LifeStream Summary Week 6
For some reason, certain feeds stopped working on my LifeStream, namely YouTube and Delicious. This meant I had to tinker with the settings. This induced fear; fear of breaking something and not being able to get back my “stuff”. After it was all sorted and the feeds were flowing again, I reflected on this aspect of my interaction with my digital life and the anxiety that arises from suspecting that going into settings will break your connection with your virtual presence. (After all, so many warnings flash up asking if you’re really sure that you want to do that. Of course I’m not. I just want it to work.)
How much of this affects our digital culture? I suspect that many people get into comfortable ruts online just as they do in the real world. It’s an overused phrase these days, but “early adopters” remain few in number and most of us (well, me) react to online elements that have been suggested to us (or me). And we want things to work. I want my interaction with my online presence to be seamless and flowing. However, this is not always the case. I’ve spent 2 days trying to download software in college that would be great for my final assignment. But it’s incompatible with my newly issued laptop. This is where the frustration comes in and we find that we need our culture to support us. In our real world culture, if something upsets me I can phone a friend or go for a walk. When the whirly wheel on the download report sticks in the virtual mud and refuses to whirl again, what do I do?
"Like a spiral within a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, ever turning, every spinning..."
I think that this is why the ethnography assignment has been so interesting. I’ve been observing an online group that provides support to teachers. Now I’m conscious of how solitary my online presence has been as I tend to reinvent the wheel rather than ask for help.
And that fear? I’ll be forever haunted by the scene from “The IT Crowd” where Jen brings “the internet” to the shareholders’ meeting and then “breaks it”. Laugh though I will, part of me, deep down inside, thinks that this may actually be possible.
103 Responses to 'LifeStream Summary Week 6'
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on November 14th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
My favourite IT crowd moment ever – but of course not that funny when we’re working right at the edges of our technical competence. And even when not, the lifestream can be something of a black box – RSS feeds (which ‘drive’ the stream) can be flaky, and it’s not always easy to see where a problem has come from. You’ve shown how uncomfortable a pedagogy of disaggregation can be – is there something here that connects to posthumanism and the readings for this week, I wonder?
on November 20th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
I am not sure if this is relevant or not as the readings have confused more than clarified (at the moment!) but I think that the LifeStream illustrates how easy it is to switch off when technology fails to deliver. I’ll be honest, after all the issues I’ve had with feeds not loading etc, I lost interest. I remind myself that it’s a graded component of the course and that has become a motivator to get back to dealing with it. I think that’s a pity in a way as it becomes “something teacher wants” rather than something that enhances my experience. The ethnography, the visual representation – fascinating and things I would love to do again and again as I feel I could get better and better. But the LifeStream is a chore at the moment – I have to remember to refresh it and not fuss over things not showing up! So, I think the link to posthumanism is that the dependence on tech that delivers will act as a crucial element in the evolution of how we utilise and incorporate our online selves into our real selves.
on November 14th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Hi Neil,
I can empathise with you about the feeds in Lifestream. At the beginning I also had problems with YouTube. No sooner had I fixed that than Flickr and Deicious started playing up. Just recently fixed them. Of course, I blame anything that goes wrong on our present locale whether it’s justified or not.
I use a pc for work and a Mac for studies which can become a little confusing (and frustrating) at times. And I get anxious about losing work so try to remember to back-up (on external hardrive and memory stick – talk about belt and braces!) but my big fear is about not getting connected.
I do enjoy reading your blogs Neil, you have a really nice writing style.