What is the future of Digital Culture?

Technology impacts our lives much more than I had previously realized. The use of gadgets to test and explore technology was also interesting. The use of using magic markers to create layers of augmented reality and the headset used in osmose shows a new breed of technology being created that will be expanded upon in later years. Perhaps we may even be able to create robots through augmented reality and osmosis. I learnt that search engines could be considered as robots, as they are themselves machines that help us process and find large amounts of information.

However, in the world of Web 2.0, although the Internet and source engines are useful tools, not many people are aware of how much information they put online especially through things like social networking sites such as facebook. Privacy controls are constantly changing and need to be updated, but this conflicts with the fact that so many people are actually willing to share their details online, leaving them at risk to potential fraudsters. The rise of web 2.0 has also promoted the concept of sharing and uploading information with each other through various user generated content, which leads people to ask whether the internet should be regulated. Here is are some interesting videos I found about the new generation of the internet - Web 3.0





I find it interesting that user generated content will grow, and anything and everything will be connected - more than it is now. This will be a good for advertisers who will have to depend on the Internet to provide services for consumers. However, this will mean that everyone will be relying on a machine to potentially help them in every area of life, and will be expected to be online 24/7.

The way we interact with people online is different from that in real life. When we enter cyberspace, we can create our own world, a person we want to be. We can create a virtual life with things we want such as in games like second life or SIMS. We can connect with people who have same views/interests as us without even leaving our front door.

We have several portable devices that have access to the internet, the interface design depends on the devices used. We have evolved from using a mouse and computer to using a laptops with a touch pad, and mobile phones with touch screen facilities. Essentially, devices are getting smaller and smaller, but they are able to do multiple things, which are easier for us to to while we are on the go.

How much does Technology impact society and culture?

We live in a developed world and the growth and popularity of the technology means that we are constanstly online or connected with other people.

When we wake up in the morning,check our phone for the time and/or mixed calls and texts. When we go the bathroom, we may have options on our shower head to automatically set the water temperature for us instead of having to do it manually. When we enter most cars nowadays, there is a handy sat nav near by,so we no longer have to ask people for directions or look at a map. When we finally enter our work place, we will most definitely use the internet to find out something or even use it while we our on our break.

An average day consists of different types of technology that we rely and depend on without us even realizing it.



Jon Dovey and Helen Kennedy say that '' 'Technicity' is the interconncctedness of identity towards technology competence. People's tastes, aptitudes, and propensities towards technology become part of a particular 'identity'. This indentity then becomes a basis of affiliations and connections with like-minded others. Our particular habits with, for, instance, mobile phones, iPods, computer games or DVD collections can become expressions of our 'technicity.' ''

For example, If I wanted to play a game on xbox with my friends, I could connect with them online through my 'gamertag' which would monitor myself and my friends score. I could even connect with complete strangers too, simply because we share the same interests in games.

We are already starting to live in a world where we are judged based on how many pieces of technology we have. Phones, iPods, game soles ect. The growth of technology and the interent has made it easier to advertise products and create brands. For example, the use of the apple brand has increased through the use of technology.

Is there such thing as Privacy anymore?

We live in a world where information is stored about us and the the things we do throughout the day is monitored. The places we go to can be seen on CCTV or through out oyster cards and the things we buy can be monitored through the things we pay for on our debit cards. Our passports have information on every single place we have travelled to outside the UK and we also have databases on our teeth, medical health, and any criminal records we may have.

We are even monitored by the websites we visit through the use of cookies. If a stranger found all these details about you, they could easily build a quick profile about you and you could become a victim of identity theft.

Privacy has also become a bigger issue since the rise and popularity of social networking sites. People are willing to share more information about themselves online, leaving them at risk to strangers. For example, facebook was originally a site for friends to connect and share with each other, but a lot of people accept friend requests from people they don't actually know. Leaving your profile public for all to see could mean that a potential employee could browse through your pictures and wall posts to get the real view about you before they decide whether or not to take you on for the job.


Here are some stories about the isses surrounding our privacy online

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Operating Systems?

Open source software is described in Kavanagh’s ‘Open Source Software: Implementation and management’ (2004) as ‘software that must be distributed with source code included or easily available, such as by free download from the internet. The License of this software will not restrict others from disrupting the code or modifications and derived works under the same terms.

In simpler terms, open source software allows anyone to create and or edit on software that already exists.

Users of open software are at an advantage as they are able to control and understand technology rather than being controlled by technology or software makers. For example, Android apps are open and free to be developed by members of the public whereas iPhone apps cost money to be developed and users will have to pay to use it as they are copy right restricted. As android is not regulated, their apps can be subject to viruses and bugs. However, improvements can be made on an android app by members of the public. Once an iphone app has been developed, it is rarely edited or re created.

Copy left is helpful to recognized programme developers as it allows users to help in developing it, whilst stopping people from copying and closing off the source codes and passing it off as their own.

However, operating systems such as Wikipedia can cause problems because it is part of user generated content and is not regulated. The fact that anyone can come and edit information means that the information provided may not always be correct

How do incoherences affect a game?

When we play a game, we are expected to abide by the rules. When we understand the rules of the game, we expect certain things to happen. For example, in pacman, when we eat fruits, we expect the ghosts to to move slower giving us the change to eat more yellow dots and gain points to the next level. But what happens when things happen in a game that we don't expect to happen? For example, when we are playing a racing game, if we crash our vehicle into the wall and the car doesn't get damaged or bounce back on us on the screen we will be surprised, and concept of cause and effect will be questioned.

Another example would be if, in an action game, a grappling rope will hold on to one thing, but not another. This will frustrate us as we have to find another means to navigating around the space that we have been given. Other times,there may be glitches or bugs in a game that prevent us from experiencing the game in its best quality.

How do rules and Magic circles affect the way we play games?

When we play a game, we are expected to follow the rules given to us in order to play it successfully. We are expected to follow these rules inside the magic circle - that is the boundary in which you play the game.
So, for example, the magic circle in a real life football game would be the football pitch. A common real life magic circle is the workplace - the office, where we are conforming to the different rules that we must abide by. We can also say that we are magic circles, as we act one way with our friends, and another way to our parents.

The magic circles in a game could change depending on the genre of the game, whether it is single or multiplayer or what hardware the game is being played on e.g Computer or offline.

If we compare a miniature game with the pacman game we can see the differences. Pacman is a single player game which is normally played on a screen and the magic circle is the maze. The apihany vs Euphoria in this game is to avoid the ghosts from eating you, while managing to eat the fruits which will slow down the ghosts, giving you more time to eat the yellow dots and gain extra points by eating the ghost. The ghosts are aware that you are there. Whereas in the minature game, again, the maze is the magic circle, however, unlike pacman, you are competing against other people to get to the middle of the maze first and trying overcome being blocked in your path by the Grey blocks.

The dice is an important part of the game because it controls the way you and the way your opponents move. You are also restricted by the dice because 6 is the maximum times you can move in one time, unlike pacman where you have freedom to move within the maze. There are different levels in pacman which increase in difficulty suggesting that the game never really ends as there are more problems to face in each level. Whereas, in the minature game, there are no levels, but the game can be seen to go on for a long time depending on what is rolled on the dice and waiting for the last time to reach the middle of the maze.

Aesthetics of Digital Literature

In 1994, Annie Poulx said that 'Nobody is going to sit down and read a novel on a twitchy little screen. Ever.''

In the yea 2011, we now have facilities on the internet that enable us to read books online, or have sneak previews of certain pages before we choose to buy them. Because the internet is a huge database, it has become easier to access information and the sense of 'try before you buy' can also be applied to online experiences. Portable devices such as the amazon reader, sony reader and the iPad have made it easier to read books while we are on the go, and with the use of the iPad, you can highlight words you don't understand and a yellow box will come up with the definition of that word. Before this, we would have had to go to a dictionary to to look up a word. E book devices also save paper and energy, as one device can have several functions.