Last Core Post

     One of the moments that struck me most in Professor McPherson’s extremely timely chapter, “Reload: Liveness, Mobility, and the Web” was her understanding of the web’s liveness (or, it’s “feel” of such) associated with a “sense of casuality” (202). Drawing from Jane Feuer’s influential work, McPherson argues that one of TV’s most defining factors (especially when comparing the medium to film) is it’s sense of “liveness,” and, as such, this liveness is touted heavy-handedly by the television industry (despite the fact that most of this promoted liveness is, in fact, an illusion). In contrast, the internet is immediately read as exemplifying liveness, many interpreting liveness “as an essential element of the medium” (202). This casuality brings with it a feeling of control for the web surfer, a feeling that their cursor, in real time, is their exclusive guide through the immense World Wide Web- a feeling that McPherson names “volitional mobility” (202).

     When thinking about what to write for this post, I pursued MSNBC’s website, curious about the inevitable change that had occurred on the site since this particular chapter was published in 2002. Once on the site, to my surprise, a bright red button announced to me that a COVID-19 update from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was happening live. Excited and amazed to see such an instantaneous and impossibly well-timed moment of the ever illusive “liveness,” I immediately clicked on the button. As I watched Mayor Garcetti answer questions about homelessness relocation and implementing the new “Slow Streets” program from reporters calling in remotely, I realized that in this moment, there was no sense of “casuality” associated with this piece of liveness.

    Screenshot of my computer screen during Mayor Garcetti's live COVID-19 update

     I realized that I was so struck by this argument because so many of the moments of liveness on the internet at this moment- from this update from Mayor Garcetti to my favorite chef cooking meals with other fun people on Instagram live to donation based dance classes coming live from closed studios all over the country- are in response to the global pandemic we are all facing, and the social distancing practices that are required as a result of it. The virtual closeness replaces physical closeness, and no longer does “the cursor seem. . . to embody our trajectory, an expression of our movement and our will,” but it instead becomes a constant reminder of our inability to physically move in the ways we once did (203). The feeling of control so vital to the concept of volitional mobility has vanished, at least for me, as a result of this pandemic. Perusing the internet now may sometimes "activate [my] very desire for movement and change," but I'm in the midst of understanding how to mobilize that desire elsewhere (207).