All Work and No Play makes workers...something something

As we continue on through the fast-paced course that is DIGC202 - I realise that essentially, we are being shown a small piece of the puzzle each week about the new media industry that is THE INTERNET and Global Networks. Each week, we discuss the benefits this medium has given us, as well as debate the ethical issues which arise which contradict our society and cultural conventions as we know it.

This week, we looked at the idea of how being constantly connected can have quite the impact on our work lives. M Gregg writes a really comprehensive and thought provoking article about this very topic - using the term "function creep" - where the workplace is now flexible, thanks to the internet, so we find ourselves sometimes called to work outside of work hours, away from the workplace. It's a great article and I definitely recommend you give it a peruse. Essentially - it looks like the boundaries that existed in the past in regards to work and leisure have become blurred. Work being something you do, rather than a place that you go - and with our handy little smartphones in our pockets, we can take our workplace with us wherever we go! Bradwell puts it simply: Time outside of work has become a precious commodity. Elise and Matt both shed some great ideas about this work/leisure clash and the effects if you wanted to read further into the topic.

It's becoming obvious to me that we are indeed living what Deuze calls a "liquid life" - “a precarious life, lived under conditions of constant uncertainty.” New information, products, and ideas are being produced every second of every day which can be sent to us at anytime on our phones, emails and laptops without our control. Honestly, sometimes it can be hard to keep up. Technology has allowed us to live our lives at such a fast pace compared to the past (where instantaneous communication was not possible) that it seems to make sense to me that the things we do in life such as work and leisure will become, consequently, fast-paced too.

So it seems that the great convenience of instantaneous communication and networked societies has a price. As Deuze quotes: "each year we have to work harder in our free time to consume all those things that we have been working harder to produce in our work time". We are addicted. We WANT to be connected. As much as we say we don't want a world where work can reach us in the privacy of our homes - if we know there is a message about work ready and waiting on our phones - let's face it, we will want to know what it says. If you really don't want to have your privacy and leisure time interrupted, then it's your choice to turn off communication and switch off - most will choose not to though.

Bradwell estimates that people spend an average of twelve hours a day using media. "Media has become such an integrated part of our lives that most of the time we are not even aware we are using media." It's just a part of life - and it is a picture of the fast-paced life that we now lead. There's no turning back and we will evolve to be able to handle it. I think most of us are handling it OK......

I feel pre-tty bad for work-a-holics though...

The Puzzle that is Art and Regulation

It's only Week 2 and already there are blogs and tweets buzzing around like crazy with ideas, opinions and debatable issues being raised. Of the ones I've read, it has been passionate discussion about the ethics surrounding the gaming industry. If you feel like reading some more into this, Kyle, Tegan and Samuel all voiced some interesting opinions and the comments that ensued are equally as interesting. It really is a topic which I think could be debated about long into the night... and yet amazingly - that idea is but one tiny fragment of the entirety of debatable issues when it comes to global communication networks!

Lessig's article "Four Puzzles From Cyberspace" touches upon four more themes, each one presenting "a window into one aspect of cyberspace." Contrary to the apparent opinion of the class yesterday, I actually did enjoy reading this. In particular, the two things that struck a chord with me were surrounding the topic of Regulation and the contradictory nature behind the virtual and physical persona.

Let me explain. Lessig discusses the idea of regulation through the example of the state of "Boral" where gambling has been made illegal. With the advent of the internet comes problems with regulating this law as while the governor has the power to "move the server out of her state" she has not "succeeded in reducing Boralian gambling." Why? The internet makes it hard to regulate who is responsible, and even though the server is no longer in the state - it can still be accessed. Space is no longer able to be regulated.

This made me think about sites such as Pirate Bay, which are able to exist by taking advantages of this "loophole." It really is an amazing concept and I don't think anyone is really complaining because, well, it gets people the music, the movie, the program that they want and need. Well, actually no - there are probably quite a few people complaining what with copyright issues and the inability for the artist or producer of the material to even know who has accessed his or her work.

Being a graphic designer and musician (albeit not a great one), I can in a way empathise with this problem. It takes a lot of hard work and time to make the work and it really would be good to know just how popular it is and who your audience is. Back in the day, it was easy to know who watched a television show because you could look at tv ratings. Now? Thanks to the internet, people could still be watching it on tv but they could also be watching it at home on their computers, or on Youtube or a million other sources. Before, one could tell how popular a song was by the sales of the CD and the attendants at a concert. Now? Well, let's see, we have avenues such as Youtube to see a concert, file sharing sites such as Piratebay, online players such as Grooveshark, the list goes on.

I am in no way condemning all of this at all. I am a rather poor Uni student and I won't say I have never used any of those avenues myself. I just wish there was a way for all of this to be regulated in an easy way so the statistics of "media audiences" can be given accurately to those who would appreciate it; it is their work after all. Sites like last.FM which track what people are listening to (with their permission of course) is probably a good start and the way of the future.

All gee, this has gotten a little longer than I expected. I suppose I will keep my rant and rave about the contradictory online persona for another day. Thanks for reading!