New Media, Networking and Phatic Culture by Vincent Miller

The things that I understand in this article is that the internet affects us more than we think it does. It is world wide, and we can express ourselves in many ways with it. There is writing blogs,  and using Facebook, Myspace, DevianArt. There is just so many different things. I agree, that these networks do change the way that we all communicate, but they also allow us to express ourselves in a way too. Vincent Miller says,"One aspect which is particularly important here is the assertion that self-disclosure  becomes increasingly important as a means to gain trust and achieve authentic but ( contingent) relationships with others. Giddens argues that late modern subjects gravitate towards relationships which engender trust through constant communication and reflex- ive practice. In other words, we crave relationships that allow us to open up to others, and not just in the romantic sense, because in late modernity, the demand for intimacy becomes ‘virtually compulsive’. " I think what he means when he says this is that we like to constantly communicate with people. With the internet now days, communicating is so much easier than it ever was before.

Heres this really funny video about Facebook.

This article relates back to the McMillian and Morrison article, about the use of internet, and how much it affects us.