Doc;   sign-in with @CU iden­tikey required to see form)

 
 
W 10-Sep   Read for dis­cus­sion: Face­book & Phi­los­o­phy (2010) (PDF in D2L)

    — chap­ters by: Wan­del & Beavers (89–96), Vejby & Wit­tkower (97–108), and Scholz (241–52)
      » Activity/Discuss: using new terms/concepts for ana­lyz­ing net­work plat­form
      (rhetoric & social exchange in media ecol­ogy   — Exer­cise 1 warm-up)

 
» Note: *Drop Dead­line (Wednes­day 10-September)

 
 
» Blog Entry (due 11pm)   — plus class­mate com­ment (due Thurs.)

 
 
 
F 12-Sep     Inde­pen­dent Activ­ity: Group Work

  • Draft group’s ini­tial “mis­sion state­ment” (Google Doc)

  • Setup group’s web / social-network account(s):
    — Face­book (page/group), blog (Word­Press), Twit­ter, Tum­blr, Pin­ter­est, Insta­gram, Vine
    → begin post­ing about issue (social prob­lem, civic action, com­mu­nity concern)

 
 
» Due (S 13-Sep): Exer­cise 1   — Instruc­tions Page