Cybercultures and New Media

This excerpt from An Introduction to Cy bercultures and New Media is written by Pramod K. Nayar.  Pramod K. Nayar is an English Professor in India (focusing studies on Literary Theory, the English Romantics, the 17^th Century & Cultural Studies).   Professor Navar teaches at the University of Hyderabad, which has been previously been ranked the number one university in India.  An Introduction to Cybercultures and New Media was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2010.  This book serves a purpose for Professor Nayar’s argument, because in his teaching of Cultural Studies, he focuses on technoculture. This book, more specifically the excerpt that I read focuses on what cyberculture is and the issues that are identified within this term.

In this introductory chapter of cybercultures, Nayar defines what cybercultures are and breaks down the major issues in cybercultures.

A couple are as follows:

–       Civil Society

–       Identity

–       Race

–       Class

–       Gender Sexualities

–       Space & Geography

–       Risk

In each section of introducing and explaining these terms he goes over how these key issues work and how they could possibly benefit or hinder someone.  Take for instance the section ‘Civil Society’ –

          “With their potential for greater connectivity both within the community and between the community and the state, digital technologies have been commonly understood to enhance civil society.

Social movements increasingly use the Internet as a medium of communication, propaganda, and political mobilization. Citizens’ forums, state feedback mecha- nisms, and NGOs use the Internet and digital resources to strengthen their infra- structure, responses, and public interface.

There is a risk that cybercultural resis- tance or activism remains at the level of the virtual, with little or no impact upon the real world. A false sense of social commitment and empowerment emerges in online political activism – putting one’s digital signature to an online petition is not the same as barricading a civil servant or blockading the road to obstruct traffic in order to articulate demands.”

 

Cybercultures allow civil society to grow, however there is a high risk of it having a real impact on the real world.  Being in the virtual world, or a cyberculture is literally just that.  People might feel like they are a part of something while in these cybercultures, when in reality it could be merely a false sense of commitment and empowerment.  However, Nayar suggests that real issues of race, gender, class, and politics are important to these cybercultures and cannot be treated merely as “virtual worlds”

In terms of analysis – The chapter started off kind of shaky.  It was hard to fully understand what Nayar was talking about and why it was even important.  Starting off with two real life examples sparked my interest a little, but I still had no idea where he was going with it.

The “Introduction of Cybercultures” was bland, as any explanation of a term would be, and it just dragged on.  This whole reading literally almost put me to sleep.  Nothing about it was interesting to me.  Yes, okay, he made valid points, and the way he laid out the information was logical and easy to follow – but that does not change my interest in the topic at all.

Nayar’s persuasiveness was pretty on point.  He was able to provide connections and real life examples that a reader is able to relate and connect to.

For instance, in the ‘Identity’ section Nayar explains the following:

 

“Cyberspace allows one to pick an identity, to masquerade, mimic, and transcend bodily identities and interact with the world as somebody else. In a world where race, class, gender, and sexuality can become obstacles in interactions with the world, cyberspace allows one to choose an identity that may have nothing to do with one’s “real-life” gender or race.”

From this I was able to relate, and found myself nodding my head as I was reading.  I feel that the reading would ultimately benefit someone if they are doing further research on cybercultures, and need a good explanation of what it is and how it can be tied to our material dimension.  Lastly, I feel it was way too long.  But, I guess you cannot put a limit on words while trying to get your point across in the first chapter of a book.

My first blog. Ever. K Bye.