“A new media object is not something fixed once and for all, but something that can exist in different, potentially infinite versions.”
In his book, “Principles of New Media”, Manovich talks about the Variability of new media. I found this idea to be rather interesting because of how it makes you think of every element in the new media world as different versions of something original. It seems to be a way of understanding media in terms of updates and constant change. Although, it is a principle of media that is meant to be consistent. The idea can lead to the extinction of the original, which in some way could be detrimental and in another way actually useful. For example, if we take a simple software like that of the one used for any Apple device. Apple has constant updates with their software, which means there are a lot of things that they have to change in order to sell a product good enough to replace the already existing one. But even the Apple software has the possibility of obtaining some sort of a glitch. When Apple came out with the 4s, the consumers expected a lot, little did they know that their would be a glitch with something as simple as the maps. The maps element failed to function the way the users were used to. Every apple user knew that they in some form or another rely on the maps app, which in actuality only began because a former apple device worked to its full potential and satisfied the consumers in that very aspect. Therefore, in my opinion, I think there might be a slight problem in having constant changes and updates in certain software, as it could lead to the actual loss of trust for the original software (or the software that obtained a form of trust in the first place). Nonetheless, variability is a principle that works in other ways. Regardless of the problems that any form of new media may come across along the way, the idea of it being variable is so it betters itself with respect to these problems.
