Sunday, February 27, 2011
User Control
This is an article I had to read for Pop Culture called the Paradox of User Control by Daniel Palmer. The article argues that "participatory media" and the convenience of the Internet gives an illusion of control to users. I think that Palmer makes really interesting points about Capitalism and about individualism and technology in the article.
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Courtney,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article and so very relevant to our class discussion. I would love to hear what points you felt were most interesting and why. I would also love for you, and the class, to consider with which theoretical camp Palmer may most identify with?
I think the most interesting parts of this article is the "culture industry" and the ability customize and filter our media. We can now choose what media we want and what programs we want within this media. More importantly we can interact and change the content of our consumption. I really liked when Palmer said, "Not only is leisure time colonised, there is a blurring between the production and consumption of media." We talked a little bit about this in the beginning of the semester with the Times article on Digital Downtime.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think it’s interesting how he brings up the "blurring." Technology has entered our homes which makes the line between work and leisure time impossible to define. He really feels strongly about the "false independence" and control we feel technology gives us.
ReplyDelete"By shifting the focus to the politics of control, Crary identifies a hidden logic behind superficial promises of consumer empowerment"
Another point that he brings up is how we are separated by participatory media, because it has hard for consumers to stay on one concentrated area. I like to bring up Egypt as an example when it comes to this argument because it is a great example of technology bringing people together on one topic; however, I do feel like there is so much information and access to information it is harder and harder for people to join together on one issue or cause in many cases.