Disconnected

Aly McGinnis--English 230--Dr. Sergey Rybas--20 January 2015

fter reading her

Generation Y, have begun to fulfill the
controversial essay
cautionary words of Wiener.
A Manifesto for Cyborgs:

Science, Technology, and
Socialist-Feminism in the Late
Twentieth Century, it is clear that
Donna Haraway would be very
ashamed of me and my thoughts on
the relationship between Human and
The Machine. Although I agree that
many people define themselves by
their technology and the size of their
presence on New Media, thus
morphing into Haraways humanThe New York Times
machine hybrid, I have exerted more
of my energy trying to avoid the
New Media Club, populated with the
ever-growing obsession to gain more
followers, Likes, and Retweets, than
I have trying to join the rest of
Generation Y.

Although shocking, Haraways
likely shame, even disgust, in my
inability to accept New Media, thereby
preventing myself from morphing into
the ideal monster, or cyborg, does
not concern me in the slightest. In fact,
like Norbert Wiener in his
Men, Machines, and the World
About, I have come to believe that
many, specifically those in

We must
understand
the machine,
we must not
worship the
machine.

nstead of joining the rest of

Generation Y in embracing New
Media and its unbelievable ability
to suck you in, I have instead
made every attempt to minimize my
association with the worlds of
Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
Indeed, I do not exist within the
worlds of 140 character limitations,
filters and snaps and alas! to the
surprise of many, I am still alive.

Although my lack of
participation may seem a failing strike
that will ultimately end in the waving
of a white flag and the creation of an
all-encompassing, yet clever Handle,
my lack of generational involvement in
New Media has not yet kept me from
learning any valuable and crucial
information--unless, of course, the
thoughts of @ItsWillyFerrell are
considered both groudbreaking and
immediate, in which case, I am
obviously doomed.

Twitter

McGinnis 2

In his 2010 film, Easy A, Writer

Bert V. Royal perfectly depicted
Generation Ys growing worship of the
machine through Thomas
Haden Churchs character, Mr. Griffith,

I dont know what your

generations fascination is
with documenting your
every thought, but I can
assure you, theyre not all
diamonds. Roman is
having an OK day, and
bought a Coke Zero at the
gas station. Raise the roof.
Who gives a rats a**?

In spite of Generation Ys tenden

cy to use, and even worship, New Me dia through a narcissistic lense, New
Media can be extremely valuable when
used for education purposes, and it is
for this reason that I cannot entirely

dismiss it. Because many broadcasting

companies, such as BBC, CNN, and
Al Jazeera, are starting to incorporate
New Media into their broadcasting by
creating Twitter and even Instagram
accounts, it is becoming increasingly
harder for many not to join New
Media as a way to receive information
sooner. In addition, many web-based
companies including BuzzFeed and
Gawker, expect or require their
employees, or potential employees,
to be present in social media as a way
to prove they are keeping up with the
ever-changing New Media.

With this in mind, Im sure there
will come a day when I will
eventually have to undig my heels and,
though uneager, surrender to the
powers of New Media in order to
successfully perform at the
professional level expected of me, or
stay continuously updated on current
affairs. However, I will stand in
reassuring you that I will never be
seen entering the world of selfie sticks,
Vine, and Snapchat.
***

McGinnis 3

Works Cited

Easy A. IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2015.

Haraway, Donna. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science,

Technology, and Social Feminism in the Late

Twentieth Century. Simians, Cyborgs and

Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York;

Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181.
Lang, Nico. 35 Easy A Quotes That Make Everyday

Life Worth Living. Thought Catalog. Word

Press, 14 Aug. 2013. Web. 19 Jan. 2015.
Markoff, John. In 1949, He Imagined an Age of

Robots. The New York Times. The New

York Times, 20 May 2013. Web. 19 Jan. 2015.
Not Will Ferrell (itswillyferrel). It is a fine line

between having a tan, and looking like you

rolled around in a bunch of Doritos. 8 July

2013, 3:00 a.m. Tweet.
Wiener, Norbert. Men, Machines, and the World

About. (n.d.): n. pag. 21st Century Wiener.

IEEE. Web. 17 Jan. 2015.