I'll be back! (We're all Cyborgs?)

I’ll be back! (We’re all Cyborgs?)

For this weeks blog technology and its impact on human lives will be discussed. The term cyborg in relation to modern humans will also be discussed and how we all, in some shape or form, are cyborgs.

Post humanism is a concept based on the idea of a person existing in a state beyond being human. Using social network and technology people have gained the ability to in a sense exist among multiple identities and maintain multiple perspectives. “Social networks create a post human cyborg identity. The digital era complicates definitions of the self and its boundaries, both dismantling and sustaining the humanist subject in practices of personal narrative” McNiell, (20012). Technology whether that be a phone, laptop, computer or glasses are all designed to make life more simple efficient and enjoyable. To be a cyborg is to be a blend of organic and inorganic therefor anyone using something as simple as glasses is in fact a cyborg. Being a cyborg is not as cool as it sounds.

Cyborg, Retrieved from 

 https://www.videoblocks.com/video/growing-network-communication-concept-animation-cg7kjqc/

 

For further explanation of the idea of the cyborg the TED talk by  Amy Case describes how Technology is evolving us, and how people rely on "exterior brains" (phones and computers) to communicate, remember, and live out secondary lives. (2010) See link provided.

https://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now#t-449867

The article ‘There Is No “I” in Network: Social Networking Sites and Posthuman Auto/Biography ‘ by Laurie McNielson, McNielson (2012) discusses observations based on the idea that virtual social networks create a post human cyborg identity.  In my chosen social network Reddit I have observed that people who operate throughout said network portray themselves in a manner befitting the chosen community’s they are involved in. Depending on the community and the subject of a community the usernames, the tone of speech, and even the friends can change.

In the lecture by Dr Victoria Kuttainen (2017)  posthumanism is described as something that “Challenges the boundaries between the mechanical and the technological. These collapsed boundaries are represented in the figure of the cyborg. Cyborg as metaphor for modern life as human at interface of technology (and therefore multiple, contingent).” to summarise technologies are created to benefit human life and today's technology is utilized in such a way that a large amount of an individual's time is spent around using such technologies, making them a vital 'extension of self. It is the very aspect of a technology being an extension of self that creates the use for a term such as cyborg, as previously stated a cyborg is organic and inorganic, human and technology. Using technology such as social media the way it is used today creates a second self, a part that is physical and and non physical, both coexisting, both everpresent. 

 References

McNiell, l. (2012). There Is No “I” in Network: Social Networking Sites and Posthuman Auto/Biography, 35 (1) (p.p.65). University of Hawai’I Press.

Videoblocks. Cyborg [image]. Retrieved from https://www.videoblocks.com/video/growing-network-communication-concept-animation-cg7kjqc/

Case, A. (2010, December). We are all cyborgs now [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now#t-449867

Kuttainen, V. (2017). Networked Narratives. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/portal/execute/tabs/tabAction?tab_tab_group_id=_292_1