Tag: Internet

The People Formerly Known as the People Formerly Known as the Audience.

It seems like the little man is making a lot more of a splash in the media pool. With the advancements of the Internet and the plethora of information we can find, we are able to shift from traditional media to a more wide spread interactive media we find with the web.

Jay Rosen’s example of the passengers who got their own boat is a perfect analogy. Everyone feels confident in their ability to operate their own boat and not have someone drive them around for God knows how long.

Why is this exactly? I feel like it has a lot to do with trust. We just can’t believe anyone anymore, we have to do our own fact checking. This article in NPR about disagreeing gives you some insight about how controversial we are. With the internet, we can fact check from thousands of different sources, not just the Big Six. The internet has made us all smarter, but also a lot more skeptical.

This horizontal shift in power gives us a voice, and it scares the hell out of people working in traditional media. Like Dave Winer said, “Once the user takes control, they never give it back.” I know I definitely won’t give it back.

The traditional media can’t familiarize themselves with all the different interests and passions that we all have. The Internet can. They’re appealing to the people who love the topic, written/created by the people who also love the topic. The public doesn’t care about profit, they care about sharing  and appealing to the small market of people just like them. And with the Internet, you can find someone who has the same interests as you.

There is porn interest of it, NO EXCEPTIONS.

 

The Consumer vs. the Producer

In Cognitive Surplus, Shirky writes, “When someone buys a TV, the number of consumers goes up by one, but the number of producers stays the same. On the other hand, when someone buys a computer or a mobile phone, the number of consumers and producers both increase by one.” (Shirky, 55)

When I was a child, I used to watch hours upon hours of TV. I grew up with TV all my life. I learned the English language watching the Hercules TV show (See! It’s not all bad for you).  I watched TV while doing everything; homework, chores, getting ready for school, etc. Even though it’s a bad habit, it taught me how to multitask. I learned how to give the TV my divided attention. Whether that meant I half-assed everything is something I’ll leave for another debate. When me and my friends weren’t outside playing manhunt or sports, we were home either watching TV or playing video games.

I watched so much TV because it was all I knew. After we got our healthy dose of exercise, me and my friends would go to one of our houses and either watch TV or play video games. I remember one of my birthdays when me and all of my friends took turns and beat Super Mario Bros. Even though we just consumed, we consumed as a collective effort. We would give each other tips and help one another out. It was an offline forum so to speak.

I had some knowledge of the Internet, but I didn’t know how powerful it was – or would become at least. One important thing the the World Wide Web has done is that it made helping a lot easier. Whether it’s helping someone by posting tips in a forum, or creating a DIY video. It gave you the ability to help someone, and actually enjoy the whole process. It’s made these things so easy that you can’t help but do them. When your work helps or entertains someone, it makes it that much more valuable. That value can translate into a sense of belonging. The best part about it is that with almost 2 billion people online, someone will find some sort of value or entertainment in you work; whether it be a how-to video, or a Baruch meme you shared on Facebook.

 

Modularity

The human body is a giant organism that is composed of various different interdependent organs (or parts) that allow it to properly function. Normally, one part of the human body cannot be removed without causing serious consequences. Every organ somewhat relies on each other. The human body is interdependent of each other, therefore it is not modular. It is not self sustaining.

 

Modularity is one of the 5 Principles of New Media as defined by Lev Manovich. It is the idea that ” a new media object consists of independent parts, each of which consists of smaller independent parts, and so on, down to the level of the smallest ‘atoms’ – pixels, 3-D points, or text characters”(Manovich, 31). This is why there is such interchangeability available. Since no one piece is dependent of another, if something were to malfunction it would not affect the system as a whole.

 

Unlike new media, the human body is nowhere near as interchangeable. If something were to malfunction in the body, removing the problem at the source  wouldn’t solve the problem. It would probably make things worse. We cannot upgrade ourselves if something stops working. We can’t become 6 Million Dollar Men.

 

The World Wide Web can be considered as an extension of man, just like Marshall McLuhan said (McLuhan, 82). But can it be considered as an evolution of man? In a perfect world, wouldn’t we want to be able to fully customize ourselves? You could give yourself a new heart if you ruined your old one. You could make yourself thinner just like you would be able to rescale an image.

 

The Internet and new media technologies allow us to do that. The Internet allows us to customize everything within a digital setting, and is a rapidly evolving organism. It keeps advancing at an exponential rate. The World Wide Web is an extension of the 6 Million Dollar Man.

The Digital Divide

I watched this recently and thought it was amazing how almost 5 billion people don’t have Internet access. I can’t imagine my life without the Internet, and everyone should have access to it.

 

…only in a perfect world

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/aleph_molinari_let_s_bridge_the_digital_divide.html

 

What do you guys think? Should everyone have access to the Internet? Is it a luxury? A necessity?