Digital Cultures

Gerard Goggin’s ‘The Internet, online and mobile cultures’ was quite a read. Goggin is interpreting the status of media in the Australian context, focusing on Australian corporations leading the way and/or taking part in sharing the pie; his concerns are related to Poster’s discussion of ‘the dominant English on the internet’ since English should not be entitled to the ‘American power’. Media in general are mostly governed, ruled and/or operated by American policies, a fact commonly acknowledged with the example of the media of TV/news: propagandas of the superiority of one nation, one perspective and the indirect/hidden aims of its own interests. Another example also highlighted by Poster on multiculturalism, is the relation of the second media generation and ethnicity; in one episode of the Simpsons, it caught my attention when Homer commented on his perspective of the world’s nations (an American understanding and perception) “Christians, Jews and miscellaneous’ which underlines Poster’s affirmation of the lack of an anti-discrimination set of rules in our societies. Eventually, the internet can be regarded as an illustration of the expression “it’s a small world”, a world where all contributors will keep on shaping it and projecting its future; Goggin’s expresses the internet being an user-generated context, as such, users cannot be limited to one sect, one nation nor one perspective when it’s a tangled network, the individual, the family, the community, the nation, the world.

Another point worth indicating is Goggin’s discussion on the convergence of media, which Poster discussed years before as converting into a single interactive information industry. Goggin highlights the mobile aspect of the convergence of media, designing media tools to be as much inclusive as possible, iPods, mobile phones, PSP’s, Palm handled PC’s; it can be also discussed that the future of design is ‘services’ design, especially when studying the online communities and social softwares being on top of the spectrum.

Postmodernity

Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century life. Among these features are included globalization, consumerism, the fragmentation of authority, and the commoditization of knowledge.[Wikipedia]

Personally, I would tend to add “technology” as a sect of the above definition for the reason that keeping up and engaging on many levels with technology - its continuous change, development, transformation, expanding, and most importantly its fusion with people’s daily tasks - makes us postmodern. It’s not only physical engagement with technology that counts; mental incentive is the higher drive for synchronising our states, since evolving based on a need and a must is what rendered cave men today’s architects of the future.

Relating postmodernism and multiculturalism, virtual communities are not a replacement of real communities, yet, they complete each other (in a sense) and are related to each others. A simple example, in my humble opinion, is Flickr as one example of social software, forums, academic online discussions (to mention a few) as well as the multiple shapes of communicating socially via technology; not only as a way of bridging time and space in the confinement of a mutual goal, but as a way of strolling in parallel and effectively in communicating any certain message on both the levels of real and virtual.