Technoculture

Considerable scholarly discussion has been given to the idea that we are moving toward a state of “posthumanism.” This essay examines some possible implications of a posthuman existence, specifically as it relates to that most basic of human needs—sexuality. I explore the spiritual aspects of sexuality to see what is lost and what is gained in technologically mediated forms of sexuality. To that end, I consider the interplay between sexual behavior and our conceptions of the sacred, how technologies are changing our views of—and realities concerning—our bodies, and the potential for a sacred posthuman sexuality.

"For more than a decade, new media has increasingly pervaded online societies and individual lives with obscene social expressions that are becoming commonplace in virtual communities. Internet users may inadvertently or permissibly acquire access to obscenities such as profanity and public nudity, and may even find themselves subscribing to social dialogues that challenge common or personal decencies.

Bastard media content perverts the underlying root mechanics of acceptable media language and behavior enough to qualify as explicitly obscene, profane or culturally illegitimate. Some new media and Internet ventures qualify by affording the global creation and deployment of virtual environs where, due to such contentious content, common or personal sensibilities are challenged, compromised or waived.

This research considers the rhetorical and ethical issues arising from new media bastardizations, including use and deployment of personal Web cams as unregulated interactive erotic devices within free virtual chatrooms and other online communities, and the extreme proliferation of explicit profanity as accepted public extension of the human voice as transcribed across the Internet, primarily extended in personal diary or expressed in free community Web blogs or interactive chatrooms.

It further considers the concepts of the cyberslut and Web whore, and the current mass exodus towards amateur online exhibitionism through archivable, reproducible, virtual artifacts of the obscene.

Such communication modalities appear to occur within niche audiences where the envelope is pushed on free expression in an open virtual space, raising legitimate concerns about the erosion of cultural sensibilities and integrities for the first-time visitor, as well as for long-time lurkers, regulars, and fellow actioneers.

As bastard media goes unquestioned or unchallenged, ethical issues result from the integration of the illegitimate with the legitimate, failure of the public to timely react, restrictions on software and network controls, and the overall virtual promulgation of unregulated, irreversible freedoms of expression."

""This paper discusses how practicing teachers conceptualize commercial off the shelf (COTS) videogames within classroom-based English language arts instruction. Understanding how today’s teachers perceive virtual worlds and videogames
as an instructional tool for schema building within literacy development will help researchers better understand ways to structure games-based learning in classroom environments. Data for this study were drawn from case study research of a graduate pilot course focusing on the intersections of virtual worlds, popular
culture, and literacy instruction. Findings indicate that a limited understanding of videogames and virtual worlds does not hinder practicing teachers from desiring to create engaging units of study using videogames as a schema building tool. However, teachers feel that using videogames for schema building in the classroom will lead to negative perceptions of how they are viewed as teachers. This is compounded by the perception that they will not receive adequate financial support in the form of professional development from administration, nor will they receive monies for technological support to implement within instruction. However, despite these findings, teachers desire to use games-based learning and implement it as a schema building exercises with their students.""

The paper examines people's departure from works of art in museums to reveal the sequential organisation of action through which the museum visit is produced step-by-step, accomplishing the "museum discipline", i.e. the silent shuffling from exhibit to exhibit that can be observed in galleries.

Many scholars assume that industry meddles in scientific research in order to defend their products. But this article shows that industry meddling in science can have a variety of consequences. American food manufacturers long denied that trans fats were associated with disease. Academic scientists, government scientists, and activists in fact endorsed trans fats as a healthier alternative to saturated fats. But in 1990, a high-profile study showed that trans fats increased risk factors for heart disease more than saturated fats did. Industry funded a U.S. Department of Agriculture study that they hoped would exonerate trans fats. But the industry-funded U.S. Department of Agriculture study also indicated that trans fats increased risk factors for heart disease more than saturated fats. Industry quickly began developing trans fat alternatives. This confirms that corporations get involved in science in order to defend their products. But involvement in science can be the very means by which corporations persuade themselves to change their products.

"The realities of new technological and social conditions since the 1990s demand a new approach to literacy teaching. Looking onward from the original statement of aims of the multiliteracies movement in 1996, this volume brings together top-quality scholarship and research that has embraced the notion and features new contributions by many of the originators of this approach to literacy.

Drawing on large research projects and empirical evidence, the authors explore practical and educational issues that relate to multiliteracies, such as assessment, pedagogy and curriculum. The viewpoint taken is that multiliteracies is a complementary socio-cultural approach to the new literacies that includes pedagogy and learning. The differences are addressed from a multiliteracies perspective – one that does not discount or undermine the new literacies, but shows new ways in which they are complementary.

Computers and the internet are transforming the way we work and communicate and the very notion of literacy itself. This volume offers frontline information and a vital update for those wishing to understand the evolution of multiliteracies and the current state of literacy theory in relation to it."

People experience different levels of presence (e.g.  and ), and different levels of cybersickness (Sharples, Cobb, Moody, & Wilson, 2008) even though they are immersed in the same virtual environment setting. In the current study, we raised the question how differences in individual characteristics might relate to differences in sensed presence for a virtual environment related to public speaking. The individual characteristics included in the experiment were related to visual abilities, personality traits, cognitive styles, and demographic factors. We recruited 88 participants, who were first immersed in a non-stereoscopic neutral environment, and then in a public speaking world: once with stereoscopic rendering and once without stereoscopic rendering, in a counter-balanced order. The results showed that immersive tendency and monocular visual ability were significantly correlated with presence and these correlations were consistent among the three virtual environments. Immersive tendencies and its subscale “involvement” were also found to be significantly correlated with cybersickness in all three worlds. Screening people on these variables may help to recognize the users who are more likely to benefit from virtual reality applications and may help to reduce the number of dropouts during virtual reality exposure therapy.

"As Georges Méliès discovered to his astonished glee in the late nineteenth century, moving pictures do more than just record reality—they create one. Through stop-trick substitutions, multiple exposures, and splices, celluloid becomes a portal translucent not only to the projector’s bulb, but to the projections of the fantastic. For Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares, such cinematic sleights-of-hand become so compelling that they promise to substitute a special effect for all of reality itself. In his 1940 novel The Invention of Morel, Bioy Casares represents two dissociated worlds that, although temporally estranged, are spliced together spatially through layered technological projections—creating the illusion of two lovers immortalized in a virtual union, played back without end. This Borgesian splicing of virtual and actual demonstrates the fantastical possibilities—and tremendous manipulative power—of the splice and the image overlay. In so doing, Bioy Casares raises striking questions about our ability to embrace fantastical projections and attempt to achieve satisfaction from virtual liaisons."

" The internet has empowered a large number of users to blog on whatever subject they like through remarks, articles, ideas, dialogues and interactive comments supported by other content. Web pages have granted people access to a private sphere where they can publish or share with others their opinions, news and comments in a sort of journal that has come to be known as a blog.Blogs started to emerge in their current form in 1996,when American software developer Dave Winer launched his site dedicated to writing news and posting relevant reactions and comments on a wide range of issues

Numerous similar web sites were developed and continue to multiply, no longer restricted to a certain country but rather becoming global. As blogs have proliferated, they have grown diverse and become a phenomenon that attracts a large number of youth. At the same time, they provide a rich arena where knowledge and news are shared and public opinion is formed.In Egypt there was limited interest in blogs until 2001, when the number of Egyptian blogs started to grow each year, providing youth with a refuge where they could easily express themselves and their beliefs without restrictions. Blogs proved an effective means for digital communication among a large number of segments of the public who were not acquainted with each other outside the cyber world. Thus, blogging attracted the new generation of politicians, authors and journalists interested in collaborating either as readers or writers. In this regard, blogs evolved into an outlet for the expression of opinion, talents and interests, for venting feelings and desires and for sharing knowledge. It was to be expected that the Egyptian blogging movement would interact with current events in the Egyptian and Arab public spheres from 2005 to the present time. From 2006 to 2008, a number of demonstrations and expressions of real political protest were associated in one way or another with cyber-protests on the internet, tapping into the massive public mobilization of youth on political blogs. There followed a degree of confusion between blogging and rumors both on the part of  bloggers and readers. Thus, in recent years, Egyptian blogs have grown on a wider scale, creating anew virtual community that enjoys quite strong social, cultural and political impact on the real society.

In the absence of relevant, accurate data about blogging, there arose simplistic conceptions that dismissed the phenomenon as a way to spend leisure time and circulate rumors. Such perceptions found an audience among governmental agencies and a large segment of the public. For that reason ,IDSC initiated a study on this phenomenon as part of the project titled "The Blogosphere in Egypt"implemented within IDSC’s work plan in January 2008. The project aims to study the Egyptian blogosphere in terms of its importance in strengthening democracy and the information society.

This report stands as the first output of the project. It was designed to provide the reader with a general framework of basic knowledge about blogs, their importance, the scope of their spread, their characteristics and their contents on one hand, and bloggers' characteristics and interests on the other. For this purpose, the report is divided into four sections: 1. the significance of blogs and the appearance of the blogosphere on the global level; 2. main features of Egyptian blogs; 3.a content analysis of these blogs; and  4. discerning the special characteristics of Egyptian bloggers."

It is not the first time that psychologist mention Facebook as a reason for low self-esteem among users. Some researches state that women who spend a lot of time on social networking sites tend to think less of themselves. Others point out that users of both genders might feel less attractive and successful after checking updates from their Facebook friends. Psychological effect responsible for such a negative outcome is an attribution error called correspondence bias.