Global Digital Postmodernity

This group of videos was a play created by several students at the university of Michigan who wrote the musical based on and parodying the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling. They then casted the parts and performed it for a 3 day period of time and 5 times in total at a local non-profit student-run theater company, but was video-taped and put on YouTube. The reason this video is post-modern because if it weren't for YouTube, the play would never have become as popular as it is today, where people around the country know of it. Due to the success of the video series on Youtube, the writers and producers are able to create more and more plays and musicals are becoming exponentially more famous they would have been had a site like Youtube not been created. Now the creators and actors in this musical are appearing on television and such fame would not be possible if the internet and current technology was available.

"The Po-Mo Page: Postmodern, Postmodernism, Postmodernity" provides a concise yet substantive introduction to postmodernity, differentiating between the historical condition and the intentional movement in arts, culture, philosophy and politics. Quoting some major theorists (e.g., Lyotard, Jameson, Benjamin), the author illustrates how the term "postmodern" has been used in various fields (history, economics, politics, art) with particular attention to uses made by Frederic Jameson. Most helpful is the table of "contrasting tendencies" which, while admittedly a very modernist approach, identifies two dozen ways in which postmodernity seems to have features that oppose or contradict tendencies that have been recognized as hallmarks of modernity. Created by Martin Irvine, the Founding Director and Associate Professor of the Communication, Culture, and Technology at Georgetown University, the visually appealing webpage has no links to other sources, but is one link among several grouped on his faculty webpage under the heading of Media Theory.

this one too http://hermes.hrc.ntu.edu.tw/lctd/asp/theory/theories/4/concept_2.htm

The site recognizes the inability to truly label a period in which you live and how many different eras have thought themselves modern. Highlights of the modern era are noted as well as the aspect of impressionism, expressionism, surrealism, and absurdism in literature. There is also a list of characteristics of modern literature very clearly describing much to do with classifying a work as modern. Characteristics of postmodernity are then also listed comparing it to modernism and stating what is different. The overall information that the site gives helps readers differentiate what separates the two types of literature in an understandable format.

BBC: Religion [Postmodernism]. (2009, October 27). Retrieved December 7, 2009,from BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/types/postmodernism.shtml An article on the BBC's Web site discusses how postmodernity "does away with many of the very things that religious people regard as essential." Although there is only a small portion of this article that really speaks to the connection between postmodernity and religion, the little that is said is quite thought provoking. This article is not something to use as a source for a project, but would be a great jumping off point when brainstorming where to go with the religion and postmodern connection. The article brings up the postmodern rejection of the "grand theory" of religion. It examines the idea that religion may become fragmented because the unity once inherent between social and cultural values during modernism is gradually being readjusted. The article goes on to explain that by reexamining religion in the postmodern era, people are beginning to question its validity more so than ever before. They are thus beginning to reject past beliefs and turning to "new age" religions.

In his essay, Michael Taflove discusses the idea of basic reality versus hyperreality. He explains simulation theory and tells how it has broken into the postmodern era. Taflove shows the internet as the most postmodern form of hyperreality. The internet allows people to live as whomever they would like to be in a world separate from reality. It is almost to a point where people do not know who they are in the real world. The idea that someone can live in a completely virtual reality is certainly a postmodern concept. Taflove uses the Matrix as an example of how it is becoming more difficult to discover what is true reality and whether anyone exists within the idea of what this true reality is.

The video "What is Postmodernism" begins by asking people on the street "what is postmodernism?" Many average people had no clue how to define it which is quite common. Later the video presents various scholars and their views on what postmodernism is which gives a great montage of definitions and perspectives. This video attempts to answer questions such as "how has postmodernism affected our culture?", "what is postmodernism?" And "how the turn of the century has affected our culture and in turn led to postmodernity?" The video also discusses the religious impacts of postmodernism, something that many articles fail to discuss although religion is always a pressing issue. Another interesting topic this video discusses is the topic of modern and postmodern medicine. All in all, despite being only 4 minutes and 7 seconds long, this video is very beneficial in gaining insight into what exactly postmodernity is by pointing out general characteristics and specific characteristics of the postmodern movement.

This website involves a group of categories of how post modernism has influenced the arts, from architecture to literature and music and even political science. It shows that post modernism is not just a made up word but rather a style which is to be perfected, even if it means being imperfect as some things are. The website even discusses how post modernity is affecting language, where "the changing relationship between diction and discourse" is influenced by what is considered post modern. Then it discusses art and how its aims to upset and recreate the fundamentals of what makes something art. This is a general principle of post modernity because in most cases anything that is considered post modern goes against the grain of what is considered within the set standards of its category and this website does an excellent job of describing the characteristics it breaks down.

The evolution of technology affects all aspects of life. What some people fail to realize is how it has affected the sexual nature of society. What the advancement of the personal computer, and its prevalence in homes, the availability of porn began to change sex significantly. This article discusses not only Cyberporn, but how components of Post Modern society has been a significant component in its frequency. It also looks into new sexual trends such as male masochism, and delves into possible explanations for the cultural phenomenon. With a new sexual phenomenon known as "sexting," becoming more popular, it is important to look at other sexual trends that have been connected to technology and Post Modernity in the past.

This article, written by John Barth, goes into much detail about what modernism is, what postmodernism is, and how we are shifting from modernism to postmodernism. He explains to you how he kind of disagrees with the whole idea of modernism as a whole as applied to fiction. He thinks that there is no clear definition for the term postmodernism and for the characteristics of postmodernist fiction in this era, and some scholars claim that postmodernism is the extension or the opposition of modernism in a way. In this essay, John Barth shows his disagreement with this notion, and at the same time he also points out his liking of some qualities of literature of the last century. Towards the end, there is a helpful chart which shows some of the most obvious, and direct, differences between modernity and post-modernity.

Only one of infinitely many internet memes, a "lolcat" is a photograph of a cat or kitten with an amusing caption added to the photo, usually written in "lolspeak" - a variety of English that diverges most often in certain grammatical and orthographical constructs. Lolcats were first generated on the image board 4chan and soon spread to become an internet phenomenon. Both the images and captions are user-generated, and often jokes are expanded upon by other users and have developed themes, such as "Monorail Cat", "Ceiling/Basement Cat", and "Invisible (object)". This solidifies their postmodernism; their playful use of language and image, along with their strong egalitarian forum of expression, also contribute strongly.

In this article, the author looks at a recent incident in which students of Duke's business school were caught cheating on a take home final exam. In doing so, the author brings morals and values into question. The school defends this take home test collaboration as a new system of wikilearning, working together as a collaborative force to come up with the best and most descriptive answers as they would do if they were making a Wikipedia page, hence the name of this type of learning. The author, however, views it quite differently, sees it as more of a moral issue than anything else. With that said, the author does make it a point to graze the idea of morals these days, and how lines can be blurred when discussing good and bad and right and wrong, which happens to be a fundamental component of post modernity.