Kazunas

While reading Chaudry’s article, I learned I can get The Nation at home(and online!) for 75 cents a week! I learned that even an anti-mainstream media publication runs ads for insurance companies. Chaudry attempts to show the youth is self involved and uses the internet as a medium to feed their ego. The article lacks persuasiveness because Chaudry only scratches around at the surface of the internet. It is like trying to see someone as a music expert whose only experience was listening to the Top 10 songs of last week. Chaudry focuses on people who want to be famous and think they will be, but does not explore whether or not the internet is a major role in this. Like anyone with a product, the internet is only another medium to make a sale. Without it, people selling themselves to fame, or a company selling the latest gadget will just advertise elsewhere. Chaudry identifies the “you’re special” campaign beginning in the 70s as programming people to have increased individualism, many years before the internet. New technologies offer cheap and fast ways for people to sell themselves, but no true connection is made to say that these technologies encourage self involvement. The intent of the author is to inform white middle class parents that their children are using the internet, and they are selfish attention whores. The single most interesting part of the article is that Chaudry was looking for self involved teens obsessed with fame and went to iWannaBeFamous.com(way to dig Lakshmi) and browsed 16 year old girls. Chaudry makes a point that people edit their virtual persona to the point that it is “as authentic as a character on reality TV.” This however does not stop Chaudry from taking the young girls posts about fame very seriously.

The term “digital” is a bit misleading to me as an Electro-Optics major. Light switches could be considered digital since they have an on and off position, conversely cell phones of just a few years ago used analog technology, but likely affected our lives in the way that a digital biography would be interested in. I feel today’s “digital culture” is not all that new, just an advancement on technologies that began to be taken for granted. I grew up with land line telephone service and antenna television. Around age 7 I began playing the Atari 5200 and had just about every videogame system as the years progressed. I used computers sporadically in middle school and high school, but for little more than word processing. When I first went to college in 1998 I began using computers on a regular basis. Soon I was using them for all of the things that they are commonly used for today: information, socializing, business, and recreation. I currently use computers for several hours a day. At work I float between six computers all hooked up to different equipment in a lab. At home I sit in front of two televisions connected to my computer. I have at least 4 filled extension cords in a 20 square foot area. In case I feel like leaving it all and going out for some fresh air I have a laptop. I have a cellphone and despise them.