Hyper reality.

Second life:
Is second life hyper real? Is it more real than reality?

Sometimes people think that virtual events have more impact than real ones.
If a construction of reality perhaps even a historical event, can be not just shown but experienced and he many different outcomes explored.

Hyper reality - A better expression of a thing that it's real form.*

E.g. A gender confused male could make an avatar that's female, therefore feeling more like themselves than they actually feel.

Baudrillard who is a well known postmodern philosopher argued the above statement.*

Simulacrum: A copy of something that does not exist. and is something that we have know has existed all along but that we have not expressed sufficiently yet.
There are two kinds of image making, the first is a faithful reproduction, attempted to copy precisely the original. The second is distorted intentionally in order to make the copy to make the copy appear more 'correct' to viewers.

What do these studies on hyper-reality tell us?

* That many of the most realistic media we know are embedded with commercialism eg. virtual games come with hidden advertising.
* That commercialism invades our reality since they only tell us what they want us to know?

Realism.

Although the term realism in cinema is defined by film that deals with big social questions such as was and poverty, the conclusions we can draw from the pictures is that:

Realism is an aesthetic construct (a created 'look') put together by conventions that are agreed upon at any one time. This 'vision of the future' was an 80's based sense of realism.

There is no single 'realism, different cultures and contexts produce different forms.

Photorealism - Realistic to the point of photographic quality by using modern technology.

Actuality - Actual footage. CCTV cameras, documentaries etc. But these can be staged for dramatic effect.

Realistic Violence - Things that wouldn't normally create a big impact are exaggerated to give maximum effect and drama.

Realism can be faked, due to technology that can enhance realism, and it shouldn't be mistaken for being authentic. Styles of realism change according to the time periods in history.

We express commercialisation but we value authenticity.

The impact of Facebook's Platform.

"Facebook, the next big thing

They say "great entrepreneurs are great story-tellers." And that is exactly what flashed in the minds of journalists and developers who attended the launch announcement of the F8 Platform when 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg appeared on stage. His youth and excitement had many people saying that Zuckerberg was channeling a young Steve Jobs. Today, because of the reasons we've discussed in the Pivots of the Internet article and all the acquisition offers that Facebook has consistently denied, Facebook is widely expected to take on Google as "the next big thing." Though their numbers are still far below MySpace and they have not garnered the traditional media attention that MySpace has, their growth rate is impressive and their vision is very promising. The Facebook Platform reminds many of us of Windows; and people are calling it "the social operating system" on which you can develop your Internet apps."

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_impact_of_facebooks_platform.php

The Social Impact of Facebook - Microblogging.

These interesting quotes are taken from the New York Times, from an article about the impact of websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The name of this type of relationship created over the internet is “ambient awareness.”

"It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye."

Facebook doesn't offer this type of interaction online. Instead, the new 'thing' is "Microblogging". This is where information in your head, such as thoughts and feelings are condensed to create a short statement to let people know these feelings. Microblogging is basically a status update on Facebook, they happen more frequently but aren't as detailed as the usual blog.

Cultural Inversion.

Cultural Inversion:

Express:
Individualism
Independence
Commercialization

Value:
Community
Relationships
Authenticity


What does the word community mean to you?
People coming together from all different ages and ethnic backgrounds to do something. There can be a community within a town or village, where people who wouldn't normally be friends, meet up and get to know each other. The government talk a lot about communities because they are trying to get people to come together. Community wardens/community service seem to be not so nice. Community service would be given to someone who has committed a crime and a community warden is someone who has authority to help their community but aren't as powerful as the police.


Social Networking sites are the main online communities, some of them are:
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, Bebo.
There are also video sharing sites, the most famous one of course is Youtbue, there is also Photobucket, Flickr and Tinypic where you can upload videos but you can also upload your own pictures and screen savers too.