SOCI 342 Chapter n/a: Social Media, Virtual Worlds and Modern Consumption
Document Summary
Russell w. belk, digital consumption and the extended self, journal of. The digital body we are far from abandoning our physical bodies and tangible possessions, both of which continue to play a critical role in our sense of self. But the centrality of the agentic self-controlling objects and the idea of a singular self-extended via objects are challenged by the possibilities of the digital world. In order to ground this discussion, we must first begin with a brief history of embodiment, disembodiment and re-embodiment in the context of past and present technologies. Portraits, books, letters, diaries, telegraph message, telephone conversations, photographs, silent films, sound recordings, audio-visual recordings, etc. Telegraph operators sent personal messages to one another over wire, without a way of verifying the identity of the other person. These things, body is missing and only image or sound of person remains. Presence, sometimes called telepresence, is the illusion of being there" in a virtual world or online game.
