Shawna's 559M Blog

In the last week of my Social Media course at UBC, Baudrillard’s notion of the simulacra was touched upon briefly in the context of virtual worlds and spaces. I think Baudrillard is relevant for the information sciences, but the philosopher in my cannot help but expand on his ideas first. First off, it all goes back to Plato. Plato argues that simulacra are mere copies of reality, but a reality that is never known (or known by very few) in its truest sense. The rest of us have to live in a world which is apparently real but is essentially just an appearance (the cave allegory for those philosophy nerds out there). Baudrillard takes Plato’s idea even further when he misquoted a line from Ecclesiastes – “The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth–it is the truth which conceals that there is none.” The basic idea is that reality is completely constructed and, importantly, that it does not underlie appearances – reality is not “out there”, as Plato saw it. Appearances, i.e. simulations, are all that there is.

How does this relate to the information sciences? Well, the information specialist who takes Baudrillard’s theory to heart is in a good place to embrace virtual worlds and all aspects of digital reality. I think that he or she would, in fact, argue that because there is no “true reality” outside of simulacrum, there is no tangible reason to designate a virtual world, from a digital one, from a physical reality. So much the better as long as information keeps being generated in flows. So, whatever can be produced, bring it on.

Again, my post here is a bit late, but I read Lorcan Dempsey “Always on: Libraries in a world of permanent connectivity“, and only now have the time to digest the article and reflect upon it.  Dempsey tries to explain how libraries can adapt to an environment of pervasive networking and to users who demand constant connectivity and personalized service.  He also elaborates on how users’ modes of learning and interaction are increasingly social. The library is it is to remain relevant to a generation of users immersed in networking and digital spaces have to be seamlessly in the users flow of work. Dempsey argues that work-flows should not have to be organized around the library. This means a change in the conception of the physical space of the library, which is understood as not only a traditional study but as a zone for group interactions.

This blog post is a bit late, but I wanted to post the link to my newly created glog – http://shawnat83.glogster.com/classicrock/. This glog is a poster advertising a contest at the fictitious Vancouver Classic Rock Museum. Developing a social media plan for the VCRM is the final group project for Sara Murphry, Cristina Friere, and myself.

After I completed my glog and Module IV, and had time to mull things over in my head a bit, I came to the conclusion that the creative side of social media is a lot like punk rock. There are two specific reasons for this. First, as Dean wrote for Module IV “social media creates a learning web (regardless of socioeconomic class)” and, second, the metaphor of learning as knowledge-creation. Many social media tools are free to use and open-access tools are becoming increasingly available. If an individual can access a computer and an Internet connection, socio-economic class does not determine the user. Social media “creates a learning web” and, thus, learning can occur across economic divides. Further, if learning is knowledge-creation, then using social media precipitates knowledge via creation (at least this is my understanding of it).

Following up on my interest in map librarianship, I decided to head on over to the DeLaMare Library at the University of Nevada Reno, my undergraduate university. They have the largest map collection in Nevada, so I decided to talk with the head librarian there to see what they were up to. Two years ago, the library at UNR shut down and was replaced with the new Knowledge Center (as I have mentioned in a previous post), which has placed UNR in the company of other well-known cutting edge libraries. In fact, in 2009 the Knowledge Center won, along with Temple University, the “Best Education AV Project” in the country Spotlight Award. With all of these recent changes to UNR’s main library, I wanted to see how the much smaller DeLaMare library would be effected.

Well, I would like to start out by saying that I don’t devalue social media or think its unimportant. I feel the need to be critical, especially when I think the pros and cons of an issue have not been “weighed” in a throughouly evaluative way. So, with that being said, tonight I am considering Jenkins’ notion of participatory culture. The overall definition Jenkins gives of participatory culture is thus:

are sitting at a bar, drinking gin and tonics, and having “philosophical conversations” that are usually nothing more than knowing glances at one another. I never finish my drink because the bar, which is tucked away in a corner of a large room when I first enter, always imperceptibly changes location. It becomes the center piece of the very large room and I, uncomfortable, get-up, and walk away. Others see Foucault and rush forward to take my place, even as he tries to get off his barstool. We exchange one last knowing glace at one another before I leave the room.

Bentham’s panopticon, which Foucault wrote on extensively and that is the foundation for what he calls a disciplinary society, is similar to how I often view the Internet, social media forums, and the physical space of the 2.0 library. Libraries that used to have nooks and crannies for hiding oneself among stacks of books have now been transformed into “knowledge centers” with the open-space, panopticon design. It is unnerving that half the books have been removed, I can see what everyone is working on when I walk past them, and that individual desks have been replaced with large, Basque dining-style tables. The architecture of open-space libraries and even cafes make me feel as if I am on display; being watched not by Bentham’s armed guard, but by video cameras, professional library staff, AND other patrons of the library (my fellow prisoners?). We watch one another, effectively creating a scenario in miniature of Foucault’s disciplinary society. This, I can only say, is a negative effect of the 2.0 library, Web 2.0, and of social media.

Well, I must say that using Twitter has never crossed my mind. I tend to be a very private person and I have absolutely no idea what I would say using the Twitter forum. Similarly, I am very lucky to be able to talk to my close friends about the important things in our lives. Further, I typically think that when individuals obsessively use Twitter to note and distribute the basic events in their day ( breakfast cereal seems to be the stock example), these people are engaging the practice of digital narcissism. The Daily Mail has a great article about this facet of Twitter and other social media sites. For instance, author Cosmo Landesman writes “But how can I tell people what I watched on TV or share the other boring bits of my life when those boring bits bore even me? Don’t these people ever stop and wonder: ‘Is anyone really that interested in me?’ Answer: no, they don’t.They just assume that when it comes to their life, everyone wants to be in the loop and kept up to date” (emphasis added).

This is the forum where I will try to wrap my head around the world of social media. Let’s see how it goes!