Tag Archives: unlecture

Technology as the basis for all human activity.

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Technology has become integral part of twenty first century. I believe that contribution technology has made to modern life is mainly positive, though it has come along with several downsides. All in all, the quality of human life has improved with new technology inventions in day to day life. As Adrian pointed out during the symposium that technology has become a part of us” and even it can have control over us whether with the way we travel or the way we commutate, how we approach the creative side of things and i totally agree with this comment.Technological determinists believe that “‘You can’t stop progress’, implying that we are unable to control technology”

Technological determinism share two general ideas:

  • That the development of technology itself follows a predictable, traceable path largely beyond cultural or political influence, and
  • That technology in turn has “effects” on societies that are inherent, rather than socially conditioned or produced because that society organizes itself to support and further develop a technology once it has been introduced.

Today technology has pierced in every aspect of our lives : from entertainment to communications, travel and tourism to nuclear weapons. Modern televisions,electronic game consoles,latest movie theaters have given a whole new dimension to entertainment industry. Communication has become zoom speedy , thanks to latest technology phones,computers and internet services. Emails,text messages have made daily contact with society so easy and feasible. Travel and tourism industry is flourising in this technological era. Jet planes ,automatic cars have made travel around the globe super fast. Believe it or not, health care has improved drastically because of cutting edge technology today. Cures to many diseases like cancer, heart diseases are only being made possible because of latest inventions and equipments.

“Every coin has two sides” ,modern day technology also has created several negative effects in human lives. Many people see technolgy as a force that has escaped from human control. They believe technology has made life very complicated. People fail to enjoy simple pleasures of life like watching a sunrise, hearing birds chirping or smelling fragrant spring flowers. They have become so hooked to latest technology that living. Simple life is almost unimaginable today. Thinking about spending 24 hours without internet or phone makes us feel bored! Hand written letters have become a thing of past, walking and biking is now replaced with running on electronic treadmills in an indoor exercise gym.

I agree that inspite or these downsides of technology and inventions, our lives have become better. I can’t even imagine the life without them without car, airplane or phone and Internet, etc. without their support, I couldn’t be who I am today, I couldn’t be sitting here writing this in another language in a country that 3218.15 miles away from Vietnam. We are more efficient and productive in day to day lives and technology is revolutionary way of improving quality of our lives. It as part of a larger spectrum of human activity, technological determinism sees technology as the basis for all human activity.

 

 

 

 

 

Unlecture #7

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I have obsessed by audience interpretations of “texts” after attending this week unlecture.

Authors cannot have any control over the interpretation of their work. The meaning intended by the person producing it but that meaning can be undermined when decoded by the audience. It reminds me about active audience theory i studied last semester.

Active Audience Model is based on Encoding and Decoding model. British sociologist Stuart Hall proposed a model of mass communication which highlighted the importance of active interpretation within relevant codes with a simple idea that no text has one meaning (Corner, 1983 & Hall, 1980) .The meaning has to be extracted (decoded) by the receiver. In other words the transmission model of communication is rejected and is replaced with the idea that reality is socially constructed. As receivers we are constantly trying to make sense of information we receive-the media message does not have a monopoly on meaning. A text may have a preferred reading – the meaning intended by the person producing it but that meaning can be undermined when decoded by the audience.

Authors have to put into the code of the story certain meanings and hope the audience will be able to decode it as the way they want by mixing up the plot, narrative and story to add mystery and interest into the texts to engage the audience  as Adrian’s gunshot example about Elliot.

I wonder if anyone has the same problem with me but I don’t know what’s the difference between narrative, plot, and story. So I did a research 🙂

Narrative is the structure of events — the architecture of the story, comparable to the design of a building. Story is the sequence of events, the order in which the narrative occurs — the tour through the building. Plot is the sum of the events, told not necessarily in sequential order, but generally consistent with the story and often considered synonymous with the narrative — the building itself.