Digitized Lives: Culture, Power and Social Change in the Internet Era

Description

In chapters examining a broad range of issues—including sexuality, politics, education, race, gender relations, the environment and social protest movements—Digitized Lives argues that making sense of digitized culture means looking past the glossy surface of techno gear to ask deeper questions about how we can utilize technology to create a more socially, politically and economically just world. This second edition includes important updates on mobile and social media, examining how new platforms and devices have altered how we interact with digital technologies in an allegedly ‘post-truth' era. A companion website includes links to online articles and useful websites, as well as a bibliography of offline resources, and more. Cover......Page 1 Half Title......Page 2 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 List of Illustrations......Page 10 Preface: Why Buy this Book?......Page 12 Outline of Chapters......Page 16 Companion Website......Page 17 Acknowledgments......Page 20 1 How Do We Make Sense of Digitizing Cultures? Some Ways of Thinking Through the Culture–Technology Matrix......Page 22 Does Technology Make Us More than We Make Technology? Technological Determinism vs. Technocultural Analysis......Page 30 Components of Digital Culture Analysis......Page 34 Terminal Confusion?......Page 38 What’s in a Name? New Media/Cyber/Digital Culture/ Etc. Studies......Page 43 The Internet’s Weird History......Page 50 From Dream to Reality to Dream: Producing Digital Stuff......Page 57 Maker Culture Production: The Open Source Do-It-Yourself Digital World......Page 62 Clean Rooms or “Dark Satanic Mills”? Toxic Production E-Waste and Environmental Justice......Page 66 3 What’s New about Digitized Identities? Mobile Bodies, Online Disguise, Cyberbullying and Virtual Communities......Page 74 Is There a Virtual World/Real World Divide?......Page 76 Is Life Online a Mobile Masquerade?......Page 82 Anonymity, Disinhibition and Cyberbullying......Page 89 Are Virtual Communities for Real?......Page 92 How Much Online Life Is Good for Us?......Page 93 4 Has Digital Culture Killed Privacy? Social Media, Governments and Digitized Surveillance......Page 98 What Rights Are Being Lost if Privacy Is Lost?......Page 101 Social Media as Surveillance Mechanism......Page 102 Government Surveillance......Page 110 What Can We Do to Protect Our Data and Privacy?......Page 117 5 Is Everybody Equal Online? Digitizing Gender, Ethnicity, Dis/Ability and Sexual Orientation......Page 122 The Default Subject Position?......Page 123 Is the Internet a Guy? Engendering Cyberspaces......Page 127 Is the Internet Colorblind? E-Racializations......Page 138 Who Is Dis/Abled by Cyberspaces? Enabling and Disabling Technologies......Page 145 How Queer Are Cyberspaces? Alternative Sexualities in Cyberspaces......Page 151 Cultural Imperialism, Hegemony and/or Digital Diversity?......Page 153 Real Virtual Sex Education......Page 160 Digital Diddling: Varieties of Cybersex......Page 162 The “Mainstreaming” of Porn......Page 164 Digitized Sex Trafficking......Page 170 Electronic Electoral Politics: The Trump Campaign, Brexit and the Weaponization of Digital Data......Page 174 Fake News, Real Impact: Digitizing a Post-Truth Era......Page 179 Can Social Media Overthrow Governments?......Page 188 Electronic Civil Disobedience, Hacktivism and Digital Organizing......Page 190 Cyberterrorism......Page 203 Digitizing the Arts of Protest......Page 204 How to Avoid Fake News and Intentionally Inflammatory Politics......Page 208 8 Are Digital Games Making Us Violent, or Will They Save the World? Virtual Play, Real Impact......Page 212 What’s in a Game? Playing Theories......Page 213 What Do Games Teach?......Page 215 Do Video Games Make Players Violent?......Page 216 Digitized “Militainment”?......Page 219 Gender Games, Race Games......Page 223 Can Video Games Save the World?......Page 233 9 Are Students Getting Dumber as Their Phones Get Smarter? E-Learning, Edutainment and the Future of Knowledge Sharing......Page 236 “Is Our Children Learning” Digitally?......Page 237 What Is Technology Doing in the Classroom?......Page 239 Is Knowledge a Commodity or a Human Right? Higher Education vs. Information Feudalism......Page 246 End of the World (as We Knew It): Digital Humanities and Digitized Arts......Page 250 The Future of Knowledge Sharing: Education for Whom and for What?......Page 255 The World Wide Web Isn’t......Page 258 Who Needs the Internet?......Page 260 From Digital Divides to Technologies for Social Inclusion......Page 264 Should Everyone and Everything Be Online?......Page 270 Why Digitizing Matters to All of Us......Page 273 11 Conclusion: Will Robots and AIs Take Over the World? Hope, Hype and Possible Digitized Futures......Page 276 Robots, Cyborgs, Artificial Intelligence and the Singularity......Page 279 Bibliography......Page 286 Glossary......Page 310 Index......Page 328