Group belonging- the spread of the parasite

After reading a blog that someone posted online I felt it necessary to discuss this notion of group and the affect that it has on us each individually. I have begun to find that the term “group” is really a comforting term when one is physically represented by this notion. This simple term lifts blame or judgement off a single person and instead shares while of course diminishing the judgemental thoughts over a community, lessening the effects of the feeling of judgement one would feel or receive if they were on their own.

I thin this idea of group is responsible for many of the things we have discussed in class through the quarter. Most recently we have seen the event of the plurk picture collage take place which could not have been formed without the sense of solidarity each individual felt if they were to join the group in the collage. People in class said they did not feel compelled to take part in this collage but more so wanted to be apart of the image.

I think this is the fundamental thought behind this topic of parasites we continuously come back to. The idea of the invitation that we saw within vampires I think also applies in many ways to the spreading of the parasite. People want to become apart of this “group” in sense. As we have talked about technology and the spreading of the digital world, I have come to realize that people obviously want to be connected. If you don’t keep up with the technology the rest of the world has you begin to fade out. In order to keep ties with the “community” you want to be in contact with, you must then have the same type of equipment to make it possible.

Ultimately, one may not feel compelled to buy a computer or an iphone or have text messaging on their phone, but to think about all of the things one will miss out on if they do not engage in this “community” is the compelling factor. People want to be apart of a larger society and be connected with those around us. Much like the plurk pictures we can see that this image now brought a group of students together on a closer basis than the community of the rest of the glass, these situations bring people together which in a way I think is a large “want” that most people have

Plurk Pics!

In class on Friday we discussed the event that took place on plurk involving the “nude” pictures, or whatever we would like to refer to them as, and the word scandalous became a large part in deciphering how we should interpret the situation that was at hand.

Multiple people in the class stuck to the belief that their was nothing scandalous about the pictures of themselves with no shirts on with nothing but books in front of them. I suppose that no the picture itself may not be scandalous, but the fundamental idea behind the picture, and the intent, I would have to say is pushing more towards scandalous than taking a picture of your face and posting it on plurk.

I was in no way offended by the pictures, but to honestly try and tell people that you believe there is no scandalous behavior involved, honestly just sounds silly.

I think the most important thing to look at here is, as Tony in class said, the framing of the picture, where is the emphasis being put towards in these portraits. They are of course framing the chest, which yes in boys defense this may not be considered a private part of your body, but I think that most girls would agree in saying that it is for women. So here we have this picture, with your chest in the middle, and then being hidden behind this book. If there was nothing meant by the nakedness, or no scandalous intentions were put forth, then why not take the picture with a shirt on and the book in front of your chest?

This conversation then moved on towards “why did so many people feel they should get involved and add their picture to the group?” Not being one of the picture posters, I of course cannot answer this for them, but I honestly think that its one of those things where if someone breaks the ice, you can no longer be judged if you do it to. Especially in a circumstance like posting a topless picture of yourself, which you may have never done before, and now, long behold, there is a group giving you an excuse to do post this picture of yourself online and you will not be judged alone, for you have a large number of people all defending you on your side.

As this conversation evolved it was really interesting when a student said, it really depends on who it is who posts something of that nature, because there are some people in the class, if they would have beat this group to posting, that would have been judged in class the next day. Of course this reminds me of Bill saying “What if I had started it?” and the whole class broke out in laughter. If Bill had started this picture parasite, we would have laughed at him and talked about how crazy Bill is the entire next class period. This is so interesting to be being a sociology major, because the affect that things have on people are all dependent on who the starter or face is of the action.

I think its great how close are class has become considering what a wide range of personalities we have going on, and I really love the way this class stretches are minds to understand other peoples points of views. Its interesting whats going on and Im excited to see what happens after the quarter.