A.) The author of “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution: Images of Technology and the Nature of Change”, Cynthia L. Selfe writes of image; how “they tell rich and powerful stories about the social contexts in which they are produced” and how they are “laden with cultural information, shot through with the values, ideological positions, and social understanding” (294). The importance of images and ads are what leads into her main focus of the three narratives that Americans believe technology will fulfill and the revisions that she has made to make them more realistic to our society. The “global village” is the first, Selfe states that will connect all of the people in the world as the network of computers will “[bind] together the people of the world regardless of race, ethnicity or location” (294). Selfe then contradicts this narrative with the fact that this narrative is “quite terrifying” will cause American citizens to surrender their privileged status’ and lose the economic benefits that our society has as being “one of the most highly technological nations in the world” (294). Because of these consequences, she revises this narrative by calling it “the electronic colony”. In this colony, technology is reached worldwide but “different cultures [and different people] exist to be discovered, explored, marveled at—in a sense, known and claimed by—those who can design and use technology” (295). Which means that our roles in the world stay the same; “Americans are the smart ones” while the rest of the world “are the recipients of technology and its benefits, those who use the technology that we control” (295). The second narrative is a “land of equal opportunity” that “focuses on equity, opportunity, and access” for everyone. (301). Selfe uses ads from multiple companies as examples of the lack of equity in the reality of the narrative. The images shown are all typical “American families” that represent luxury and freedom and explain “that technology uninfluenced by traditional American values can run amuck, especially in a postmodern world” (302). Selfe claims that “America is the land of opportunity for only some people” and “is a commodity generally limited to privileged groups within this country” (304). The third and last narrative is of “the un-gendered utopia” and the idea that technology will create a society in which gender roles are abolished and men and women will live equally. Selfe calls the revised edition “the same old gendered stuff” because of how unwilling our culture is to change. To have this “un-gendered utopia” we must “learn how to understand people outside of the limited gender roles that we have constructed for them in this country” (306). Selfe sums up the revised version of this narrative by stating that “the new electronic landscape retains a value on innovation, hard work and the individual contributions of people of both genders, but only as they are practiced appropriately—within the traditionally gendered contexts we have historically and culturally ratified for women and men in our culture” (307). These narratives express how much Americans expected technology to transform their culture but in reality, we let our values manipulate technology instead of the other way around.
B.) Claim #1: “We have a long and admirable history of exporting technological expertise to less fortunate neighbors…” (pg. 295)
Evidence: Selfe uses an ad that displays a member of a tribe adorned “…in ritual dress with feathers and face paint, presented as a wondering savage, vulnerable to the crueler effects of civilization…and [unaware]… of the power of the technology being used to his benefit” (pg. 296). By using the picture of a tribe member and their culture, it portrays the “less fortunate neighbors” of this narrative (pg. 296).
Claim #2: “…Americans use technology to become world travelers, to learn about—and acquire knowledge—of other cultures, while remaining comfortably situated within their own living rooms…comfortably separated from the other inhabitants of the global village” (pg. 296-297).
Evidence: Selfe supports this claim by posting an ad that clearly shows a poor attempt at creating “one world” and “one tribe”. The ad consists of “two youngsters…[presenting] a bizarre tribal image” and “scattered…postcards from exotic destinations and lists of foreign vocabulary words, two picturesque French men…and a veiled Middle Eastern woman…” (pg. 297).
Welcome!
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversations Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
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