Thursday, April 13, 2006

Your body says no

Does the internet, and other forms of medialization, create a hypersensetivity to our body? The relationship between the mind and the body is one of the oldest questions for the modern man. Descartes famously defined the debate in modern terms and since then we (that all purpose tag western civilization) have been antagonizing over it.

Does anyone remember the old joke, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog?" Does this ability to mask ourselves on the internet create an unusual awareness of our bodies? Since no one knows what we look like, then we could look like anyone. This could be a cause for anxiety becayse people have to create their own image of us, a process that we don't have control over. There aren't any hints like there are in physical communication; there's nothing of "us," only extension of ourselves via our text. For example, even when talking on the telephone there's a trace of our physicality, our vocal chords transmitting sound over the wires. Typing has standard fonts, unlike handwriting which is as unique as your fingerprint. There's also a voice in what we write, but it can easily be a fiction, but the same could easily be said about face-to-face communication.

Maybe some of these questions are so 90s, but they're still relevant today... maybe even more so.

hyperlink = hypertext = hyperreality??? Yeah, that's it.

And after all that, it's HNT again so... here's the shot

5 comments:

lecram sinun said...

Very, very cool shot! Cheers and Happy HNT!

Phain said...

Discussed this very topic w/ a buddy of mine today. Our angle was a bit more towards the opportunity to meet people through blogging that you would absolutely positively never ever have met otherwise. And who can ever say, "nope, don't need any more friend, not me."

*~Happy HNT~*

S said...

Ah yes, internet relationships..I have one rule...you are all real, and so am I, and I will treat you as such! HHNT shadow!

The Melody Censor said...

Great shot...and very fitting to the topic of your discussion...a shadow is but a silhouette of the real you...
Happy HNT!

Ryan said...

cool hhnt!