A Rage Phenomena

A Rage Phenomena

The Actor Network theory and The origin of MEMES 

Christopher Kelty (2008) came up with the idea of a recursive public. The actor-network theory (Lataour 1999) is a concept that was conceived as a means to address societal processes without being drawn into a closed, cultured and mechanical universe by traditional organisations. Actors can be anyone and when a network is established, things start to move hence becoming important. Deleuze & Guttari (1988) Rhizome principles instigates that any point of the rhizome can be connection to anything which is similar to networks.

To explain these concepts is best explaining with the use of an example. Rage comics are a prime example of a cultural phenomenon. These originated from the popular site 4chan in 2008 and gained popularity due to its simple art, real life experiences and humorous punch-lines at the end. At first, the simple image was of a guy showing rage, however these have since changed when another website named Reddit in 2009 launched a sub-reddit named ‘FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU’ which created numerous more characters. As the popularity increased, there was a need for easier method of creation, management and thus, rage makers were introduced (Knowyourmeme 2014). Organisations such as New York Times even circulated the works (Boutin 2012). There are numerous actors that occur here that has caused this popularity and it still continues. From one site to another and from various people and creation of more characters, this cultural phenomenon has merged technical and the human to operate around networks mixing entries of social, politic and aesthetics compared with previously.

As mentioned above, this phenomenon had a problem. It is often difficult to find who created the origins of the characters as the various places they are posted but altered. Some faces even remain unknown and some faces meanings were changed such as the ‘Me Gusta’ Face and some were used without authorization (Mar 2012). Faces even have emerging stories and receiving attention from other non-English speaking countries showing the network capability of a cultural phenomenon. This shows the potential power of without interference by traditional processes.

BibliographyBoutin, P. (2012). Put Your Rage Into a Cartoon and Exit Laughing. The New York Times. [online]. Avaible at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/technology/personaltech/rage-comics-turn-everyday-stress-into-laughs.html [Accessed 8 November 2014].Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1988). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Bloomsbury Publishing.Kelty, C. (2008). Two bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software and the Internet. Durham: Duke University Press.Know Your Meme, (2014). Rage Comics. [online]. Avaiable at: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rage-comics [Accessed 8 November 2014].Latour, B. (1999). On recalling ANT. The Sociological Review. 47(1).  pp.15-25.Mar, T. (2012). Fffuuuuuuuu: The Internet anthropologist’s field guide to “rage faces”. Arstechnica. [online]. Available at: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/03/the-internet-anthropologists-field-guide-to-rage-faces/2 [Accessed 8 November 2014].

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The Interface Conundrum and Dark Patterns

The Interface Conundrum 

Challenges and the use of dark patterns.

Interface is an important connection between humans and machines but also machines to machines. Interface instantiates information, how it is produced, works and embodied into technology.

One challenging interface aspect is dark patterns, which are patterns that are designed by using the interface specifically to deceive users into purchasing items or doing actions they might not have done (Darkpatterns, 2014). Individuals are studying our behaviours online, our movements and our habits and use this knowledge to set ‘traps’ for said users (Puchalska, 2014).  However, this study of habits has already occurred prior to the web and could be suggested as continuation. One controversial, but famous study would be Milgram (1963) who studied humans and obedience of a higher authority. Duhigg (2012) states that almost every retailer or company has some form of department that is devoted to understanding not just shopping habits, but personal lifestyles too; for increased market efficiency. But are dark patterns all that bad?  Mesibov (2013) suggests that the design of dark patterns could be learned and used for good in fact.

Another aspect is tethering. We are tethered to companies such as Google, and their interface is designed in a way that penetrates privacy. The products we use on Google and their multiple platforms collect data from us and are intruding into our privacy. The more we use Google, the more information it collects on us (Ketcham and Kelly, 2010). This includes their other platforms such as Google Maps and Gmail (Rosenfeld, 2014). We are constantly monitored, yet we allow this to happen as we stay loyal to certain companies. Even if we use alternative platforms, we are still coupled with Facebook or Twitter data to use the application (Larson, 2014).

Another challenge that interface poses for critical media analysis is highlighted by Drucker (2011) that the design of an interface to support human or a humanistic approach is still an on-going issue but a central issue nonetheless. Interface designs are catered to us not as humans, but more as subjects who potentially hinder the true value of data being collected and more suitable design of interfaces. Drucker (2011) also reiterates that the challenge for humanists is to express the theory and designs of interfaces.

Bibliography

Darkpatterns.org, (2014). Dark Patterns - User Interfaces Designed to Trick People. [online]. ( http://darkpatterns.org/). (Accessed 2 November 2014).Drucker, J. (2011). Humanities approaches to interface theory. Culture Machine. 12(0.  pp. 1-20.Duhigg, C. (2012). How Companies Learn Your Secrets. The New York Times. [online]. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0).  (Accessed 6 November 2014).Ketcham, C. and Kelly, T. (2010). The More You Use Google, the More Google Knows About You.[online].Available at: http://www.alternet.org/story/146398/the_more_you_use_google%2C_the_more_google_knows_about_you  [Accessed 8 November 2014].Larson, S. (2014). Are There Too Many Social Networks?. [online]. Readwrite.com. Available at: http://readwrite.com/2014/01/07/are-there-too-many-social-networks [Accessed 8 Nov. 2014].Mesibov, M. (2013). Using Dark Patterns for Good UX Booth. [online]. Available at:  http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/using-dark-patterns-for-good/ [Accessed 6 November 2014].Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral Study of obedience. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), pp.371-378.Puchalska, E. (2014). Dark Patterns in UX – The Jedi Way. [Blog]. Usability Tools. Available at: http://blog.usabilitytools.com/dark-patterns-in-ux/#sthash.p41qIQnu.dpbs [Accessed 8 November 2014].Rosenfeld, S. (2014). 4 ways Google is destroying privacy and collecting your data. [online]. Available at: http://www.salon.com/2014/02/05/4_ways_google_is_destroying_privacy_and_collecting_your_data_partner/  [Accessed 8 November 2014].

The Extended Mind Relationship With Devices and Technology

The Extended Mind Relationship With Devices and Technology

Have devices and technology become part of our bodies and mind?

It was suggested that devices have become part of an extension outside of our bodies and minds. Clark and Chalmers (1998) denote Active externalism and advocates that the external environment plays a crucial role in driving our thought processes by creating a coupled system. If we remove the external part, behavioural competence will drop. Just like a fragment of the brain being removed. Note the word active, which is particularly significant and differentiates from Putnam (1975) and Burge (1979) of passive externalism. The distal nature of passive externalism does not drive cognition so it is therefore irrelevant.

Apple advertisements cater towards a materialistic, affective and emotional attachment to devices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODmfmUWqlSA. This shows the shift in focus when it comes to the construction of new technology. In addition, human and technology have become ubiquitous as well as the processing of information now differs from the past.

Clark’s notion of the extended mind proposes a mutual relationship with technology and our minds. Mcluhan (2001) in understanding Media had a similar hypothesis to Clark as well, which in essence, complement each other but are both unique yet similar perspectives. Elmore (2014) a term coined nomophobia which is the fear of being without phone contact and produces anxiety. This supports the notion of the extended mind that external environment does affect our cognition. This spreads into Digital Media too with social media sites and the web. Harraway (1991) also likened us to cyborgs with digital technologies that can be associated with our body suggesting our connection with machine and technology too. Robert Logan (2013) in Mcluhan’s extended and the extended mind thesis identifies fourteen messages that support our relations with data, knowledge and information which therefore extend our minds.

However, there are numerous problems that come with this theory and for digital media. The theory stretches the limit of cognition too far implying that entirety of the internet is part of individual cognition (Adams and Aziwa, 2010) but also continues to divide biological part and non-biological part, thus this comes as a relabeling as suggested by William Ramsey (2010). If active externalism is true, then would this medium indicate a potential concern of control and surveillance over our cognition and minds?  Could this change the way we think and change our emotions? Could the accumulation of data through extension and technology eventually replace our whole cognition?

 Bibliography

Adams, F., & Aizawa, K. (2010). Defending the bounds of cognition. The extended mind. pp. 67-80.

Apple - iPhone 5s - TV Ad - Powerful. (2014). [video] Apple.

Burge, T. (1979). Individualism and the Mental. Midwest Stud Philos, 4(1), pp.73-121.

Clark, A. and Chalmers, D. (1998). The Extended Mind. Analysis, 58(1), pp.7-19.

Elmore, T. (2014). Nomophobia: A Rising Trend in Students. [online] Psychologytoday.com. Available at: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/artificial-maturity/201409/nomophobia-rising-trend-in-students [Accessed 19 Oct. 2014].

Haraway, D. (1991).  A Cyborg Manifesto. [online]. Available at: http://www.egs.edu/faculty/donna-haraway/articles/donna-haraway-a-cyborg-manifesto/ [Accessed 20 October 2014].

Logan, R. (2013). McLuhan Extended and the Extended Mind Thesis (EMT). Pismo Awangardy Filozoficzno-Naukowej, [online]. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/3776248/McLuhan_Extended_and_the_Extended_Mind_Thesis_EMT  [Accessed 21 October 2014].

McLuhan, M. (2001). Understanding media. London: Routledge.

Putnam, H. (1975). Mind, language, and reality. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press.

Ramsey, W. (2010). The Extended Mind Reviews Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. University of Notre Dame. [online]. Available at: https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24553-the-extended-mind/ [Accessed 20 October 2014].

Star Wars Easter Egg!

Google's New Easter Egg

Google are known for their Easter eggs when you type into the search bar and something happens.

Google have done it again with the upcoming release of the new Star Wars movie. While they were very open about the changes to a Star Wars themes on their applications. This one was quietly released with a cryptic Tweet by Google:

Hint: Search the beginning. #ChooseYourSide https://t.co/W9sjR80Q05

— Google (@google) November 23, 2015

What does this mean? Well if you type and search into Google: ' A long time ago in a galaxy far far away' you will get a really nice surprise! Check it out.


Or if you just want to know, have a look at the screenshot below:

Google search has turned into the the open credits of Star Wars! Now all we need is the majestic music as well! The Star Wars hype is real.

Star Wars - Choose your side!

Choose wisely young padawan

Google has gone full blown Star Wars fanatic by letting you choose which side you would choose. However, that is not all. When you do choose your side. Google related apps will also follow along with the Star Wars Theme (Personally,  I chose the dark side, since I am partial to the colours).

Head over to the website and have a look yourself: http://www.google.co.uk/starwars/ 

Choose your side

The chosen side will correspond with which side you have chosen:

In Gmail, the obvious change (this may not take immediate effect) is the background is now Star Wars related. Similarly when you install the extension for Chrome, your new tabs will now open up as a full screen wallpaper of images from the new movie! This is also the same effect with Chromecast app backdrop.

Star Wars events  (especially the release date of the movie) are automatically added into your Caldendar events. Downloading the Star Wars app on your phone will automatically push a Star Wars theme to your smartwatch.

With YouTube, the volume and progress bar are now glowing lightsabers (colour is dependant on your side). Additionally the volume bar will also produce the sound of the lightsaber when hovered over or adjusting the volume.

Google Maps the street view person is now a storm trooper and the navigation is either a tie fighter or an x-wing. With Waze, the voice navigator is now C3PO. With Google Translate, you can now translate into Aurebesh too!

While nothing is useful, it does provide a reminder and also excitement towards the upcoming new Star Wars the force awakens movie.

Oh and if you have forgotten, the movie comes out on December 17th 2015.

May the Force be with you!

My Random Addictions: Happy Halloween!

Halloween is upon us!

While browsing through the internet, I came across a really interesting website that would aid in selecting a horror movie to watch on the day or any day that you have an itch for horror.

It is a site called 'Reel Scary', which I think the punned was severely intended. Going past the name of the site, the site separates the films into three distinct categories: Disturb, Gore and Suspense. Each film that is listed are rated by these three and depending on the nature and the kind of the horror film, the higher or lower the scores for each category. There is also the highest average of all three categories as well as for the individual categories. 

The site also lists the definitions of each one: 

Disturb: Something that sticks to your head and was highly disturbing

Gore: Lots of blood, flying limbs and organs

Suspense: Those that keep you guessing, waiting and glued to your seat

Reel Scary website

Therefore, these categories will help you choose what kind of horror film you want to watch whether it will be the disturbing kind, the gorey type or a more suspenseful kind of  horror film. 

What is your favourite horror movie? Have a look and see and pick a great Halloween movie!

Happy Halloween!

Source: https://www.reelscary.com/ 

The Map of the internet

Ever wondered what the map of the internet looks like? Now you can!

I found this website and thought it would be useful for people to perceive the internet visually and alternatively. For starters the visualisation used are those of circles. The size of the circle determines the amount of traffic it gets ( basically how popular). Users' form links by switching between websites and the stronger the link, the closer the circles will be which makes the structure of the circles.

Google.co.uk etc, would of course, be one of the biggest. What is more fascinating is that you can see what sites are the most popular within countries. This is particularly interesting as searches and site popularity are different within different countries. For example, Baidu is bigger than Google since Baidu is their go-to search engine or Naver for South Korea.

It makes you think how different people search is and how they optimise for each country or how closes linked sites are with other sites. Can this be changed to increase traffic etc?

Play around with it and see for yourself!


This link and source for this is http://internet-map.net/

Crowdsourcing a Song

Remember when I blogged about Twitch plays Pokemon? Now there are people trying to create a song through crowdsourcing. The lyrics will also be crowdsourced too! A melody is being generated in real time and each note is voted by the crowd or also known as wisdom of the crowd.

I have viewed the song and played and so far it does sound really pleasant! Sometimes you just have to wonder that the introduction of the internet has created incredible things and produced amazing feats.

For the source more information, check out the website where it is being generated https://crowdsound.net/

Also vote and help create something unique!

Screenshot of the website https;//crowdsound.net

DuckDuckGo: an alternative search engine

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is an alternative search engine that does not track what you search. It emphasises heavily that privacy of their users are important so they do not track. This is opposite to search engine such as Google. It also highlights that it gets the best sources rather than the most sources (Which Google search engine does but this is slowly changing). 

Google search engine is all about personalisation and each google search can be different, if two different users search the same thing with personalised ads etc. DuckDuckGo is different where you will not be tracked when left and there are no personalised ads and just ads which fit with your keywords. DuckDuckGo also has the feature of bangs (!) that can directly take you to the website without searching on the page. For example, if I search '!twitter' (not case sensitive) and click on it, this will directly take me to the site. Very nifty.

Personally I have tried it and really do think it is a great alternative to Google search. In fact, it seems a lot of people think the same as there was a 600% increase in traffic when the Snowden revelations occurred about the tracking of the NSA. This search engine has seen its popularity rise and is seriously competing with Google.

It provides everything that is the opposite of Google, but that is not to say it is all a good thing. Are we too used to Google or are we just forced to use it since everyone does? Can DuckDuckGo become the next top search engine? What do you think?

Sources: https://duckduckgo.com/about 

               http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/business/2015/10/talk-talk-hack-how-safe-our-data-                hands-big-companies

The Useless Web

While many parts of the internet is utilised for business, products and entertainment. There are some sections of the internet that is made that are entirely...pointless.

The site http://www.theuselessweb.com/ lets you click and directs you to a random site that is useless in every way. Some examples of the sites that you are directed to include: eel slap, mouse pointer location, a mango and many more.  Yet it shows and proves that the internet is vast and can be used for anything if effort is ensued. The internet gives you potential to curate, remix, go viral, communicate and much more.

The site is indeed pretty useless, but nevertheless, it did remotely entertain me and did give me a sense of curiosity of what other useless sites that could be found via this.

Check it out if anything and see for yourselves. What websites did you get and what can you do with these websites?

http://www.theuselessweb.com/

Incredible Foo fighters Learn to Fly Rendition by 1000 rockers!

This absolutely gave me goosebumps and how incredible that 1000 musicians could convene and play a beautiful rendition of learn to fly just to get the real Foo Fighters to come play in their city. It sounds amazing and beautiful! Check it out!

Twitch Plays Pokémon

Twitch Plays Pokémon

"Twitch plays pokemon animated" by Source (WP:NFCC#4). Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Twitch_plays_pokemon_animated.gif#/media/File:Twitch_plays_pokemon_animated.gif

One of the most incredible scenes I witnessed on Twitch was when Twitch viewers played Pokémon through the chat channel or IRC by inputting words which translated to actions on the screen.

This social experiment had over 50 million views and over 80,000 concurrent viewers trying to move the character. Twitch estimated that over 1 million different viewers participated. The channel was chaotic, yet somehow it was addictive to try and see if the game could be completed. On March the 1st, the game was completed after 2 weeks (with a few tweaks).

This was an incredible feat and I myself, tried to help and give input into the game for a good few hours. I believe this experiment gave way for new interactions and a new original way to use live streaming than just spectating. It shows that even through chaos, that order can appear through the midst and still complete something through crowdsourcing. It shows crowdsourcing is a valuable way of working. Furthermore, It gave way to new games catered towards viewership and live streaming such as Choice Chamber as well as Quiplash. I further believe that while this experiment was not the first of its kind, it was the first in its type to really become popular and viral. This then gave popularity to more interactive games for spectators of Twitch. Recently Twitch has tried to complete the game Dark souls and eventually succeeded after 43 days. 

There is certainly potential for more interactive games for live viewership and I believe that developers are considering and taking this into account when developing games. Even if they do not, they cannot ignore the popularity that is Twitch as well as the importance of live-streaming. The input of viewers can produce important crowdsourcing material as well as paving an alternative way for games to be played, but still enjoyed.

Source: http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon 

Other Reading:  

Ramirez, D., Saucerman, J., & Dietmeier, J. (2014). Twitch plays pokémon: a case study in big G games. In Proceedings of DiGRA (pp. 3-6).

Margel, M. Twitch Plays Pokemon: An Analysis of Social Dynamics in Crowdsourced Games.

iPhone 6 Review

I have now used the new iPhone 6 64 gb Space Grey for more than a month now and these are my thoughts about the phone.

Build Quality and Colour

One of the best aspects of the iPhone has to be the build quality. It feels premium and has a very good weight to it yet, it has a very slim design and very easy to use in one hand (not about the plus). The buttons are clicky/mechanical and no quality control problems such as dead pixel or anything alike. A minus of it could be the protruding camera module as well as the slightly slippery design. Without a case, I feel that it is prone to damages from extraneous variables. On the other hand, the phone with a case also rends its attractiveness. 

Space Grey with Ozaki case

I chose the Space Grey colour for its black front panel as the other colours come with a white front display. I wanted a black coloured phone and was forced to buy the Space Grey. However, I do wish that Apple continued with an all black and all white colour option similar to those of the 4 and 4s. Heck, even more colours for the black front would have been better. Funnily enough, from online polls (and speaking to the Apple specialist), Space Grey is the most popular colour. I really hope the next iteration of the will have more colour options or a darker back for the black coloured iPhones. Furthermore, the Space Grey colour makes the phone slimmer looking than the white, but finger prints/dust are highly visible!

Bigger Screen!

One of the major aspects and redesign of the new iPhones have been the increase in screen size (two in fact). The iPhone 6 has a 4.7 inch screen with a retina display. The screen size upgrade was a much needed improvement since Apple would have lost the smartphone race if they continued with smaller screen sizes. The iPhone 6 fits perfectly for one handed use, but at the same time big enough to watch videos and do daily tasks on the phone.

Typical iPhone screen

While the screen does look nice, the resolution of the screen is only 750p which compared to my previous HTC phone does not look as clear. For everyday use the screen is good to use but when watching videos on Youtube, I feel the screen is somewhat...lacking. When you are used to 1080p screens and videos, going back to 720p/750p really has a big disparity. Luckily, the plus does have a 1080p screen resolution. I am hoping for the next iPhone, the screen resolution on the smaller iPhone will have at least full hd quality. 

Battery Life

The battery life on the iPhone 6 may look on paper to be visibly poor due to the small battery capacity (About 1,810mAh and non-removable). It is larger than the previous model (iPhone 5s), but compared to the Samsung and LG, it is tiny! 

However, I am happy to say that it holds up to the other phones with bigger batteries and in general, my battery lasts for the whole day and I usually have about 20-30% left at the end. In fact, it lasted much longer than my previous phone. The best aspect is the incredible standby time on iPhones. Typically it only drains 1-2% over night where as android would drain 10-15%. I have to say that I am satisfied with the battery but of course, it would be great if it could have a bigger battery. Everyone wants larger batteries.

Battery Life and incredible standby time

Performance and IOS

Performance has been incredible. With the new A8 chip it is said to be about 25% faster than the A7 and coupled with Apple's iOS means it is very fast at what it needs to do. Everything feels really smooth and I think the iOS plays a part in this. There are times when it has to reload apps or tabs since the 6 only uses 1 gb ram which in my honest opinion, should have been upgraded to at least 2gb.  Lets just say the iPhone 6 is fast, very fast! It's been a pleasure using this phone and forgot how simplistic and easy it is to use a phone again. 

Verdict

It is a very very good phone and if you have the money or chance to buy, then you should go ahead. It is fast, aesthetically pleasing and now bigger!

Rating: 9/10