Intergalactic Digital Humanizing? Oh and Old People too.

(" Mac vs. PC Windows 7 vs. Mac Ad: Broken Promises")



Lupton talks about how the computer is marketed as an analogy of the human body. Even though the computer is an inanimate object we seem to give humanistic qualities. She gives an example of a magazine advertisement that showed a pc in the top corner all alone. Then in big bold lettering says " Insecure? Friendless? Alone?" and then the advertisement goes on to say how computers can be networked together. (Lupton, 427) This video is a perfect example of this ideology as well. There are two dudes representing the two major software/computer manufactures, Windows and Apple, if you didnt notice. I find it funny as they go back in time with the windows guy, his cloths get older and older as if computer hardware back then was so weird and out of style much like the clothes were, while the mac guy never changes, as if Mac was always cool and up-to-date. Its these types of ads that make us feel more and more attached to our computers as if they really are humanistic beings, and we cant live without them.


Probably the most important thing that I have learned about and will take with me out in the "Real World" is that of the digital divide and how we need to not just help people by providing the technology but we also need to teach them how to use it and why it is important. I am interning at the City of Kennewick this winter and I will be helping at the Senior Center a little bit. As they were giving me a tour of the building they had this computer room with about 10 computers in it. Now they weren't the newest for fastest computers to date but they were not horrible. Anyways it seemed as though the room was hardly being used. It made me think about the digital divide and how we have the technology to use at our disposal but people don't know or don't care enough to learn how to use it. So because of this I am going to be asking about maybe getting some classes started at the senior center, open to anyone, about how to use these machines. Whether it be Adobe Products, email, word, or just how to surf the internet more efficiently. I just see it as a perfect opportunity to show the wonders of the digital age.


Works Cited

Lupton, D. (2007). The Embodied Computer/User. In D. Bell and B. M. Kennedy (Ed.), The Cybercultures Reader (2nd Ed.) (pp. 422-432). London and New York: Routeledge

"Mac vs. PC Windows 7 vs. Mac Ad: Broken Promises." Youtube.com. Web. 23 Sep 2010. .