A cyborgian encounter

Within this post-human age, the relationship between man and machine has completely changed with the increase flow of new media technologies.  Debra Shaw discusses in her book the extent of the constant consumption of new media and how it have changed its consumers, into cyborgs. "we are not 'minds' that observe and process an informational world that includes our own bodies but complex systems that reproduce themselves in connection with their environment." (Shaw, 2008. p82) 

The relationship between consumer and technology has changed into the environment around them. The huge influence that new media has on consumers on-line interactions. Media such as social networking sites allows people to stay in touch on a global level, making the media their environment. This 'on-line' environment is produced by the activity of the consumers and helps produce cyborg consumers that reply on it. "Technology should not be considered an adjunct to the body or in opposition to it but as a determinant of its ontology". (Shaw, 2008. p81)

Norbett Wiener coined the word cybernetics to refer to how humans are becoming more like the technology their depend on. Wiener's theory uses the comparison between human DNA and computer coding to show how we humans are becoming more machine like. This theory of what if humans were more like machines and 'transmit' signals. instead of sound waves and transmitting light, we 'transmit' ourselves through the new media available to us. Pointing out how the technology can consume an individual until it is a piece of their daily regime. This is the digital zombie/cyborg age we live in were new media has become the environment which we as consumers can never be satisfied with. 

Bibliography

Shaw, D. (2008) Technoculture: The Key Concepts; Oxford Berg Press.