Embodiment? Hermeneutic?

After this past week, I have decided that the line between Ihde's embodiment and hermeneutic relationships is not as clear to me is it seemed. Technologies have different ways of helping us interpret the world. How one person interprets the world is not necessarily the same as someone else. As I have said before, something transparent to one may be opaque to another. For me, I think that these embodiment and hermeneutic relationships work together in order to help us best understand things around us. I think that it depends on the point of view of the person/people involved in the interpretation. Even the simple eyeglass example from class can be seen as a hermeneutic relationship for someone that has never worn glasses before. It is not a transparent technology for them at first and there is a time for adjustment. Although this is only one example, I think that the embodiment/hermeneutic relationship applies to many, more complicated scenarios.

Welp,see ya later!

This blog is going to be a little off topic, I guess you could say. After a long week, I can finally start to think about packing for spring break! So exciting! I will be going to Orlando, Fl from Sunday to Sunday with my best friend from home. We're staying with her awesome aunt (for free) so that is another plus! This cold weather isn't helping my itch to go either. I am curious to know what you all will be doing over break. And, even though this post has nothing to do with class really, I guess I have been incorporating technology into my preparation for SB '09. Checking the weather on a regular basis since Monday has given me a new appreciation for internet weather forecasts....hopefully they are correct!

I'm Perplexed

After looking at Lexia to Perplexia and reading the articles for this week, I discovered how much I don't understand about technology. I thought I knew how to work a computer. Actually, I thought I was pretty good at it. But now, I see that I was totally wrong.
Going through Lexia to Perplexia made me almost dizzy because there was so much going on. It was like combing English with a foreign language. It just goes to show the complexity of seemingly transparent technologies, such as the computer. I don't see a computer as a complex machine. I see it as a way to check my email, to access the web, to type papers, etc. I don't know about all of you...but I was definitely left perplexed!

Texting too far?

I found this article about a new trend called 'Sexting.' It is a growing trend with younger teens and it involves sending nude or semi-nude photos. I knew that texting, especially among teens, was growing in popularity...but I didn't realize it was to this extent. I know that it is not EVERY teen that is doing this, but even so, I was still pretty surprised.
I didn't have texting until fall of my sophomore year. Now, my best friends little brother, who is 16, said he sent about 3,000 texts one month. Even though many of us probably noticed this trend in young teens, I'm sure we never thought about it in depth. What will the lead to?
I know I'm scared of having anything that could possibly be incriminating on my facebook profile. The threats and stories of bosses and managers not hiring people because of their facebook photos is enough for me to play it safe. So, I am curious to see if this 'sexting' will affect any of these feelings of fear of getting caught. If some teens can get away with sending nude photos on their cell phone, will they be oblivious to the possible, more serious consequences?

iFart vs. Pull My Finger

Sounds a little bit strange, I know. But I came across this blog that talks about the battle between 2 iphone fart applications. Apparently iFart came out first and when you touch the screen, it makes a farting noise. It is one of the top selling iphone applications, so naturally, another company came out with a similar application called Pull My Finger.
This really caught my eye...I had NO idea these even existed! I thinks it's pretty funny....but I'm not sure if I would like my phone making farting noises. I'm also not sure if this really relates to the cyborg discussions we've had in class this past week, but I thought it was interesting that rather than technology modifying our bodies, we have modified the technology to mimic our bodies. Perhaps this has some relation to the environment in which we all take in and therefore, according to Clark, contributes to us all as cyborgs. I'm curious to know what you all think about this!
The fact that there are 2 companies debating over a trademark phrase (pull my finger) seemed pretty outrageous to me. Could you imagine talking about flatulence in a court room, without laughing? I know I couldn't.

The Madison Ipod Culture

I remember the first time I got to Madison. I remember my first day of classes. I remember seeing everyone walking around listening to their ipods and wondering if I had missed the memo. I had an mp3 player, but it was no ipod. I almost felt too embarrassed to listen to music on the way to class. And it was all just because it wasn't an ipod.

Now, of course I have an ipod. I didn't realize what a big part of the Madison campus culture is through the ipod. No matter where you go, you can be sure to see people plugged in and tuned out. What I thought was interesting is the amount of people at the lab that I work in that listen to music while working. Has the workplace gotten sooooo bad that nobody wants to talk to their coworkers anymore? Well, that's what I thought at first anyway. But now, I also listen to my ipod at work. Ironic? Yes, but for me, it's all part of fitting into the culture.

In continuation...

Continuing the conversation from class on Wednesday, I just wanted to add a little bit about the paradigm shifting idea. I think that it is true that these shifts take place no matter what we are talking about. Some examples include art, music, technology and science. However, I think that the major difference is the time frame when these shifts take place. Art, music, and technology have undergone different phases very quickly. Genres pass even as quickly as decades and these changes are typically well defined.
On the other hand, science has been the paradigm that is shifted only once in a while and only in a certain area after extensive research. We as scientists pick and chose what we want to focus on and we find a way to prove it to everyone else. New findings are many times based on previous successes and failures. Therefore, the paradigm shift in science is much more vague and lengthy than that of music or art. It is much less defined which makes it all the more interesting to the curious.