The New Work of Composing

 
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NYMA:

Ode

 
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Ode to Technology

Or, what have you done for me lately?

How many times have you helped a colleague when their email wasnt working? Helped them find a website? Crawled around on the floor of a classroom to check a plug on a computer or monitor? Taught a colleague a new software application? At what point does this behavior cease to be just being a good citizen and transmogrify into straightening somebody’s tie or picking up the towels on the bathroom floor? (This reads gendered because it is gendered, but the roles we play can play out this way whether we are masculine or feminine, male or female. Like everything else, these roles allow us to express a range of behavior that is okay until it isnt anymore.) It is a neat seduction: We do this kind of work because we enjoy it, because it is important, because if we help them out then they will help us out. It moves from it was only this time to ONE more time to I cant take the constraints of this relationship (with technology) any more...


Love, let me count the ways....

If you love me, you will:

help me get my computer set up

plug in my cable

show me how to Twitter/Facebook/Prezi/simultaneous online video chat

create my wiki for me

set me up with a calendar


If I love you, I will do these things because:

its easier for me to do it than to teach you how

it makes me feel good about myself

it makes me feel smart

it gives me somebody to talk to who knows what I'm talking about

it makes me feel less alone                                                

 
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