Friday, 14 August 2015

Blog I: Facebook - The Virtual Reality

Blog I: Facebook - The Virtual Reality
By Arthur Henden

http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150604150105/creepypasta/images/e/e3/GoPro-Kolor-2.jpg

Social media has become the norm for a lot of people – an almost fanatical obsession – much like grabbing the newspaper in the morning and casually flicking through to catch up on yesterday’s events. People now head for their phone first thing in the morning to check up on what is happening in the world, be it in politics, general news, or just what their friends and family have been up to.

In Week 3 Tuan wrote of three 'human dispositions'; the biological facts, relations of space and place, and experience or knowledge. Focussing on the latter of the three, Tuan writes that an ‘experience can either be a direct and physical encounter, or a non-physical or conceptual experience’, such as a text, or experience through social mediums like. To briefly engaging in themes of sense and place in a virtual space I would like to look at how we approach the ‘virtual world’. Facebook in particular is a widely used platform for social networking by many around the world, but what is it that attracts us to these virtual places? Tuan’s piece captured a moment in time where two scientists visited the castle depicted in Shakespeare’s Hamlet in depicted and noted that upon immersing themselves in that world, while physically being there, it gave them a very different depiction of the world around them, in this sense the castle.

I find it particularly intriguing personally when I see pictures of a friend’s holiday on Facebook, and then when I see them and talk about their holiday with them I can imagine myself in their photos and their surrounds. In Week 3’s lecture it was said that “we can experience a space directly or conceptually” (Luyn, 2015). In a sense, you could share the holiday with them just by seeing an image, or reading a post on their Facebook wall.


References
Sydney Morning Herald. (2014). Social media obsession just a crave for love and attention. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/social-radar/social-media-obsession-just-a-crave-for-love-and-attention-20141024-11bdue.html
Tuan, Y. (1977). Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. London, Great Britain: Edward Arnold.
Luyn, A. (2015) BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Lecture 3: Space and Identity: Genre and Transformation. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.