In ‘The Cord’ newspaper’s New Years edition there was an article that discussed the most influential technologies of the last decade. I remember when I read it I was surprised by how many of the items that we use daily, that most of us couldn’t imagine our lives without, had only been developed and gained popularity in the past ten years. Two social networking inventions that were specified were Facebook and Youtube, both of which you’d be hard pressed to find a student who doesn’t use one or both of these websites in some capacity each and every day.
The discussion in class on February first questioned how we use youtube, how often, and for what purposes. These questions would be different for all of us, but the class all agreed that we had all used both facebook and youtube at least once that day. The magnitude of this realization is important to understanding our socio-political culture.
Depending on who you ask, youtube was released in either 2005 or 2006 ... only 4 or 5 years ago! One thing we all agree on however, is how quickly it was included into our society and the extent of its popularity. Mcquire would point out, we should not understand it to be a result of technological determinism, technologies don’t change things, we do by how we use them. This brings me back to the questions about how I personally use youtube. I guess I would be considered a passive user. I don’t “broadcast myself,” add to the discourse on other peoples uploaded videos, or even spend much time searching for videos.
Michael Wesch demonstrated in his video that youtube broadcasts about 9000 hours everyday, and that 88% of that is new and original. And also that my age group is one of the top contributers, so I perhaps Im behind the times. Now that Im a blogger perhaps I’m on my way to advancing the scope of my involvement in the public sphere even further.. I’ve already decided that if I do decide to participate, I want to join the “global mixer” and do the numa numa dance!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Mcquire quote on how we are the driving agents of change behind technology is certainly an interesting topic to approach. With that, it's intriguing to look at different online technology and see how we as consumers have influenced its development. What about our society and personal desires have resulted in the introduction of YouTube? Facebook? Blogger? Perez Hilton? etc. The topic is both reflective and alarming depending on the technological result of our determinism.
ReplyDeleteSo I have to agree with you, in regards to youtube, facebook and other social networking sites I am more of a passive user. I am not one to indulge in them so much. You won't find my posting regular updates or adding pictures on facebook or uploading personal videos on youtube. I peronsally feel that these networks have taken over media spaced that can be dedicated to more interesting and important information.
ReplyDeleteThough some may say that these sites, for the majority of our generation, has become an extension of ourselves I think it's taken over our lives. And things have changed due to the way we do use these technologies, the technologies has not changed us.
You both have interesting points concerning the way we use social networking technologies. It seems like you both agree with my assessment that the technologies have made their way so deep into our lives that its hard to remember what society was like before. An article from The Cord from January 20th predicts that we would be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t participate in the public sphere in some way, which really illustrates the extent of this phenomenon. It is also incredibly interesting to think about this as an extension of ourselves as SH pointed out.
ReplyDelete