#AdiosTwitter

#AdiosTwitter

 For my technology change, I chose to give up one of my social media apps and see what kind of difference it would make in my life.  I chose to delete Twitter. Although I would check Twitter fairly often, I would go to it more as a last resort if I had nothing else to look at. It was not my favorite app, and it honestly had been actually frustrating me. Only a small handful of my friends have accounts, and not even people that I am very close to. Therefore my feed consisted mostly of posts from celebrities, sports teams and “funny” accounts. My feed became incredibly repetitive due to the truly high speed of the Internet. Once a post went viral, I would see it time and time again pop up on my feed. It really starting boring me that all I was seeing was the same posts or spam, and started questioning why I even had a Twitter account, as I am not an active “tweeter.” It is extremely ironic that I was causing myself the opposite effect of what I had hoped to get out of Twitter. Instead of entertainment, I got boredom.

Other than the same old memes circulating through my feed, I started getting an extremely negative vibe from the site. Twitter appears to be the place to go to complain about your problems, and not do anything about them. For example, posts from my “friends” included small, meaningless rants about too much homework or how hot it was outside. Everything just seemed so negative.

It’s a strange thing to think about how tweeting about something can cause some sort of gratification. You tweet about your bad day at work and somehow think that it will make you feel better, yet nothing has changed. You can’t go back in time and change your day. You tweet about it. Why do we do this? I’m guilty of it myself, at times if I was angry I would tweet something if I had no one to talk to about it. 

Another thing about Twitter that drives me absolutely INSANE is the concept of “subtweeting.” Subtweeting is pretty much talking about someone behind their back, but in this case “behind their back” is just not mentioning their name (or twitter handle). This is by far one of the most passive-aggressive ways of handling conflict. Everyone always knows or has a good idea who the tweet is about, and it is just wrong to talk bad about someone for an entire audience of followers to see. I have been personally victimized by subtweeting, and can attest that it is a horrible feeling to be publicly criticized online in a way meant to be “stealthy,” yet is anything but.

So how has deleting Twitter affected me? I almost feel like a burden is lifted off my shoulders. I no longer have the urge to look at something that was not even entertaining or cause myself unneeded annoyance. Of course, no one was forcing me to look at Twitter. It was my own fault. It reminds me of discussions we have had about technology in our class. Just because the technology is there, doesn’t mean we have to use it. No one is making us use it; we have a choice. That is the key notion that we must understand in this day and age, you can choose to use technology and experience the effects of it or not. So deleting Twitter gave me a small feeling of liberation. In the eyes of an avid tweeter I went “against the norm,” which I am completely fine and happy with. So goodbye subtweets, trivial rants and repetitive memes…I’m free!

Technological or Cultural Determinism? 

Slack & Wise’s “Determinism” chapter that I did my GQQ on really intrigued me, since I had to start asking myself (and the class) some really good thought-provoking questions. I can surely say that I was successful in provoking my own thoughts about the concept of “determinism.” One thing that really got me thinking was on the discussion of technological determinism, the concept that changes in technology dictate changes in culture. In thinking about it, I was reminded of how in intercultural communication I realized how present culture is in every single part of our lives. I then started thinking about how technology has become such a prominent aspect of our daily lives as well, and how the two intertwine. I compared the discussion we had in that class about what a man does when he wakes up, and how everything in his daily routine happens because his culture taught him how to do it, essentially how to be. It got me thinking how our most recent technology has changed our daily morning routine over the years. Now, it is common to wake up and immediately check your phone, turn on the television or check your email… who knows what the future generation will be doing first thing they wake up, press a button on their phone to start the coffee maker?

It makes sense that technology changes the way our culture is, especially how time can be dictated in eras of technology. Today we are referred to as the digital era, and it appears that we have become so reliant on technology that it can essentially be a part of our culture. Especially if we think about how our phone may be a “part” of us, considering how most people take their phone with them everywhere as if it were an extra arm. This changes how we have become as people, we use it to become more efficient human beings as we have this ultimate resource that can give us virtually any information we please. Many have become glued to this technology, and to “fit in” with society it seems you must have this technology to thrive amongst others (for example: “everyone” has smartphones). I also thought about the cultural determinism viewpoint, and asked myself if my culture is the cause of this technology does it accurately reflect the values and practices of my culture? I actually think it does, in America we value progress and efficiency and I think that the technology we have today embody those values because technology makes us more productive humans.   

The interesting part about this chapter was the debate of which is the cause of these changes, technology or culture itself? Does our culture create the technology to better reflect itself, or does technology create the changes in culture? Debating this surely made my head spin, but it was interesting that Slack & Wise say that ultimately this is a false dichotomy, and cannot help us figure out real life situations. Overall, I think it is important to stop and think about these concepts ever so often as technology becomes more and more advanced. We need to remind ourselves that we are human beings who have culture, who use technology, and ponder about how the two play important roles in our lives today.

No Data No Problems 

I just had an unforgettable weekend spent at the music festival Lightning In A Bottle.  The festival is in Bradley; a small town pretty much in the middle of nowhere about 40 minutes north of San Luis Obispo. It did not even seem like a town, as we drove in with hundreds of other cars deep into the hills all we could see was acres and acres of land and barely any civilization. Yet somehow the magical and artistic festival grounds were created out of essentially a desert. As we drove in, we gained incredible excitement…but lost one thing, good cell phone service. 

As it was still possible to call and text most of the time, throughout the whole weekend my urge to snapchat or post photos was silenced. The best part about it was that that silence was present in many other people as well. We were all there to enjoy the moment, and most of the time we just left our phones at the campsite when we would go explore the festival. Even when we were at the campsite, barely anyone would be on their phones. Without good service to check our social media apps, we would sit around and talk at our campsite, truly enjoying each other’s company and finding other ways of entertainment. I really felt like I could bond with the group I was with so much more because nobody was zoned out on their phones not listening to what one was saying. I actually loved that everyone’s phones were either dead or on airplane mode, I kept hearing people say things like “my phone has been off for 2 days” without a care at all. It was such a refreshing contrast from the usual panic people experience every day if they cannot find their phone or are on 2% battery. 

I feel that a part of this had to do with the whole feel and idea of the festival itself.  Lightning In A Bottle is extremely unique because it is not just about music; it is about art, spirituality, freedom of expression, nature and having fun. Besides amazing musical performances, they had many other activities such as workshops promoting healthy food, yoga classes, activist talks, art galleries and more. I believe that the focus on creativity and appreciation of nature made people want to embrace this more and forget about technology. I do question if people would use their phones more if there was better service, yet the ideals of the festival had a huge factor in forgetting about them and I think that a lot of other people enjoyed that as well. It was such a difference from other shows I have attended where you look at the stage and see hundreds of people watching the performance through their illuminated cell phone screens and not their eyes.

I’m not saying that I did not use technology at all during the festival. I brought my phone out a few times to be able to contact friends if we got separated and take some photos. I also used my GoPro a lot to film, because how could I not document the amazing setup they had? I love to put together videos to be able to look back at the memories and re-live the experience. However, as I’ve gone to more and more festivals I have realized that the present moment itself is far more valuable and have used my devices less and less. A vivid memory can be just as special as a photo or a video...I guess the question to ask each person is which do you value more?