On Line Opinion has been featuring pieces on the internet and everyday life throughout August. My contribution, published today, examines some questions about the social and cultural implications of new media technologies, and in the process, busts some myths about ‘Digital Natives’ and cyber-utopianism. I think it’s important to have a realistic grasp of the actual cultural uses of social media in order to avoid the important questions which do arise collapsing into silly and dichotomised arguments about how the intertubes will either save the world or destroy all good things. The reach of the social web has now become pervasive enough that we’re in a position to assess where we are, and to debunk some of the more hyperbolised claims on both sides of the non-debate we have all too often about the web and social life.
I’d been meaning to blog on this for such a long time. I sort of put it off, because… well, for all sorts of reasons. But I’ve been reminded of Aimee Mullins’ talk by the recent (and well deserved … how good is it?) buzz about TED. On reflection, though, I think I’ll post the video without commentary. But I’d be fascinated by your comments.
It’s Ada Lovelace Day – a day dedicated to blogging about women in science and technology.
Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines.
This is not really my field, but the woman herself is quite fascinating – and Catriona has some great links about her life and work at Circulating Library. Continuing the local linking theme, The Memes of Production looks at the representation of female scientists in Isaac Asimov’s fiction, concluding that there’s definitely a need for this sort of celebration!
There’s obviously a perception in the publishing and bookselling industries that James Harkin’s Cyburbia is going to sell well – as you can barely walk into a bookstore at the moment without falling over it. The subtitle – “The Dangerous Idea That’s Changing How We Live and Who We Are” – sounds like a bit of hype (and perhaps Harkin should have noted how long and didactic subtitles are themselves a search engine optimisation thing), and my expectations weren’t necessarily high, but I thought it was worth taking a look at because of my personal and professional interests in the topic.
Harkin is “Director of Talks” at the Institute for Contemporary Art in London, which sounds like a fabulous job. He writes regularly for a number of publications – including The Guardian – and Cyburbia is an expansion of his shorter pieces on the history and social significance of the internet. Harkin is also one of the burgeoning tribe of “Big Ideas” interpreters and entrepreneurs. This, combined with his journalistic skills, has both advantages and disadvantages for Cyburbia.
On the positive side of the ledger, Harkin writes well and rather impressively sustains a few themes throughout what might otherwise be a rather discursive and diffuse book. But, less promisingly, his style of pop sociology – like a lot of efforts in this vein (think Hugh Mackay and Bernard Salt, though he’s better than that) – is prone to generalisations unsupported by empirical evidence and unsurprisingly close to the common sense of the commentariat.
In the 2005 “dramatic documentary” The American Ruling Class, big oil heir turned Harper’s editor turned armchair socialist Lewis Lapham narrates the career choices confronting a group of shiny young Yale graduates. With their future at the crossroads, Lapham asks, will the nation’s brightest pursue private riches or commit to a pious life of public service?
Lapham, playing himself, leads his empty vessels through the streets of Manhattan, counterposing up-scale parties with wait staff slaving for tips. It’s a savvy piece of emotional manipulation designed to guilt the young rich into acknowledging the class structure that, above all else, got them to where they are. In one party scene, the hubris is intoxicating as a tipsy Ivy League cohort prepares, like their parents, to ascend to the heights of commerce, industry and influence.
Of course, this constructed ‘choice’ transcends the personal, reading as an obvious allegory for the nation as a whole. If the American working class has nothing to lose but their chains, Lapham clearly hopes a new generation will hand them the bolt cutters — a naive appeal to altruism perhaps, but one that continues to resonate as the economy tanks. Lapham’s choice is now more pressing, in that conditions have got much worse, and much easier in that elite opinion is again extolling the virtues of public service, always a potent (if submerged) strain of America’s DNA.
Image of spontaneous street celebrations in Harlem courtesy of matt semel at flickr – reproduced under a Creative Commons licence.
No doubt one of the big stories about the US election will be the influence of the blogosphere and the netroots. In many ways, the rise of the intertubes in politics was an unintended consequence of the Rove approach to politics, as Publius perceives:
The bigger story is that this same anger – this same frustration – has led liberals to organize in more numerous and consequential ways. In the last few years, we’ve seen new think tanks. We’ve seen blogs flower. We’ve seen the rise of media sites like TPM and Huffington with real journalistic chops. We’ve seen unprecedented efforts to register and canvass voters.
In short, we’ve seen a new energy driving liberals back to politics.
In an opinion piece at ABC Online, Barry Saunders sums up the changes that net based activism and citizen journalism have wrought:
The impact of social media on this election has been enormous. Whoever takes office will have to deal with widely available factchecking data, embarrassing videos, rabid wingnuts, opinionated bloggers and TV hosts, and a massive number of new voters and donors who feel they have invested in the American political process – as well as two wars and a collapsing economy. Here’s hoping they know what they’re doing.
Larvatus Prodeo is an Australian group blog which discusses politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
It’s 
There’s obviously a perception in the publishing and bookselling industries that James Harkin’s 
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