Virtual Reality has been a dream of computer scientist and science fiction writers for a long time and certain developments in the computation has made Virtual Reality a reality for the commercial user from 2010. With the release of HTC Vive and Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headsets have made their way into homes and clumsy wired models are soon to go wireless. Their use is as versatile is reality is: from education, training, entertainment, storytelling, treatment, social applications and pornography, virtual reality is here to transform our relationship with media and reality. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX promised that the landing of SpaceX’s ambitious Mars project will be streamed live in VR – making this the first historical moment that can be lived and relived without people physically participating in the event.
As VR is becoming a reality the question arises on how interactions with this new technology will transform human lives. How will our relationship with reality change? Take the medical application of VR as an example. VR has been used in medical care to alleviate chronic pain, help patients who struggle with PTSD which proves VR’s potential to change our perception of reality. However this same potential can point to dangers ahead that can create lasting psychological effects. Training doctors and pilots in VR can contribute to a better future for humankind, however training software can be used just as successfully to train soldiers or terrorists to perform violent acts. A code of ethics has to be established as we carry on developing VR and its many realities.
Moving away from your Mobile phone is not easy. There is instant messaging and constant syncing that makes smart phones incredibly powerful as a tool. The media that is received on the Mobile however is not equal to the version of the media that can be found on other devices. The desktop version of apps lends users a completely different experience.
For this assignment I decided to rewire my habit of using my smartphone for instant messaging and emails. There is a built in battery saver that is able to completely eradicate the functionality of a smart phone, reducing its capabilities to using 8 apps altogether, which doesn’t include Facebook messenger nor Instagram. Turning this setting on forced me to reduce the interactions with my phone and in order to check my messages I had to open my laptop.
Boy, this was hard. I realized how much I am in the habit of relying on my phone to access my messages. The fact that I was no longer getting instant notifications from my messenger app rendered my phone into that felt like this:
On the other hand, typing messages on my computer made me faster to respond / write the message and I was able to respond to my messages in bulk. My access was different and even my available tools were different. The stickers and the GIF keyboards are less accessible through the web interface since the presence of the physical keyboard no longer lends itself to quickly finding on-point stickers.
My rewire experiment caused some problems as well. It was one of my friend’s surprise birthday party yesterday night and all the coordination happened through a group chat on Facebook Messenger. My phone no longer had Facebook Messenger and I wasn’t able to check Messenger on my laptop before the event and I was relying on what I remembered about the plan. However, when it comes to these events, being up to date is key to the success of the surprise. As I was heading to the “meeting point” I was paranoid about seeing my friend heading there as well since the time was close to midnight. Had I stumbled upon her, the surprise would be ruined just by me, and I had no way of asking about her whereabouts through messenger (I wasn’t going to flip out my laptop while rushing there). Fortunately everything went according to plan but I rewired myself to some stress along the way.
How did this rewire experience contribute to the big picture? For one it made me realize the potentials of moving from mobile to desktop in other segments of my smart phone usage. There are many ways how seeing things in a larger format enhanced my experience with the messages and the text. An email written on a computer is easier to see through than an email on a small screen. I think in the end I cared more about quality responses. For example, imagine posting on Instagram but instead of using the mobile editor you would use Photoshop to edit the pictures.
This assignment had proved harder than I have thought it would and in the end I have walked away from it by learning valuable lessons about knowledge itself.
There are many thousands of questions on different Stackexchange sites that are waiting for answers but I trusted my knowledge that there will be some questions that I will be able to answer, or questions that I can ask that will be meaningful enough to get answered. Both of these things have proven to be more challenging than I expected them to be.
First I chose the stack exchange sites that were dealing with topics that I was familiar with: vegetarianism, music and life hacks. I have been a vegetarian for 2 years now and I thought that there might be some sort of knowledge that I can share with the world or that I can ask a question that has not yet been answered. Even the Birthday Paradox (Shirky 25) was in support of this thought process. I quickly had to realize how wrong I was about this.
On lifehacks, I asked about productivity. I have recently started using my screens in black and white after learning about how colors as design elements can try to keep users occupied with the device and its tools. For example the color red is mostly used to signal notifications since it is the color that stands out the most to the eye. Most of the time this is used to help the user experience, however it can disrupt the flow of consciousness of the user, causing them to use the app as many times as they see the red sign of notifications. Eliminating the color can help the user to focus on the content and individual decisions. I decided to ask for some clarification about this on lifehacks, since this seemed to be aligning with the agenda of this particular stack exchange.
As of now my question had 17 views and one comment.
BrettFromLA letting me know why my question is never going to be answered.
I quickly realized that this is not the right question to ask and after all lifehacks are not my area of expertise. I started going through the questions and the depth and specificity of them astounded me. These were more or less questions that were just as perplexing to me as they were to the people who asked them.
My experience on the Music Stack Exchange and Vegetarianism was slightly different. I did not have a genuine question in mind, but my hopes of helping someone who was learning how to play the guitar led me to browsing the questions on the site. After browsing these sites I realized that there are very few questions that I can actually attempt to answer and there’s only a few questions that I can ask. In a desperate attempt to tackle some questions and ear some “respect” I went on the English Language and Math Stack Exchange sites. Similarly, there were no questions that I could properly answer.
To sum up my experience, I found that there are 3 types of questions:
The questions for experts.
The questions with easy answers asked by absolute rookies.
The questions that do not get answered.
The questions for experts is a category where it is almost impossible for the average user to answer the questions. Whenever I tried to interact with these question I had to realize that my knowledge is simply too shallow to be able to meaningfully answer a question. All my answers can be easily googled and the research that would go into answering the question just doesn’t pay off.
The questions with easy answers — well, they get answered really quickly. And the quality of the answers is very high. These questions receive answers in minutes after their creation and the accepted answers come from seasoned veterans of the site with very clear explanations.
And there are the questions that will remain unanswered for the longest time. An honorable mention was asked on the Stack Exchange Movies:
This question is not going to have an answer.
This question asks about a film that came out 14 years ago and its financial information is not available. I tried to look for an answer for the respect points but there was nothing to be found. The question was also downvoted by the moderators.
Bad question.
To conclude with, the Stack Exchange sites have amazing potential. The knowledge that they offer is catered by experts. The communities have strong ties around the topic that they cover and even thought it takes time to earn the respect of the community the effort will pay off by obtaining knowledge that is singular through the world.
The old Hungarian alphabet is a writing system that is used for writing the Hungarian language. It first appeared in 1000 BC as the incision of an axe found near Rome. Hungarians must have come in contact with it in the 7th and 8th century AD as part of the Turkic expansion. The alphabet was used by shepherds and commoners until Medieval times, then its use faded. It got revived in 1915. It is read from right to left, has 42 characters. The alphabet offers ways to represent Hungarian vowels (a/á, e/é, i/í, o/ó, ö/ő, u/ú, and ü/ű) and all consonants are pronounced with a vowel.
The writing medium used to be sticks but then Hungarians in Transylvania started using different media. Its contemporary revival uses it as a way of preserving history which can also be interpreted as a neopaganism.
Pre-postal Hungary
A specific technology that was used in Hungary before national post was an option was the so called “noise wood”. This was a column made out of wood that was erected in proximity of each other and it was used to communicate with lights and noise.
The piece of wood was elaborately cut and decorated. There was always a a person responsible around it, so in time of danger it could be lit up.
The contemporary use of this technology has changed, nowadays it is used as a centerpiece to folk celebrations in a rural community.
In this assignment I was designing emojis for my hometown. During my process I considered many things that I considered something that people would recognize. I was using the framework that Aphee Messer was using as a reference for creating lasting emojis. It has to be something that a lot of people do, for example hashtags are a good way of getting inspiration. Well, in my case I a quick run down on the hashtags that appeared on Instagram in relation to my hometown (Miskolc) did not give me a clear image on what would be a marketable and well recognized emoji. Therefore I turned to my own personal experience – what is something that my friends and family or people in the area would give a special meaning to?
This is how I developed my three emojis:
22:50
Lángos
Buying feathers
22:50
22:50 might not communicate anything to someone who is not from the area or does not live in the surrounding towns and villages of Miskolc other than the time in 2400 format. But for my friends who I used to go out with during the weekend, 22:50 is the time when the fun stops. This is because the last regional bus to the towns surrounding Miskolc depart at 10:50 pm and therefore the people who live there and intend to go out have to plan around this time if they are taking the bus.
As I expected, my friends responded to it immediately. They got the message and the context that the time signified. They did not just see a time, they saw that I was asking them whether they want to go out with me — even though that now they would probably not use the regional bus. I also sent it to a friend who lives in the city, but he recognized the meaning as well. Adding to it, he became nostalgic and told me that 22:50 is not just a simple bus, it’s a way of life. He reminisced about the days in high school when 22:50 was sort of marker that our group always had to plan around, relying on buses that would mark the end of concerts or gatherings.
Lángos
Lángos was my second choice, which is a type of street food in Hungary. I is very recognizable and unique for the country but not the region. You can buy it in small carts all around the country, but it is mainly a dish that people eat on vacation or in the summer.
The base is a dough that is deep fried, and it is best when it is light enough so it doesn’t soak with oil by the time it is served. We put a garlic spread on top of the dough, then sour cream and we sprinkle cheese on it as a final touch.
Since it is a popular food, I expected my friends to recognize it, and more or less my expectations were met. However they were confused why I would just send them a picture of a (badly) drawn lángos, and on one occasion my friend responded in a very confused manner, not knowing what it was.
Buying feathers
And this brings me to my final emoji: the feather buyer car. The feather buyer car is a very specific phenomenon that appeared a few times in our neighborhood and all over the country. It is basically a business I thought many people knew about because of the specialized marketing technique that they are using. The marketing involves a car that similar to an ice-cream truck circles the neighborhood with a slow speed, playing a recording on a loop. Instead of a jingle, they are using a very distinct voice that describes the strange business that the owners are operating. They are buying feathers from old fashioned pillowcases and duvets.
The recording
Why did I choose this very phenomenon? Because I think it is very distinct and absurd enough that my friends would remember it. I stand corrected. It is either my emoji that was linked weakly to this phenomenon, or the feather buyer car itself, but none of my friends were able to identify the emoji. After I explained my sister sent me “:DDD” which I interpreted as a sign that at least she knows what I was referring to. I am clearly friends with the wrong people, because once I made a YouTube search, many parodies came up featuring the feather buying car and its message.
This brings up the question: can I improve this emoji? I don’t think I can do too much to redeem it since the idea behind it is not very well recognized.
In many ways, I felt liberated by the detox exercise. I switched off my phone for the entirety of the 8 hours, which liberated me from charging it. I was able to leave it on my desk while I was out of my room, which liberated me from carrying it around. And then as the first moments of victory faded, I began to experience the withdrawal.
Withdrawal
With hindsight I would say that the withdrawal symptoms of technology are easy to overcome, yet they are scary because they are unexpected. Quickly after I put my phone aside, I started experiencing impulses for distraction – there was no music that I was listening to while I was preparing breakfast, there was no series (my usual choice is Archer) playing in the background – and I felt restless. After breakfast I played the guitar for 40 minutes and slowly I had to acknowledge that my thoughts cannot be hushed away easily. I let them sank in, and surprisingly my restlessness diminished a little.
Potential
From then, my day went more or less okay. I cleaned my room and I met some friends – which was also a bit weird, since I had to physically walk over to their place to get human contact. There was no “what are you up to?” but only a straight up visit. My trips to Ghana and Cuba came to my mind. During these trips, I was also walled off of the internet and had to “survive” without being connected. As an effect, my J-term class in Ghana got really close to each other, since to we started coming up with ways to kill the boredom. I wouldn’t say that our bonding over football, conversations over dinner and other games is solely the effect of being disconnected, but I believe that it contributed.
The start of questioning #woke
What this assignment achieved (most likely by design) is that it made me question how I am using technology and what I am using technology for. After reading “The Machine Stops” and “Reclaiming Dialogue” I realized how my habits actually influence my individual growth. Technology is not yet serving us and our experience of life is impacted. Using technology shouldn’t mean that I or my environment is always connected. More about this in class.
What does Communication and Technology mean to me?
I would have answered this question much differently did I try to do that before reading the first two chapters from James Gleick’s “The Information.” My answer would have probably focused on technology enabled a wider and more spontaneous way of communication between people from all backgrounds. However the framework that Gleick offers in his book expands my thoughts on the topic. Gleick starts off by fast forwarding to Claude Shannon and the birth of information technology, revealing that the smallest unit of information is the bit (and this shouldn’t strike anyone as a surprise who were born after the 1970s). Then, after introducing the most necessary definitions, such as redundancy, the amount of information (H) and the idea of symbols (s), and lets Ralph Hartley sum it up with H = n * log s, where n stands for the number of messages.
Gleick introduces many technologies for communication, notably the African talking drums and writing. The African talking drums represent a good illustration on how a medium influenced the message: the built in redundancy for the way of communicating with such little symbols brought about a whole new way of phrasing sentences and expanding on simple words just so they became intelligible. However the first argument against and for emerging technologies is almost best illustrated by the argument for and against written literature.
I think this is where we can also draw a parallel between the yesterday and the now. Today we process written text in a profoundly different way than our ancestors did. We are no longer constrained by resources such as paper or ink. If we take instant messaging (such as Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp) as an example, then we see that the abundance of space to write was able to create the illusion that we can write messages as long as we want to, but at the same time the communicators use this space inefficiently. Not confined by space the people participating in a conversation no longer need to mind being concise and less redundant. This lack of concise way of exchanging information is also the result of the reliability of instant messaging. No longer do we write letters, and thus feelings or thoughts that deserve to be expressed in a longer format are absent from our lives.
But just like the question whether Thomas Hobbes or Walter J. Ong was right about the oral and written literature, I think it’s not an easy question to decide where Instant messaging will fit into human communication and how it will be able to contribute to conveying meaning between people. We are probably yet to see the benefits of it – and how this new medium is able to show us what communication is really about.
