Social developments from digital environments
27. Control
Technology has long been used as a form of control. If users don't fully understand the new environment, technology, formalism, bureaucracy will prevail. CMC does not "favor" democratic political development.
China censors the internet (wikipedia)
- CMC does not function
uniformly across
environments.
*Pentagon harvests info from social networks
CMC does not break down established organizational/social barriers. For example, status differences still work their ways.
*Top executives blogging, don't stop bossing
Who controls the products
of a certain
technology? What social project is incorporated in that technology?
*Hacktivists aid human rights fight
- CMC can allow more unknown observation.
*Facebook admits Beacon tracks logged-off users
*In Foray Into TV, Google Is to Track Ad Audiences
- Asymmetry in message/sender/receiver: sending now involves far lower costs, so happens more often.
Study Question
What are the ways in which your digital behavior is most controlled by others? Least controlled by others?Most controlled by others (but) out of your conscious awareness?
Want to learn more?
The Electronic Disturbance (1994)The Critical Art Ensemble. Brooklyn: Autonomedia
