Tristans 6th reading response

In the article “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution” Cynthia Selfe discusses the marketing and advertisements of technology, mainly the usage of computers. Selfe explains that certain types of advertisements target specific people and can be analyzed to a deeper meaning than just what is apparent in the photos. This is all being disputed over with computers becoming more popular and schools starting to rely on the internet and computer usage to be successful. Changes have to be made in order for computers to keep momentum and stay useful, so advertisements of new technology, such as brands, processors accessories will always be apparent in our society.

The first narrative I have chosen to write about is the un-gendered utopia, in which it is said computers are made to give equal access and opportunity to either sex. I feel like this is not entirely true because computers and technology are things a lot of girls do not learn about because they simply don’t have a need for it. In my house when our computer crashes or our internet the girls don’t know how to fix it, my dad or I have to go unplug the routers troubleshoot and fix the error. This is only one point and if a computer never crashes it does indeed give equal opportunity but the procedure is not flawless yet, there are complications. Computers do in fact offer every thing they do to males to females. Girls can play video games, surf the web, use minor and ever difficult programs with lessons, the same goes for a guy. People are not born with the ability to use a computer, it is learned.

The second narrative is that the internet and computers form an online “village” and connect people from all parts of the world. I agree with this 100% because with web cams and chat sites you can talk with someone anywhere on the earth that has internet. The chef at my families restaurant would use his web cam every night to talk to his wife who had moved away for a short period of time to Vancouver. This isn’t a huge distance but they could talk face to face over the internet. Other sources such as facebook, blogs, myspace, twitter, and any chat site provide people the ability to talk and connect with others around the world. It is crazy that the internet has evolved so much and has given almost anyone the chance of experiencing things that never could have been done before.

This second narrative reminds me of the online gaming websites from the video we watched because the game gives you an opportunity to converse with others and basically live a second life if you are not a fan of your real one. With technology evolving more and more we can not begin to imagine what is still to come.