Kyle Kopta DTC 101

   In  Program or Be Programmed , author Douglas Rushkoff breaks away from the argument of whether or not the internet is good or bad for us, but rather he discusses how we should interact with this technology; should we direct technology, or do we allow ourselves to be programmed by it and those who have mastered it? In presenting the reader with the inherent biases of computers and other digital technologies, Rushkoff argues that we program our technology rather than become programmed by it.    In the first five chapters, Rushkoff explores the following biases of digital technology: time, place, choice, complexity, and scale. Out of all of these inherent biases, I found the implications of time and scale (or abstraction) to be the most interesting. In regards to time, I found the idea of digital technologies existing outside of time to be a jarring idea. In interacting with the technology that was available when I was growing up and today, computers and phon...

   In Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation , authors Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin define and explore both the history and the the real-world applications of the aforementioned terms. Immediacy refers to our desire as consumers to experience something that feels real while being unconscious of the technological medium with which it is presented. In hypermediacy, the viewer is aware of the medium with which they are interacting with; various realities and representations are presented at the same time. Finally, remediation is the re-purposing of the content of one medium to another. In these cases, differences between medium are sometimes made clear rather than hidden. Through an examination of the history of these terms, we learn the nuanced relationships between new and old mediums as well as reveal our collective thoughts on what we strive for in our new technology endeavors.    Because I had never heard these terms before, I was very fascinated in seei...

   At first glance, the title of Marshall McLuhan's The Medium is the Message seems fundamentally paradoxical. When one receives a letter or an email, we collectively agree that the content of the message is the message. However, McLuhan argues that the medium, or the way in which the content is delivered, is more important and culturally relevant than the content itself. Why is it important that messages are now primarily sent through text or email rather than orally or through writing, and how has this shift in medium affected us individually and as a collective culture? Surely, transitioning from being mass consumers of the radio to the internet has had a dramatic effect on the way we behave and socialize, and this mass change in human behavior far outweighs the smaller contents that accompanied the medium.    What I found particularly interesting was the idea of a medium being given another medium under the guise of being "content". In the past, it has always ...