Being And The Screen

How digital technology is profoundly renewing our sense of what is real and how we perceive. Digital technologies are not just tools; they are structures of perception. They determine the way in which the world appears to us. For nearly half a century, technology has provided us with perceptions coming from an unknown world. The digital beings that emerge from our screens and our interfaces disrupt the notion of what we experience as real, thereby leading us to relearn how to perceive. In Being and the Screen, Stéphane Vial provides a philosophical analysis of technology in general, and of digital technologies in particular, that relies on the observation of experience (phenomenology) and the history of technology (epistemology). He explains that technology is no longer separate from ourselves—if it ever was. Rather, we are as much a part of the machine as the machine is part of us. Vial argues that the so-called difference between the real and the virtual does not exist and never has. We are living in a hybrid environment—which is both digital and nondigital, online and offline. With this book, Vial endows philosophical meaning to what we experience daily in our digital age. In A Short Treatise on Design, Vial offers a concise introduction to the discipline of design—not a history book, but a book built of philosophical problems, developing a theory of the effect of design. This book is published with the support of the University of Nîmes, France.

What Every Parent Needs to Know about Screens and Their Kids Maybe your kids are like many others―glued to their smartphones, social media, and streaming entertainment. While we may be aware that excessive screen time, especially social media, isn’t healthy, how do we teach young kids and teens to become screenwise? Prioritizing connection over correction, Parenting Generation Screen is a guide for parents that will equip you with key questions and conversations to help you process screen limits with and for your kids. You’ll learn how to dialogue in meaningful ways about social media, entertainment, and screen time so your children can learn to be wise in the digital world. Jonathan McKee speaks worldwide and writes about technology and social media for families―and has three kids of his own. In Parenting Generation Screen, he addresses such questions as: At what age should my child get a phone or screen? Can my child have a phone in their bedroom? How does social media affect my teenager’s mental health and sleep? What dangers are really lurking on social media? How can moms and dads best use parental controls? In this extremely practical book, you’ll gain confidence and find the answers you need to set boundaries, guide your kids, and help them navigate the digital landscape.

Straight Skin, Gay Masks and Pretending to Be Gay on Screen examines cinematic depictions of pretending-to-be-gay, assessing performances that not only reflect heteronormative and explicitly homophobic attitudes, but also offer depictions of gay selfhood with more nuanced multidirectional identifications. The case of straight protagonists pretending to be gay on screen is the ideal context in which to study unanticipated progressivity and dissidence in regard to cultural construction of human sexualities in the face of theatricalized epistemological collapse. Teasing apart the dynamics of depictions of both sexual stability and fluidity in cinematic images of men pretending to be gay offers new insights into such salient issues as sexual vulnerability and dynamics and long-term queer visibility in a politically complicated mass culture which is mostly produced in a heteronormative and even hostile cultural environment. Additionally, this book initially examines queer uses of sexuality masquerade in Alternate Gay World Cinema that allegorically features a world pretending to be gay, in which straights are harassed and persecuted, in order to expose the tragic consequences of sexual intolerance. Films and TV series examined as part of the analysis include The Gay Deceivers, Victor/Victoria, Happy Texas, William Friedkin’s Cruising and many other straight and gay screens. This is a fascinating and important study relevant to students and researchers in Film Studies, Media Studies, Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Sexuality Studies, Communication Studies and Cultural Studies.