05: Embodiment - Bodies in Cyberspace

The Internet today allows us to learn many things about the world we live in and allows us imagine how cultures look and act in distant countries. Furthermore, it could very well show the embodiment of the values that are most important to us.

When it comes to humans and males more specifically, a hot topic to talk about is the subject of sex on the Internet. I highly agree with the idea that pornography and sex trafficking on the Internet is shaping the embodiment of how women appear. Not only is media showing females how they “should” look but the Internet has also done what the real world have done in making women valued largely by their appearance. While any sane or normal person will conclude that sex trafficking is a horrific and mad idea, regulation in such industries can be complicated and hard to tackle. Many of these Organizations, if you want to call them that, which participate in these industries, are largely in unregulated countries that can be hard to be shutdown. Furthermore, another issue arises when it comes to the Internet and that is how far do governments restrict the content that consumers are allowed to see.

While men are currently the prime users of Internet they only help to allow the sex industry to drive how individuals are embodied. Hawthorns article stats on consumers were quite shocking to me; her resources found that the recorded proportion of buyers of women over the internet are 90% male, 70% of which are living in the US, and 70% between the ages of 18 and 40. While the age range is not surprising to me, the percentage of US consumers is.  

I have always thought of “mail order brides” as a thing you might see in movies. However, Hawthorn goes on to explain how consumers in this industry are pitched on the women that they are selling. I think the biggest fail in embodiment of actual real women these sites pose is the way they apparently explain there brides-for-sale. They explain that these women as pleasers and don’t have unreasonable expectations. To me it’s as if you are buying a puppet that has been suppressed into a life of selfless personal identity, and the men who partake in this think of them-selves as the puppet master. This goes against the idea of the Internet being a place to express and discover yourself, and while this may be true if you’re a male online it certainly does not appear to be the case for women.

Women will continue to be embodied with sexual exploitation on the Internet if the consumers, being men, continue to let these industries have all the power. We as consumers must demand respect from these industries if we are ever to obtain a truly free and clear minded Internet. While I believe we should and always will value beauty in the human-race, we must not do so with a blind eye, to the point where our filtered values that we see on Internet become our real life ones.

04: Office Tigers

When I think of India’s economy, I think of two things; their hunger for advancement in business and the global market, and their customer service industry. As watched and examined the documentary ‘Office Tigers’, you can see how the virtual assistant industry is thriving in India. The reason for this is simple, why hire a department of office assistants to handle spreadsheets, spellcheck, and filing tasks when you can hire a group of individuals from India for a fraction of the price.

How does technology facilitate cultural imperialism? Well with American companies now depending more and more on virtual assistants they are influencing the way India looks at business and how they are run. This is shown in how they react to American clients; from what I saw from the documentary it was apparent to me that they hired people with fluent English and adequate computer skills. American managers would then sculpt and improve their skills to fit corporate America. I believe that Office Tiger’s management team wants American level skilled workers, at India’s low wage price. Furthermore, while India’s culture is very different than ours, globalization is quickly pushing our business ideals onto India and even though it could allow India to advance more quickly, it also is taking away their uniqueness.

I thought the section of the film that discussed the requirement in wearing a tie to work was intriguing. Why I thought this was because in America, we see this as the norm in most business and financial industries, but workers in India most likely don’t see it that way, they most likely don’t put as much significance as we do. That is, they most likely have their own opinion as to what should be worn when conducting business and don’t see the tie as; a symbol of professionalism as we do. 

On the flip side of things however, I do feel that globalization is an overall positive thing. As an economics student, you can see the benefits obtained through open trade throughout the world. As with the trade of commodities such as corn or wheat, the Internet has enabled the ability to trade ideas, information, and more importantly in the case of Office Tigers, Western business practices. Being able to implement strategies and practices that work here in the U.S. to India, Office Tigers are able to provide a service for which both parties benefit from. Without the Internet OT would not be possible because the costs would far outweigh the gains. Firms would most likely have continued to employ in-house. In the end, I feel that globalization allows us to find new and smarter ways in the way we do business.

I think a good point to bring up is the tasks that firms are assigning to Office Tigers. Filing, data entry, and creating spreadsheets are all tasks that can be taught relatively cheaply. As they say in the film American firms look at out-sourcing to India as an expected lower quality finished product. While Office Tigers say they are trying to resolve this issue with dedicated hard working employees, I think it will be hard to completely take away the image. There is something about sending corporate documents across the planet to someone you have never met that just makes me think that the trust and accountability is just not there yet.

03: Filter Bubbles and Losing Control

Since the beginning of the Internet privacy has been an ongoing issue, as it should be, because technologies are evolving and adapting so quickly I feel privacy will continue to be a main topic when it comes to interacting with the web.

  

Eli Pariser gives a fantastic TED talk on whether or not websites are dancing on the boundary of filtering the content that they present to us. I think Pariser makes a great argument that we must take percussions for the future of the Internet to not be as Pariser puts it, “a web of one”. Where we don’t only see filtered information tailored to us personally that companies think we want to see, but also the important information that we need and should be seeing to give us a balanced perspective of what is out in the world.

The idea of being “always connected” is truer today than it has ever been in history. With push-notifications to our cell phones telling us everything from what a friend just posted on Facebook, to reminders to pay your bills, even when you should log back into your favorite video game like Candy Crush or Clash of Clans. This all comes back to the argument of where do we draw the line on privacy and how far do we take personalization.

A large part is on the companies coming up with these algorithms to try and filter the enormous amounts of data out there to our needs. Companies like Google and Facebook are of course the big ones in the public spot light, however, I have to believe that they are always working to address the filter balance. I think a great representation of this is the movie The Internship. Where Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are outdated salesmen trying to get hired at Google but are technologically illiterate. What I love is how they are portrayed and succeed, while they are not always connected online like all the other interns, they do have a deep connection to people. I believe that this personal connection with people is being lost with personalization and that for us to have a truly great internet that we need to have that playfulness of free flowing ideas and interactions.

            Companies like Google can’t be the only ones to blame however, we as consumers are a large contributing factor. With my generations culture looking for media to make our daily lives more fun, productive, and fast paced we almost require that our information be filtered to our personal needs. For example I won’t walk to class without listening to music, I just won’t do it; I think to myself, wow, I could be having a conversation with a nearby friend instead of listening to this Pandora station which also happens to be filtered to my preferences.

            What I will conclude is this: Pariser’s TED talk has many valid points and are without a doubt a reality that we all must acknowledge for what they are but I do not think the weight is all on internet companies. I believe that if we want more transparency not only on the Internet but also in our own lives that we must demand from ourselves more exploration and openness. I will leave you with another clip from The Internship purely because I love how Owen and Vince connect with people and get ideas flowing in a team environment.