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Summary of Adverts and technology
It is easy to accept that technology is producing change. Cynthia L. Selfe agrees in her chapter Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution Images of Technology and the Nature of Change. Selfe explores exactly what changes are occurring with the wealth of technology and the ideas being promoted through the technological revolution virtually seen almost everywhere in America. Selfe believes that us, meaning most Americans, are still on the fence about our idea of the impact technology is having on society. Cynthia Selfe observes that we believe in the power and benefits the computer has to offer us, however we are still skeptical of whether h the effects will change familiar systems in our lives. Selfe notes "IN addition, these attitudes shade subtly into one another at multiple levels of a larger collective social experience, and they are worth exploring for that reason as well." Selfe explores several narratives that we Americans "subscribe" to about technology, through everyday advertisements. The first narrative "The 'Global Village' and the 'Electronic Colony'" discusses the internet allowing us Americans to view other countries and become apart of the globe's multi cultural family. The second narrative Selfe touches on is about "Land of Equal Opportunity" and "Land of Difference" something we are all familiar with living in the U.S. and constantly hearing how we are all the same. Narrative two reiterates the classic tale of how the internet will change circumstances for all regardless of their race, gender, origin, economic status etcetera. The final narrative explored in the "the Un-gendered Utopia and the same old gendered stuff." Selfe claims that while it is said that technology is to change constructed ideas of gender and equalize the educational properties of the computer forall, which is not the reality. After noticing that computer games are stilll made for boys and computer commercials are still aimed mainly at males Selfe believes that "Computers, in other words, are complexly socially determined artifacts that interact with existing social formations and tendencies-including sexism, classism, and racism to contribute to the shaping of a gendered society." She is saying that despite the idea being pushed that technology will shorten the distance between the gaps in gender the divide is still evident between the two. We can't fathom the idea of a fluid gender system; our ideas of gender are so concrete that the idea of revolutionizing their construction via internet is fearful. Selfe agrees "[we} revise the script of the narrative to fit more snugly within the historically determined contexts that are familiar and comfortable to us. In doing so, however, we also limit our cultural vision of gender with technological landscapes-constraining roles and expectation and possibilities to those we have an already constructed as a culture, limiting the potential for change by subscribing to a conventional framework for our imagination. People are still being bombarded with advertisements of traditional 1950's families when the case is its more common to see a single parent without time to take care of a dog or their white picket fence. The advertisements referencing yester year communicate to their audience women using technology the enhance their lives and benefit their families. Women can use technology but only within their provided gender role, to organize soccer practice not to create a new technological advancement.