8. Social media and the end of gender.

The talk “The end of gender” by Johanna Blakley is about the importance of the social media in the construction and deconstruction of demographic categories. To this day, companies describe us in social media investigations using the concept of “demographic box”, which means we are divided in certain ranges of ages that determine our tastes, habits, etc. and everything is done by that presumptions. She thinks that this point of view is now obsolete, because the use of technological tools has given us the means to bypass and construct new ways to escape those demographic boxes. Things likes lying about you age, gender and income make difficult to determine demographic boxes. Nonetheless, companies still use this method to categorize people because that is how they determine the ads in social media.

Blakley thinks that the way to really understand and have more powerful information about people is by “taste communities” (groups of people not determined by demographic boxes, which tend to have similar tastes).

Also she explains that world statistics say that women outnumber men in the use of technology, and even thought this will cause effects like more employment for women and a more female driven social media; in reality they will be responsible for stopping these old “chesse” categories that are imposed on us through demographic boxes.

She ends her speech arguing that the real importance of knowing about social media and what entertains people is because it has a huge impact in our lives, for example, with a better mental health, social interaction, among other things.

Even though I think that what she says has some truth in it, I believe that the main point of the speech was bad-driven. I thought that she was going to talk about gender regimes (which are the actual discussion for “the end of gender”) but the only thing she talked about  was mutual tastes. Sure, it true that tastes are not related to gender (and much more if we are talking about technological social media), but that is not the only thing that defines our gender: our behavior, our interactions with other people, the way we dress, our actual standing about some controversial aspects of our culture (like the hate to transsexuals, the acceptation of homosexual, pansexual and bisexuals, etc.) are important, and they are not even said in her speech. The actual name of her talk would have been “the social media and demographic boxes” because that’s all she talked. To end this entry, I would like to quote a phrase that was said in the comments of the video, regarding the outnumbering of women in the use of social media that expresses what I think and is a topic that she didn’t care about: “what difference you make is not about how much you use it but HOW you use it. Not how much you write but WHAT you make”

Well, thanks for reading, see you next week.

7. Are we green? more like Black.

First of all, I have to say that the things that I will write are my truest opinions. Nevertheless, these don’t necessarily correlate with my behavior; I admit that I do some things that contradict what I think about this topic.

 Even if it’s extremist the only way to really stop contaminating the planet is to stop existing. The human nature constantly creates and destroys and sadly the things that we create (cities, technology, etc.) don’t make any attempt to restore the balance in our environment. An example of this destructive nature is the development of rites in certain social groups like the killing of whales in Japan and the “sporting” killing of seals in Canada, the usage of animals in experiments that violate them in every possible way, the destruction of forests, oceans and entire ecosystems that live within them, among others kind of horrible things. There are small groups of people who care about the environment like greenpeace or PETA, but some of their actions are questionable and their efforts aren’t enough to balance the destruction that we do.

However, extinction of the human it’s not going to happen, and we have to deal with it. If people want to live in a better world and ensure a good place for later generations, we must take a stance and not react passively to these important topics. To finish, if little things like recycling trash, planting trees are done massively, we could make a meaningful change.

6. Technology everywhere.

Well, the technology certainly has been one of the most relevant elements in the last two decades, and I think everyone agrees with that. The development of new technologies and electronic appliances with connection to the network has rapidly increased in the last years, and even little kids use them. (my one year old niece already likes to watch videos from youtube and play with things connected to internet!).

An example of what my niece watch

I myself spend a great part of my day with technological products: mi handheld console, mi personal computer, and my cellphone, and every one of them have connection to the network and play a role in my daily activities. For example, my personal computer let me read the news (since I don’t buy newspaper), know different types of information related to my career, classes and hobby’s  and to write the tasks that the teachers give me in the semester (like this blog). Also, it allows me to communicate with friends that I don’t see often, play online games and watch series from other countries, among other things. My handheld console, being connected to the network, let me play games that I own with people around the world, and my cellphone allows me to communicate con people when my computer isn’t available.

A internet feature of a pokemon game that lets you play with people you don't even know!

I think that without internet my daily life would be a lot more complicated (for a few days I didn’t have internet in my house and it was a hellish experience...), because almost everything I do now is related to it, and even if I don’t want to use it the circumstances around me force me to use it. In that sense, even if it is very useful, it doesn’t make me feel powerful, it makes me feel tied or constrained, and even dislike a little that everything now has to be done by that medium, so I try from time to time to spend less time connected to the network and do other thing, like to play with my ferret and read a book con the A song of fire and ice series.

Me going on a walk with my ferret, away from technology...kinda (it was taken with my cellphone)

Thanks for reading!