New Media: A Cyborg Encounter

Consumers and technology are being seen as one in the post human, cyborg age. The consumers are considered as cyborg because of the continuous nonstop consumptions and interaction with technologies.  An Australian performance artist, Stelarc suggests that "human evolution is aided and determined by technology"(Shaw D, 2008. Pg: 82). Cyborg is a human who has certain physiological processes aided or controlled by mechanical or electronic devices.

Norbert Wiener thought up the term Cybernetics, Cybernetics speaks of the relationship between mechanism and its environment. Essentially it likens humans to machines. In Norbert’s theory he explains how we humans are made up of patterns much like technologies are made up of codes. The human’s codes or DNA is the pattern Norbert refers to; it is the carrier of genetic information and defines physical characteristics. Our personalities are shaped by the environment we expose ourselves to as individuals.  Wiener considered what would happen if humans were to transmit themselves. Much similar to the same way radios and televisions transmit patterns of sounds and light. Through New Media technologies humans can ‘transmit’ themselves. Online dating sites allow humans to create online profiles of themselves that we see through our Smart Phones, Tablets and Computer Screens. (Shaw D, 2008)    

  

  The age of New Media has introduced the combination of humans and technologies to create what some theorists are referring to as ‘cyborgification’. In today’s age we use technology to enhance our experience of life. With social networking sites like Twitter we have the ability to communicate with our idols which we could not have done previous to this invention.

In my eyes the consumers have two choices, to see technology as a threat or an extension of the body as such. "Machines are not simply prostheses that we 'add on' to our minds or bodies in order to facilitate and extend our capabilities but part of the environment out of which we produce ourselves" (Shaw D, 2008. pg:92) The cyborg culture is when human and technology work together as one. It can be said the us humans are using machine parts of us like to do what would be considered as analogue tasks in a digital way. In one sense it could be said that New technologies and media aren’t taking over but helping us communicate and gain information. On the other hand it could be said that it is effecting us in our traditional socialisation and dumbing us down through the ease of which we can access information.   

Bibliography

Shaw, D 2008 'Technoculture: The Key concepts' Oxford Berg Press