Comments on: Thoughts on HAND

By: Daniel Griffin

Daniel Griffin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:05:13 +0000

Not too sure that I agree with your point about feeling safe Neil. It seems to me that every time I look at mainstream news or corporate media, it’s overly sensationalized and aimed solely at keeping the audience scared enough to remain passive and maintain the status quo. But I think you are definitely right about people accepting an opinion that fits their world view. I makes me wonder if we naturally prefer not to question things or is it something that we’ve learned to do. Definitely a great topic to dig into further!

By: Neil David Buchanan

Neil David Buchanan — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:55:31 +0000

I think there’s another dimension in that people or “information users” end up following the information outlet/ supplier that matches their perceptions of the world. For example, during the protests in Egypt, you could watch CNN turn the event into a restaging of the American Revolution. Maybe people are swallowing packaged content because that’s what they want and feel safest with. I was thinking about online culture and how much prepackaging we accept. How many of us start from scratch and build our own online identities and how many select from the drop down menus? I think it’s a great topic for exploration!

By: Daniel Griffin

Daniel Griffin — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 15:05:51 +0000

This is an interesting topic that you are discussing guys. I agree that for the most part that people don’t seem to seek out truth but merely accept information that is presented to them; how else could we explain the phenomenon of mass media and corporate network news channels? Perhaps we have become desensitized to truth due to information overload, or perhaps we are just growing lazy. Its a pity, but perfectly understandable that the most readily available news and information sources are those promoted by government and the corporate sector, and of course come packaged with some agenda or other. If we are only exposed to such information sources then it must affect our core cultural beliefs significantly.

By: Daniel's E-learning and Digital Cultures Blog - Did you get your disconnection notice?

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:54:37 +0000

[...] of time, or Tim help us, permanently, is becoming nothing short of cultural exclusion. Kevin raises a similar point in relation to the Hand chapter from this weeks reading. So far I’ve only skinned that but [...]

By: Jeremy Keith Knox

Jeremy Keith Knox — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:10:20 +0000

Some interesting observations here Kevin, and I think you are right to highlight the issues of informational variety and multiplicity implicated in digital networks. As you say in your first point, the ideal of a global information culture exists concurrently with issues of the digitally disadvantaged. I think there are very interesting questions to be answered around the sudden digitisation of cultures who do not share the technological heritage of the West, but also great promise in the egalitarian potential of the social web. As Hand seems to imply, web technology seems to embody both the idealism and panic of its critics, depending on their disposition.

Your final question gets me thinking about the value and worth that societies and cultures place on digital information. Despite the propensity to which the West, and countries like South Korea and Japan, can be thoroughly immersed in digital networks, to what extent does this engagement affect core cultural beliefs…if such things exist? I found it interesting that Carol mentioned a potential ‘desensitisation’ in relation to violence in the eXistenZ clip last night. Having access to so much information, so many ‘truths’ as you say, have we become in some way desensitised to ‘truth’? And is that a positive or a negative desensitisation?

A thought provoking post Kevin, thanks!