EXCHANGES IN REAL SPACES AND VIRTUAL SPACES

EXCHANGES IN REAL SPACES AND VIRTUAL SPACES

In the context of our modern world  and the birth of our new ultra connected generation Z, the frontier between real and virtual spaces is becoming less noticeable. It is a well known fact that our exposure to screens increases through time, since a major part of our activities are now available on the Internet. Also, our activities have changed since the technological revolution.

 The point at issue sets the following question : 

 How far is the boundary between real and virtual spaces  becoming increasingly blurred nowadays?


This is the case in point in Mark Dubovsky's cartoon "Working from home" and Harvey Schwadron's cartoon "Ace Computers". 

DOCUMENT 1 : WORKING FROM HOME ; MARK DUBOVSKY 

1) DESCRIPTION

At the first look, we see in the foreground two working desks side by side. Likewise, they are both empty, no paper is laying on them and also no one sitting on the chairs. Actually the appearance of the space looks like a typical an American working place. Besides that, there are two computers that are on and two characters appear on the screen. It should be noted that they can't see each other due to the disposition of the desks. To dig a little bit more into the cartoon's details, we could highlight the fact that both characters look a little bit taken aback, the one from the right has his head turned to the other. Finally, the last detail at stake for a good comprehension of the cartoon are the inscriptions placed underneath each desk. On the left side it is wrote "Hey Greg, you gonna be at work today?" and on the left side it is replied "No man. Workin' from home. You?". 

2) MEANING

The cartoonist may want to highlight the fact that, although telecommuting exists since the 1970's,  it is even more common nowadays. In fact, this cartoon seems to be quite neutral, on the message that it delivers. Of course, telecommuting has upsides and downsides, the cartoon seems to exemplifie only one big downside which is that in the 21st century we are loosing our human contact giving priority to our virtual exchanges because they are more practical and efficient. 

3) CONCLUSION/LINK TO THE NOTION

To cut a long story short it all comes down to saying that due to the increasing numbers of activities that we do through virtual devices we are loosing the human contact that we used to establish before in places that favored the social interaction like the working places, bars, parcs... To put it differently and link it to the notion we could consider that, in our society, we are completely into a blurred reality that combines both virtual and real spaces. Additionally, the virtual exchanges are taking over human interaction and as many dystopian novels portrait someday we could maybe live in a technological society in which our interactions would be only virtual. Still, I have the feeling that it will never happen. Speaking for myself, since we are experiencing a situation of quarantine I think that people more than ever are willing to have human contact with everyone else. 

DOCUMENT 2 : ACE COMPUTERS ; HARVEY SCHWADRON 

1) DESCRIPTION 

What arises our intention first on this cartoon, is the computer store's showcase. The name of the store is "Ace Computers" just as the title of the cartoon. As we can observe there are some computers on sell under an advertising in which there is written " Welcome, Eco- tourists ! Why travel and add to pollution? Stay home and and visit exotic travel websites!". On the side of the store there is a suited man looking at the advert while walking on the street. On the background we see a car and in the top right corner we see some buildings, a tree and a shining sun. 

2) MEANING

When it comes to talk about the meaning of this cartoon there re several aspects to the problem. First of all we should first understand that the place portrayed in this cartoon is a city from a developed country of our time as the technological progress shown corresponds well with it. First off the key issue is linked to the advert. The advertisement claims that tourists should not travel but stay at home if they are eco-friendly because it contributes to pollution. Instead, they should buy computers and look at exotic travel websites. First of all, we can easily consider that is not a very honest advert and it aims to manipulate consumers saying that buying computers has less impacts on climate change or other issues. Conversely, we could highlight that all computers contain rare materials and their extraction is very dangerous and polluting. On top of that, nowadays, technological items are produced in many different countries and their production implies a lot of travelling. I do believe that the cartoonist wanted to illustrate the fact that, sometimes virtual exchanges are portrayed as being more eco friendly and that those industries have environmental reasons to sell their products but the in fact maybe it is not the case.

3) CONCLUSION/LINK TO THE NOTION

All things considered we could come up to the conclusion that sometimes the virtual industries keep trying to show their products as a great replacement of real experiences and sometimes using some very bad arguments as in this case. Just as before, I would say that the distinction between real experiences and virtual ones are everyday less noticeable but that at the end of the day real experiences are always more satisfying. It also must be said that virtual exchanges can also be practical.