Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Blog Prompt: Bolter, Chapters 9 & 16


Create a blog post reflecting on the following quote:

"The virtual traveler sees and interacts with bodies, not minds, and she must be inclined to deny the traditional hierarchy in which we are minds and merely have bodies."  (p.249)


This quote seems to defy certain assumptions related to online activity, namely that they are more an excursion in mental exercises than physical ones.  But digital objects are tangible in that they are an expression of a physical process of creating a product (e.g. code, text, images, videos, etc) that exists within a context (e.g. the Internet).  And, in order for virtual travelers to be interacting with minds as opposed to bodies, the content with which they interact would have to embody all the attributes of its host.  Because all traits cannot be expressed, the virtual content only represents what Sigmund Freud would call the "Superego," in which one only represents a portion of their personal and mental capacity within any given context.  This is what humans do on a normal basis;  one does not have the same endogenous or indigenous traits within every context (e.g. school, home, parties, grandparents' houses, funerals) but rather one is selective with the qualities that one reveals at specific times and places. 

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