Response 2-AndrewG

Modern Living:

Many of these animations represented conflicts with the selves we wear in public and the selves we truly are. One, for instance, has a man removing a layer from his face and flies buzz out from the removed layer. This makes me think about how people can go from emotion to emotion in the blink of an eye. The shedding of the layers represents the shift in mood in individuals. Another interesting one was the shadow that controlled the man. The shadow represents how the media shapes us. We are informed only of mainstream news, interact with others in a way that you wouldn’t in person, basically your entire presence online is a mere puppet that is controlled by the mass media interests and your own. After you click the guy, the shadow stops controlling him and he snaps out of it, returning to normal. This could be interpreted as a disconnect between your physical selves and your media selves. Social media platforms such as second life give users a literal second life where they are free to interact with others with no limitations, and if someone loses themselves in this fantasy world, they could become disconnected with their physical selves and suddenly find themselves having difficulty discerning reality from fantasy. There is another animation where a man is drowning, and when you move your cursor over to help, he goes under and re-surfaces elsewhere. This reminded me of individuals who could use some assistance and always try to dodge the opportunity if somebody tries to help. This highlights the difficulties some people face while interacting with others, social anxieties for example. Tinder is a great example of a popular application that allows users to portray themselves however they wish. Your tinder selves can be as flawless, honest, or strange as you want them to be.

Nobody Here:

A strange collection of gum and the responses of people who witnessed the gum being retrieved was interesting to me, those moments are perfectly preserved with pictures of the gum on this website, and I think that is a very strange thing to do, yet it’s fascinating that I can share uncomfortable emotions coming from just a picture of gum and some text. It seems this ‘self’ that we can explore every inch of, is full of bizarre quirks that threw me for a moment. Then there’s a chatroom full of bugs where your identity is entirely the bug, therefore you are free to chat with anyone and test whatever conversations you please with no consequence. This seemed like a very detailed, difficult to navigate art piece, and it reflected his ‘self’ very well. A bit too much information in some areas, but at least it wasn’t censored. I’d assume the poor could access this as it is just a website, however, would it be relevant to them?

If media shape us, then what shape do we see through the media? How do the vehicles/technology of many-to-many media shape what kinds of selves are possible?

We see exactly what the media intends us to see. Targeted advertisements based upon an individual user’s interests are a part of all of our lives. Isn’t it weird how when you say, “gosh I wish I had a new pair of shoes” you see an advertisement about that exact product soon after?