Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the 'easiest way to make the most out of every bit of your digital life.
Use your Mac to collect, organize and edit the various elements.
Transform them into mouth-watering masterpieces with Apple-
designed templates. Then share the magic moments in beautiful
topics, colorful calendars, dazzling DVDs, perfect podcasts, and
attractive online journals. All starring you.' The last sentence in
particular (which interestingly no longer features in the publicity for
more recent versions of the software) indicates part of the appeal of
new media in a digital culture, that they offer everybody the chance
to become a star, however briefly, in a world obsessed by celebrity.
The above might suggest that with new digital media and
networks we are either glimpsing the emergence of a new 'partici-
patory culture' of greater cooperation or solidarity, or alternatively
our digital culture runs the risk of producing a pandemonium of
competing media noise, self-promotion and meaningless disem-
bodied interaction, in an increasingly atomized society. But perhaps
another response is possible, or even necessary, one that goes beyond
such an opposition between greater cooperation and increasing
atomization. We live in a world in which we are increasingly both
bound together and separated by the globalized networks of infor-
mation communications technologies. It is perhaps unsurprising
that the concept of 'friendship' has become more visible and impor-
tant as traditional forms of community are eroded, and new forms
of subjectivity and connection are being developed. Yet in a situation
where 'Tom' can claim to have well above 200 million friends, the
very term 'friendship' needs rethinking. Thus what our increasingly
networked digital culture may need is a new 'politics of friendship',
new conceptions of the relation between self, and other and new
understandings of community.
It may be that we will have to expand our notion of who or
what might be part of any future community, especially given the
increasing capacity for participation. Back in the 1950s and '60s it
was seriously proposed that computers would be able to achieve
