Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, American Culture Studies

With 171 million active users and a market value expected to climb to almost $17 billion in the next three years, Virtual Reality (VR) would appear to be a technology on the rise. Yet despite the public fervor for VR, our media landscape has long been marked by phobic depictions of the same—from William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), to The Matrix (1999), to Black Mirror (2011-present), VR fictions always seem to dread its presence even as their audiences anticipate these feared technologies. How, then, can we explain the durability of fiction fearing VR, and what use might we find for that phobic response? While ample previous scholarship has explored how horror and other forms of genre fiction reflect specific cultural anxieties, to this point little work has been devoted to technophobic fiction as it represents and serves to manage cultural responses to new and emerging technologies. As VR grows increasingly common, such fiction might offer a powerful tool toward anticipating its uses—good and bad—as well as to influence the ends for which these technologies are taken up. Through textual analysis of Ready Player One (2018) and “San Junipero” (2017), I explore how fears of capitalist subjugation, disembodiment, and the limitations of the humanist self come to be displaced in VR's technological systems. This work clarifies the technosocial politics of VR as they penetrate what it means to be human, and how technophobia itself might be mobilized toward the creation of a better technological future.

Committee: Clayton Rosati PhD (Advisor); Edgar Landgraf PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies

Master of Arts (M.A.), Xavier University, 2019, Psychology

Robots are becoming social actors in organizational systems. For robots to integrate into an organization's team, their human coworkers must first be able to accept their presence. Research has supported that those who self-reported higher levels of anxiety and negative attitudes toward robots were more hesitant to interact with a robot when given the opportunity. Despite this, limited research has addressed variables that could be related to increased levels of anxiety and negative attitudes toward robots, especially in the workplace. A sample of 132 online participants completed a battery measuring technology exposure, technological unemployment, extraversion, neuroticism, employee industry, and employment status. Results indicated that the average length of exposure to technology was predictive of negative attitudes and anxiety toward robots. Further, neuroticism and thoughts of technological unemployment were predictive of higher levels of negative attitudes and anxiety, and there was not a difference in negative attitude or anxiety toward robots across industries. Lastly, hourly employees' average anxiety toward robots was significantly higher than their salaried counterparts. Implications for both researchers and practitioners, as well as future research directions, are discussed.

Committee: Morrie Mullins (Advisor); Dalia Diab (Committee Member); Mark Nagy (Committee Member) Subjects: Occupational Psychology; Psychology; Robotics; Robots; Technology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2007, Film (Fine Arts)

Over the past decades, the horror genre has depicted terror coming from various sources. Even a video game console can serve as a potential source of antagonism. Video games allow players the opportunity to essentially become another person in another world. As this technology continues to improve, the line between reality and fiction continues to blur. The first part of this thesis looks at horror films from 1990 to 1999 that focus on video games representation. These are storylines that only portray video game technology as the villain as opposed to a beneficial asset to society. The second part of this thesis will focus on films from 2002 to 2005, all of which are video game adaptations. There is a distinct shift in the content of video game horror films at the start of the new millennium where video game technology is no longer portrayed as an antagonist, but as legitimate source material.

Committee: Adam Knee (Advisor) Subjects: Cinema