#comm2f00

[stevie-wonder-ful-blog]

M8.2

When i began this course i was very opposed to many forms of new media. The only form of social media that i frequently used was Facebook and that was only so i could remember my friends birthdays. I refused to use twitter, tumblr, pintrest, or any other online community. To me, they were time wasters. Despite my reservations I decided that in order to succeed in this course i had to have an open mind. I willingly signed up for any and all sites listed in the assignments with the mindset that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. To my delight, i have grown fond of several new media sites. Thus far, my experiences with Twitter, Pintrest, and Soundcloud have been nothing but positive. I am beginning to understand why the sites are so successful. 

The aspect of my experience with new media that i have enjoyed the most is the various opportunities to connect and interact with others. Though Pintrest and Twitter I have followed and been followed by other people. This facilitates communication between to people that would never happen without new media. By no means am I obsessive over the amount if followers i have, but i do understand the joy that comes with gaining a new one. I cannot grantee that I will continue to use these sites after the course is finished but i see no reason to stop at the moment.

New media provides 2 basic benefits to our society and culture and 2 major drawbacks. The first benefit is that new media creates a more interconnected world by facilitating communication between users from all over the world. The second benefit is that new media drives the spread of news over millions of outlets. This creates a world that is more educated and informed of global issues. The first drawback is that new media can lead to cyber bullying and other forms of online abuse. Children today face abusive comments and language via online sources, this leads to lower self esteem and in some cases teen suicides. The second drawback is that new media can be a distraction and a time waster. Social media often aids in procrastination.

[moonsmediocrity-blog]

M8.2 (Part 2) Video

[moonsmediocrity-blog]

M8.2 (Part 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02I_uxOgBoM&feature=youtu.be

This video was created as part of a course requirement for COMM 2F00 at Brock University.  I will be discussing the three things that I learned with regards to New Media throughout the class.

I am using a female automated voice for this video as a comment on one of the things that I learned through this course.  People use the internet and New Media in order to communicate.  This communication is often done with an absence of human contact and many people say things that they would never even fathom saying in face-to-face communication.  This automated voice represents that anonymity and the protection that the online universe provides people – for better or for worse.

The first thing that I learned was just how dominant New Media is.  I’m not naïve, I did realize before what a strong impact New Media has on society.  However, after really being forced to think about its incredible power and influence, it took on a whole new light for me.

I’ve been familiar with a great deal of social media sites and their uses for many years now.  However, one new social media site that I was introduced to during this course is “GetGlue” which essentially lets people comment on television shows in real time.  Before I started to use this site, I was always the type of person who scoffed at others who used such sites to communicate such seemingly trivial ideas.  However, after using the site, I started to “get” the appeal.

Using “GetGlue”, I was posting comments about television shows that I was watching.  Most of my posts were a combination of humor and sarcasm.  Almost immediately after posting them, other people commented on them and really seemed to be enjoying them.  Before I knew it, the shows were over and I had posted a lot of comments.  I realized that I had been sucked into this online world and was really feeding off of the positive and immediate feedback that I was getting from it.

The bottom line is that my experience with “GetGlue”, amongst other applications I used for the course, really made me aware of the extensive and intense power of New Media.  This adds to Fabio Josgrilberg’s discussion in his article, “A Door to the Digital Locus: Walking in the City With a Mobile Phone and Michel de Certeau”. In the article, Josgrilberg states that everybody (including those who are not directly involved with the technology itself) has been affected by the social changes caused by communication technologies.

The second thing that this course made me reflect on with regards to New Media is the extent to which media is used to “track” us.  Whether it is our online purchases, musical taste or viewing experiences, I learned that we are monitored far more than we might think.

An example of this comes from the article “How Social Media and Streaming Have Influenced the Music Industry”.  The article states that, “Some bookers won’t even say “yes” to a performance unless a certain number of likes have been reached.”  These “likes” are all tracked through social media in a way that older methods of surveying and opinion polls could never even fathom.

At one point, I was looking for a specific type of jewellery on a site like Etsy or Amazon.  All of a sudden, I noticed that a great deal of the ads that were popping up on unrelated sites that I was using were specific to that type of jewellery.  This struck me as both genius and extremely disturbing all at the same time.  It also made me wonder how many people are unaware that this type of tracking exists and about the influence that it can exert over people.

The third thing that this course made me think a lot about would have to be the reasons why young people are so dependent on New Media.  At any given time, either my laptop or my cell phone is in my hand and tabs for things like Skype, Tumblr, Facebook, and Reddit are open in my browser. One of the first things I do when I wake up is look at recent posts via my phone that I keep right beside my bed while I sleep.

I know that I am not alone.  I know that what I do online is even minimal when compared to a lot of people in my peer group.  So, should we be ashamed of our attachment to New Media?  Well, if all we are doing is tracking the Kardashians, then maybe, but otherwise, no.  New Media opens doors.  It provides us with countless opportunities to learn, to grow, to connect.  The problem is often the WAY in which we use New Media, not the fact that we use it.

When I hear stories that my parents or older relatives tell about what their lives were like before New Media, I honestly feel very fortunate.  The things that I am able to do and the information that I have at my fingertips would not have even been an inkling in their minds when they were my age.  Yes, today’s youth is constantly attached to computers and cell phones, but when used for the right reasons, I truly don’t think that this is a problem.  New Media is the present and the future and we must keep up with it in order to stay relevant, to keep informed and to move forward.

Lastly, I could not conclude this video without sharing a few cat pictures.  Anyone who knows me is aware of my affinity for sharing cute pictures.  It’s one of the few quirky, non-academic activities that I partake in online that is just a fun way to spend a bit of time relaxing.  Enjoy!

[moonsmediocrity-blog]

M8.2 (Part 1)

Prior to taking this course, I considered myself to be a consumer of a variety of online mediums, but not so much a producer.  Through this course, I have been able to become a “produser” and I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  Having guided topics on which to blog about was something that was exciting to me.  Rather than have to worry about whether anyone would enjoy or find value in topics of my choosing, I felt that my educated responses to course questions would be important and even meaningful to some people.

Using sites such as “GetGlue” was something that I didn’t have much of an interest in before taking this course.  However, being required to set up and use such an account was a very enjoyable experience for me.  Having people enjoy and respond to quirky and sarcastic comments that I was making about television shows was quite intoxicating.  The immediate feedback of others who not only liked my comments, but shared my views, was really enjoyable.

There are countless benefits of New Media on our culture and society.  People are more connected than they have ever been in history.  Finding a long lost friend, connecting with friends all over the world and being a part of groups and societies are amongst the benefits.  People who are shy can suddenly gain a powerful voice.  People who are talented can suddenly be discovered.  New Media helps people to think, to laugh, to become entertained, to be informed…the list goes on and on.

Of course, as with anything else in life, New Media does have some constraints on society and culture.  People can remain anonymous and say horrible things while hiding behind a computer.  Cyber-bullying, in my opinion, is a million times worse than regular bullying, as it is almost impossible to identify or stop the culprits.  People feel compelled to say anything that comes into their mind, because they want to participate.  While this could potentially be good, it is often not, and just leave mindless, tedious data for the world to have to sift through.

New Media is new reality.  Most people are forced to keep up with it for work, school or just in terms of their social lives.  As with anything else in life, there are pros and cons to it, but, from my perspective, if used intelligently and responsibly, the pros can absolutely outweigh the cons.

[moonsmediocrity-blog]

M8.1

1) Given your experience with the various tools used in the course, do you feel more inclined to become a "produser"?

I like the way that the terms “producer” and “consumer” were combined to form the term “produser”.    Given my experience with a variety of tools that I used in this course, I definitely feel that I am more inclined to become a “produser” in some areas, but also to remain the same in others.

One area that will not change is that I will not be starting to share my entire life via a medium such as Facebook.  It’s a fun way to share pictures and stay in touch, but I will never be able to understand people who post every single facet of their life on such sites for the entire world to see.  For this reason, I will continue to post and share, but in a limited, reasonable way.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I can definitely see myself using sites such as getglue.com.  I have to admit, posting comments in real time and having people respond to them was somewhat addictive to me.  That immediate feedback and back and forth really has the power to make a person feel like what they are saying matters and that they are connected to other people.  The same goes for just having a blog itself.  I enjoyed having the opportunity to sit down and discuss my perspective on certain issues.

I like the notion that I can be a “produser” and put my thoughts out there for others to comment on and discuss.  At the same time, I also enjoy the fact that I can control exactly what information I put out there and, to some degree, who has access to it.

2) What intimations of deprival do you have (if any) regarding the "produsage" that potentially looms before us? Please think of something other than Sterne's worry (that's his intimation).

From my perspective, Sterne’s worry is basically that everyone feels as though they need to participate in online “produsage”.  This is clear through his words, “The demand to participate can become coercive, exhausting the very collective faculties it officially celebrates”.

Virtually every type of site that a person can be on these days has the option to “leave feedback” or “comments”.  As such, people feel compelled to become not only the consumer of the information, but also the producer of their own thoughts, ideas and opinions.  The fact of the matter is, not everything that is put out there warrants or deserves comments and those that do deserve better than some that they receive.

I feel that the intimations of deprival that I have regarding the “produsage” we face involve the deprivation of quality content.  I should not have to read fifty comments based on a semi-scholarly article just to find one meaningful comment that I can relate to.  Wading through the ignorance, emoticons and “lol’s” can, at times, be exhausting. 

If the pressure that Sterne discusses does exist, which I feel it does, such pressure should be to produce quality, meaningful thoughts.  These thoughts should enlighten, make a difference, offer a different perspective, etc.  If they do not, people really need to reconsider what they are doing.  It is not enough to make a comment just for the sake of being able to say that you’ve made a comment.  Regurgitating what someone else has said, writing unintelligent or ignorant statements, etc. is definitely a negative bi-product of “produsage” in my opinion.

[sternbloggerconfusion]

M8.2

  Taking this course, I admit, opened me up to using other media sites to publish content. I had never felt the need to use Pinterest (which even lead me to figure out that it’s called Pin-trist instead of Pine(as in the tree)–terest), Stroify, and many others. It also helped bring me back to the use of GetGlue which I stopped using a few months back.

  Using these new sites again or as a new user, it showed me how many sites encourage people to be using the internet to connect with others. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, these are all sites that I know, that are popular to me, but there are other popular sites that have a whole new following. It’s because of this that we’re all getting too accustomed to being on the web; it’s changing our society.

  I remember reading something in this course that was saying how kids now don’t call each other up to say that a party is lame or cool. Now we can just post on Twitter or Facebook and everyone will know. We all are able to communicate faster and express our feelings easier without having to talk face-to-face.

  But this could also be bad. We are getting too accustomed to being able to communicate with others so easily. It’s our fallback when we have nothing to do – it just promotes procrastination. An example of this could be in class. When the professor is teaching how many kids are on their Facebook instead of paying attention. How many people are on their phones texting their friends?

  Everything is just at our fingertips. We have so many new technologies and media content that our brain is getting to that point where we just want everything at that very moment or we get bored.

  We also, because everything is just at our fingertips, we want to always be in communication with our friends. We are a very self-obsessed society now because of the new media technologies. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, they all promote this. I mean, why do people feel the need to share that they’re eating pizza or doing laundry? We always have to be telling people what we’re doing even if there’s no relevance or any reason to tell people what they’re doing. We just want everyone to know we’re doing something, that we’re out living even if we’re not, we’re just on our phone typing to the internet that we are.

[sternbloggerconfusion]

M8.1

  Asking the question if I feel ‘more inclined to become a produser’ would be unfair to answer. The reason behind this is because, even before this course, I was a constant ‘produser’. I was always on the web, always on social media websites – even before this course. I was constantly on twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and, more recently instagram interacting with others.  

  An example of this is the show ‘Opposite Worlds’. It was apreviously an Australian show but they finally made a USA based on. Every week they would encourage viewers to tweet about their favourite contestant and with every tweet, the contestant’s popularity meter would go up. You could view this popularity meter on the website, seeing who was tweeting what and even affecting the game becaue of it. The person who got the lowest score got a punishment while the person with the highest popularity ranking got a reward.

  There are many other examples of audiences being able to affect the outcome in shows and content of the media now. That’s how far society and technology has come. We aren’t just passive audience members now, we need to be able to interact, to feel emerged in the shows we’re watching to be kept interested. TV shows are always encouraging views to tweet about the show while watching this, doing this by adding a hashtag on the screen so they can see how many people are watching right now. If they’re lucky and a lot of people are tweeting about the show, they can become a top tweet.

  With this though comes a downside. I think that we may just become too reliable on becoming a produsage that it will be the only thing we crave in media content. We will want to control everything, to have power and affect everything. But, the problem there is that many people have different views on different things.

  It may just become too much for us in the future and it’ll be everywhere, we won’t be able to escape what society has formed because of our neurotic need to be involved in everything. We have all become so entwined in the content and creating it that we’ll start to become greedy, just continue to want more and more until we can’t get it and start turning on the people that won’t give us more.

  ‘With great power comes great responsibility’

  If we don’t start settling limitations and realizing that we need to step back a bit, let others control, our great power will pose a threat to media outlets and to ourselves. So, like stated above, we need to be responsible with our great power of having input in these media sources. Our power may just get too much to our head and end up being taken over by evil rather than good.

[stevie-wonder-ful-blog]

M8.1

1.  This course has taught me a great deal about what it is to be a "produser" of new media. A simple browse of my blog will display my indifference to many social media trends, one could even say I'm cynical. However, I believe I have treated this blog as an unadulterated and honest record of my journey through new media. This course has provided a fascinating and much needed immersion into the world of social media for me. My verdict? I still am very much reserved to many forms of new media production but I am definitely drawn to websites like soundcloud. I am a very musical person and i could see myself becoming a new media produser through a site like this. Other than that, the most produsing i will have done is through this blog. I still hate posting statuses, tweets, and pins. However, I feel I am now less opposed to others doing so. It's not much, but its the most your going to get, sorry internet...

2. Although i am not a huge fan of internet produsage I don't have any substantial fears regarding its role in North America. Sterne makes an excellent point and yes social media does provide a platform for a shallow attempt at activism. Other than that however, new media produsage allows users to access unlimited content, be creative, and interact with peers worldwide. Sterne's concerns are vaild and certainly cause for alarm, but at the same time, produsers spread the word about issues. Of course this isn't as groundbreaking as real world participation, but it is a hell of a lot better than staying ignorant.