Response 2

First Autobotography project- JenniCam.

Jennicam was live video footage of the creator, Jenni, giving viewers a direct view of her everyday life. She had these cameras up for seven years. This isn’t exactly shaping what she was doing as a human, but rather using the technology to show others what her “human” looks like. Maybe the cameras made her act a certain way since she knew they were always watching, but I don’t think she could keep that charade up for seven years. Having not watched Jenni I can’t really say if she was genuine or not, but if she was then I don’t think the technology she used really influenced her that much since she didn’t have to interact with it a whole lot. Her intent was to use the technology to show others what her life is, so, in using that technology does that make her a robot of sorts? I’m not sure. I think her autobotographic-self is what remains of her on the internet today. Since everything uploaded and shared on the internet is essentially immortal, Jenni will remain forever, which probably shapes her life now more than it did when she was being filmed.

Second Autobotography project- Phage by Mary Flanagan

Phage is an app created by Mary Flanagan to scan someone’s hard drive, collect random data from it and spits out a sort of painting/map for viewers to get a glimpse into that person’s technological life. It collects things such as images, sound files, cached web files, and emails. Through this personal map of what someone’s history you can get a real sense of who that person is. Since we have such user-friendly technology now, with it’s bright colors and easy-click applications we forget what these programs came from or what’s still behind the scenes: technology. Everyone has a smart phone now and we treat it like a side-kick. These phones do a lot for us now, not just communication. They wake us up in the morning, tell us the weather, keep us on schedule, give us answers to our random daily thoughts and questions. Being human has nothing to do with a smartphone or a laptop, or any technology for that matter. But since it is so ingrained into our lives now, it’s impossible to not leave behind footprints. Phage was designed to show those footprints. To get a feel for what a person uses the technology for.

Using these new technologies has become a norm, they are constantly assisting us, making our lives easier, therefore they stick around. We never stop to think, hey should I be putting my credit card information into this technology? Should I have my browser remember my password? The new society we live in is much less physically interactive than it was before the internet and this technology. However, we are more connected than ever. How is that possible? We all connect now on an entirely different world, a different frontier that is no longer the world we are born into. The gap that separate our real, tactile lives from our online lives is becoming increasingly smaller. I fear for our society as a whole now, becoming so divided and lost in identity, I don’t think technology helps this at all.