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Student Affairs Daniel Salter - Penn State University Editor Stuart Brown - StudentAffairs.com Dana Christman - New Mexico State University Summer 2002 • Vol. 3, No. 2 |
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Mark Poster |
Brian C. Steinberg Assistant Manager of Residence Life UConn Hilltop Apartment Community Capstone On Campus Management |
Posted July 31, 2002 Student Affairs Online, 3 (Summer)
What exactly is the matter with the Internet? How much does the Internet control our daily lives? Are our intimate social and cultural skills lacking due the Internet? How will the Internet affect our future communities? If these questions excite you, What's the Matter with the Internet is a must read for you.
Mark Poster begins the book by operationally defining culture and how it relates to our history through time. No other medium has influenced our social culture like the Internet has done so far. Poster believes that the Internet plays a significant role in politics, governments, social change, wars, terrorism, media, and most of all, cultural theory.
Poster then defines what technology is and what it is not and how technology is defined in the many different cultures (French, English, German, and ancient Greece). Poster outlines social and cultural theory including, Foucault, Deleuze, Heidegger, Baudrillard, and Derrida. I personally liked how Poster used the academic disciplines of sociology, psychology, history, economics, and the media arts to interpret the Internet and technology through time.
Poster discusses the advantages, disadvantages, and ethics of how the Internet has changed, and is currently changing our society. As an avid user of technology and the Internet, I did feel some anxiety and fear when Poster discussed some of the challenges of security with the Internet. Internet terrorism may be the next phase of our virtual reality.
Poster does a good job of explaining the change from analogue to digital technology formats in our society. Poster also does a good job of going into great detail on all aspects of the Internet in our society. Having dual personal passions in diversity education and technology, I find Poster's chapter on "Virtual Ethnicity" (class, race, religion, spirituality, and gender) very substantial to my own development. Post ends the book with a chapter on how politics impacts the Internet, or shall we say, how the Internet impacts politics?
So, What's the matter with the Internet? A lot! The Internet will continue to help our society as well as limit our society and culture.
