Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media

What it means when media moves from the new to the habitualwhen our bodies become archives of supposedly obsolescent media streaming updating sharing saving. New mediawe are toldexist at the bleeding edge of obsolescence. We thus forever try to catch up updating to remain the same. Meanwhile analytic creative and commercial efforts focus exclusively on the next big thing: figuring out what will spread and who will spread it the fastest. But what do we miss in this constant push to the future? In Updating to Remain the Same Wendy Hui Kyong Chun suggests another approach arguing that our media matter most when they seem not to matter at allwhen they have moved from new to habitual. Smart phones for example no longer amaze but they increasingly structure and monitor our lives. Through habits Chun says new media become embedded in our livesindeed we become our machines: we stream update capture upload link save trash and troll. Chun links habits to the rise of networks as the defining concept of our era. Networks have been central to the emergence of neoliberalism replacing society with groupings of individuals and connectable YOUS. (For isnt new media actually NYOU media?) Habit is central to the inversion of privacy and publicity that drives neoliberalism and networks. Why do we view our networked devices as personal when they are so chatty and promiscuous? What would happen Chun asks if rather than pushing for privacy that is no privacy we demanded public rightsthe right to be exposed to take risks and to be in public and not be attacked?