Mediopolis; a constant in the life of a citizen of nowhere.



http://www.scenicreflections.com/download/193579/Cyber_World_Wallpaper/



My postal address says I’m a resident of Brisbane. Emotionally, I’m a universal nomad. If my life were a Sofia Coppola movie, it would be an adventure love story about a flaxen haired, dreamy-eyed country kid who set off at 17 to find her place in this too-big world; a journey driven by an obsessive curiosity, a short attention span and sheer dumb luck, punctuated by one big romantic distraction, the odd threat of deportation and a penchant for sudden changes to the plan.

The concept of “home” to me is purely contextual, and could be Cairns, or New York, or Sydney, or Brisbane depending on who’s asking, or the nostalgia I’m feeling about the various stages of my life at the time.

But there is one place where I have put down roots.  I am a permanent citizen of “Mediopolis”.

"Mediopolis" is a cyber world which Silverstone (2007), de Jong and Schuilenburg (2006), and Inkinen (1998) describe as “…a comprehensively mediated public space where media underpin and overarch the experiences and expressions of everyday life” (cited in Dueze, 2011).

The nature my life dictates that much of it is lived in, rather than with media (Deuze, 2011).  Dueze argues that perhaps - given the ubiquous and pervasive nature of media today - this notion should be the basis of studies into the realities of our existence, and that as a society we have grown blind to the very thing that defines modern life as we know it.

References

Deuze, M. (2011). Media Life. In Media, Culture & Society, Volume 33, issue 1, pp. 137-148

"I'm way cooler on Facebook"

In recent years, we have grown accustomed to viewing the online world as a social space (Donath, Boyd, 2004).  The use of the World Wide Web as a tool for social interaction has blurred the lines between public and private life, and given rise to the notion of what Pearson (2009) describes as the “online performance”.

In week two, we focussed on the implications of the public display of our social interactions, and construction of the online identity via social networking.

Pearson (2009) introduces the idea of the “glass bedroom”; describing the online network as a place where intimate interactions that would otherwise be private are thrust into the public arena.  This is where the “performance” aspect of our online networking begins.

To synthesise this concept with an idea explored by Donath and Boyd (2004), links within our online networks are unnuanced; that is, there is no differentiation made between members of our immediate social circle - who may be privy to these private interactions within a traditional social context – and vague aquaintances.  The fact we are comfortable allowing near strangers in on our personal interactions is illustrative of Pearson’s notion of the online “performance”.  Furthermore, online networking tends to encourage a culture that dictates only the aspects of ourselves that are most positive to our identity, or “brand”, are displayed, leading to the construction of an online “self” that may not be a complete depiction of reality (Pearson, 2009).

However, despite the “performance” aspect of our online social interactions, the information we provide through our profiles is accessable by our close circle as well as our wider network, and this in itself  – through either fear of embarrassment or damage to our reputation – goes some way in preventing the construction of total online identity fallacies. (Donath, Boyd, 2004). 

References

Donath, J. and boyd, d. (2004). Public displays of connection.   BT Technology Journal , volume 22 (4): 71-82

Pearson, E. (2009).     All the World Wide Web's a stage: the Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks . First Monday, volume 14, Number 3.