Media use

Throughout my childhood there was no such thing as digital media. Now that i use it daily the way i use media has drastically changed.

DVD'S
Unlike videos casettes with DVD's you can skip to the scene you want quickly and watch deleated scenes. I also enjoy watching the 'making of' and directors comments as it gives me a more in depth look at the film industry. Of course now there are blu-ray disks which offer you a HD experience.

TV
The introduction of SKY has changed the way we can watch television. Before digital media there were 5 channels only, BBC 1 BBC 2 ITV C4 and C5. Now there are over 500 channels to choose from which means more competition for each channel. With sky i can also skip commercials which changes the way i view advertisements as i pay less attention to the ones on the TV. I can also record programmes which means i do not have to be sat down infrount of the TV when the programme is on as i would have had to do before digital media. Digital media gives me more freedom and choice of how and when i consume the media.

MUSIC
Since digital media i no longer buy CD's for my big bulky CD player and instead download songs from I-tunes or Limewire and listen to them on my I-pod. This i can take anywhere and everywhere as it's so small and compact. One of Jenkins eight traits of the new media landscape 'Convergence' is something i have used since digital media. This is taking existing music and remixing it. For example putting it as background music for videos of me and my friends. As he said "They want it when they want it and where they want it. And, as a result, they pull the edia content into new spaces illegally." Me doing this also comes under the sector 'Appropriate' because it is blurring the lines between consumer and producer. It gives amateurs to create productions and anyone can now upload their own video onto youtube.

I believe the internet shows me advertisements easier than any other median.

This is mine and Cats campaign video against drugs, it's just a quick light hearted video, although drugs is a serious issue, we wanted to do something fun for us to make and for people to watch.



Our advert was suppose to just be a funny kind of one but there are adverts out there supporting anti-drugs. Some are really hard hitting and defiantly make you think about what your doing. This is one of the worst i have seen:


PARTICIPATORY CULTURE
An example of me engaging in participatory culture would be facebook. Without all the users creating profiles there would be no use for the website and therefore no facebook.

I think this shows how rapidly technology has evolved. In my few 18 years the way i use media has completly changed and is going to continue to change. I think it's exciting to think what will happen with technology in the future and see how it will develop and grow. All we can do is wait!

Digital divide

Digital divide is the gap between people which effects their access to digital and information technology or gives them no access at all. It shows the unequal balance between societies.

Male vs Female

Recently I came across this website, Omegle, that allows you to talk to a stranger in complete anonymity. I thought this was a strange concept as we are always told; “do not talk to strangers!”

It basically puts you straight into a conversation with somebody, you are named as ‘You’ and the other participant as ‘Stranger’. You can talk and when you are bored you simply click ‘Next’ and then you get rid of that conversation and start another.

It’s the same idea as Chat Roulette, however you need a webcam for that and I havn’t got one so i can't try it out.

I was only on Omegle for 15 minutes yet I noticed the unbalance between males and females. The males seemed to have alteria motives as to why they were on such a website and their first sentence would be ‘Hi F? Cam?’ The other girls like myself were simply there to talk a bit and see what this new fad was all about.

Another way in which the divide is shown is within education. Not so much nowadays although in the 1990's the rich schools were more likely to have computers than the others.

There are 2 different types of digital division. These are global and social divide. Global shows where about in the world the people have access to the technology like the internet and social is in what different ways the people use it. Such as to gain infomation, talk to people, hobbies, plan and buy ECT.
I guess the main divide is comparing our western countries to those that are very poor and have no access to the digital world. Such as poor countries in africa. I think this divide is very hard to solve as we keep developing ours futher and futher it seems as if they are getting left so far behind making it impossible to stop the divide.

This picture shows a little boy in a less developed country who has made a mobile phone out of mud.. aww!!

Here is the problem with the digital divide shown in a diagram.

These images show where in the world the internet and computer is used and owned most. Here is a link to see the image close up http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ajanakir/20080910182710!Global_Digital_Divide1.png But just by looking at the map you can see there are more computers in North America, England and Europe and Austrailia.

I also believe a digital divide could be between generations. Both of my parents still use and buy CD's. My grandparents would think virtual chat rooms or worlds are completly ridiculous. Jenkins mentions this within the eight traits of media in the 'Generational' sector; "Young people and adults live in fundamentally different media enviroments."

Are virtual worlds a second-rate form of community?

Gordon Grahams’ statement that an online virtual community ‘is a second-rate form of community.’

I think that his statement is rather old-fashioned. Technology is a big part of our culture, perhaps I have different views as I have grown up with the rapid speed of technology developing.

“‘Community’ has become a vogue word on almost every lip, a word now used, or abused, to the point of meaninglessness.” When reading Graham’s writing I feel his passion for a community. I thought it was interesting when he said there are so many ‘communities’ nowadays you can basically belong to as many different communities as you choose. Such as; the gay community, the scientific community, the business community, the local community ECT. He then notes “But if so, this only shows that communal membership means nothing.” I don’t agree with what he is saying here, why should we be categorized into one certain community, why can we not express ourselves in a range of communities.

I always think of the internet as a way to express and research ideas and places that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to. Graham notes “Internet does free us still further from the encumbrances of the societies to which we belong.” It seems as if Graham believes the internet will pull you away from real life people and that you will almost abandon them. I do think this is true.

Graham goes on to say that words and typing cannot fully get the whole message of your feelings across to the other participants. Our body language such as gestures, shrugs and the inarticulate forms of communication make up a large part of how we understand each other. I highly agree with this, and it is much easier to understand people around you when you can hear their tone of voice ECT so that the message is understood clearly and correctly.

The differences between genders online; “There’s no perfume, no sweat. Nothing soft, nothing hard. We are stripped of everything but our words. And if you take everything away from us but our words, what are the differences between men and women?” (Horn, p. 81) I thought this quote had a very valid point. Graham also agreed strongly with this point and used it to back up his thoughts on communicating within communities online. He says the internet can represents a ‘gender-blind’ form of exchange which would not ever be possible in real face to face contact. Along with gender, race is also not visable over the internet. Again this allows us to express ourselves in a way we might not be able to in daily life; I see this as a good point.

In conclusion, looking at Grahams text and his opinions on virtual communities I have to disagree that they are a second-rate form of community. He puts too much emphasis on what a ‘community’ entails and he basically says even if they do entail what he says it should, it will still be second rate. After all my research I have decided does it really matter? If a group of people share the same interest why can’t they call themselves a community, I think it gives a feeling of togetherness and what is so wrong about that? I can understand where Graham is coming from as nobody wants our communities to decline but I think he is being too picky over what he classes as a community. Virtual communities benefit large numbers of people albeit because they are unhappy with real lives, bored or simply want to explore somewhere new and exciting. I see Grahams point as valid but as it was from such a long time ago I would wonder what his views are of the internet and virtual communities today. I think people should feel free to explore what they want and whether this is by joining an interest group or virtual community I think the majority of outcomes are positive.

Social networking and Social Capital

"Computer based technologies enable the processing of more communication in less time across larger distances." Stalder, 2006.

The internet can have a positive effect on social capital. The growth of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace could show that we as individuals are creating a virtual network of both bonding and briding social capital. The positive thing with the internet is that we can connect instantly which is unlike face to face interaction. Of course there are critics of virtual communities and social networking and they believe that the internet replaces our 'real' strong bonds with weaker online bonds. They also believe that is could create a world of similarity where only people of the same race, gender or ideology will interact.

My first experience of a social networking site was when i was in about year 9. This was when i first came across Myspace. For the next 2 years i was obsessed with changing the background, text, and trying to update my profile section as much as possible. Then along came bebo .. which i never really got into. Then Facebook came along, at first i remember not liking it much as i couldn't decorate my page like i could in myspace. But eventually as more and more people 'converted' i became a facebook member aswell. I think facebook is a lot more grown up than myspace, there's no background ect. It's more about the communicating and connecting with other people rather than making yourself look good.

And now there possibly isn't a day that goes by in which i don't check facebook. It's not even the fact that i feel i have to, it's just when i find a moment in which i have nothing to do, i automatically check it.

Also now that me and my friends have each gone to different universities all over the UK it's the cheap and easy way to keep in touch; we have an on-going e-mail in which we can post and reply. I can refer this to what Jenkins says in his everyday section of the 8 traits; "cuts us off from the enviroment and isolates us from the people around us." This is because although i am on facebook to my friends from home, i am also in my room alone not with my friends at university. He also says that it allows me to have a "greater connection to more dispersed family members". My dad lives in Scotland so it's good to be able to keep in touch with him in a different way other than texting. As its really easy to forget to reply to somebodies text, Facebook is like a constant way of keeping in touch. Also my cousin that lives in spain who i don't really talk to much anymore still has a way of looking at my page and seeing what i'm up to and i can do the same with hers.

Social networking allows us to access knoledge and relationships like never before, this is because if i am looking through one of my friends albumns and like the look of somebody i could click their tag and go to their page and talk to them. Without facebook i wouldn't have been able to ever talk to this person.

In the article "Why youth (heart) social network sites: the role of networked publics in teenage social life" by Danah Boyd. http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:UveBv6NYGQIJ:www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf+why+youths+heart+social+networking&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgxfZKkOtjMXlzYL2tghpFIssELgclyA1o3ezZKJVq51xBPDvhQQxW3u7WkQTTz74nSdhilKW9G17gwFPheVVM4kzVaxkQxUou9MNcUDDWOj5IqU0amGOiGDs_xEdGVbKhDS-mL&sig=AHIEtbQkAtRiYuP71NSRuA3D26KUV1cAYA

When she asked teenagers why they use social networking and what they do there they gave vague answers such as "just hang out". It's a kind of voyeurism as you can look through anyones profile (unless private) and through their photos, you can see who's single, pretty much anything you want to know their facebook page gives an impression of them without even having to speak to them.

Of course the new phenonemon is Twitter, i have signed up to this although have not really gotten into it yet. I believe that the positives of facebook outweigh the negatives. Keeping in contact with friends all over the world, organising events which just would not get the same turn out using word of mouth, birthday reminders ECT. And the negatives, i agree if you spend too much time alone on facebook it is bad, but the majority of people keep a good balance and also facebook is a big distraction when you have university work to do!!!

Digital identity and representation online.

Online media allows anyone to construct and develop several identities of themselves. People can hide behind their screens and more or less be whoever they want to be. In this section i will be talking about virtual worlds; mainly Second life as i have had a chance to go on and see what it's like. Of course there are many other virtual worlds such as orld of Warcraft, they all however have the same idea, to create a charector and play away. Second life is an online virtual world where you create an "avatar" and travel around different lands, (SIMS), shops and chat to people.

(Photo from http://vegaarida.wordpress.com/)

Advertisement for second life:


There are a lot of online articles which i have read about second life and everyones opinions of virtual worlds like this vary. Some people just can't understand the benefits of virtual worlds and others associate them with 'computer geeks'.

I personally do not see the fascination with virtual worlds yet i also do not think people are 'strange' to use them. Each to their own.

Virtual worlds may be the only way certain people can communicate; for example people who are autistic, bed bound or disabled. Imagine living your whole life not feeling equal to others around you and having no self confidence. These people can now join a virtual world, create a new look and be treated just the same, prehaps feel accepted for once in their life.

The majority of avatars in second life are 'attractive' women are tall, slim, with huge boobs and tiny waists, the bed are tall tattooed and built. Of course most of these people do not look like this in real life, so in that case they are not representing themselves but they are creating a digital identity.

From vampires, wearwolfes, dragons, furries, robots, these people can create whatever form they want and live out their 'fantasies'.

Of course this can lead to virtual worlds having a more sinister side. When i went on second life i saw one child avatar, i thought this was very wierd as it's a site for 18+ only. My mind boggles as to why a grown adult would pretend to be a child. Then a came across this news story: http://techcrunch.com/2007/10/30/virtual-pedophilia-report-bad-news-for-second-life/



Joining Second life.
Ok so joining is pretty easy and simple, i picked an avatar which looked pretty crazy with all bright colours. I arrived and walked around a bit. I went to a SIM called London and decided to tell people i was a student studying second life and i decided to ask them why they come on second life.

When asking a variety of people why they came on second life i got answers from "to get away from the real world" and "chat to people" to "sex and fanatasies".

Jeremy Bailenson from Stanford University wrote interesting articles on self representation.
'In an online enviroment a perceiver interacting with a target who is using an attractive avatar may cause the target to behave in a more friendly and charming manner".
Bailensons research shows that the confidence or insecurities we show within the real world can sometimes transformed into the online world aswell. "When we cloak ourselves in avatars, it subtly alters the manner in which we behave," says Bailenson. "It's about self-perception and self-confidence."

I found a documentary called "Second Skin" it went behind the avatars and showed you the lives of people that play virtual worlds. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/second-skin/
This documentary shows the percentage of ages that are in virtual worlds:
60% : 20 - 35
25% : 12 - 19
15% : 35+
This includes all worlds such a ones aimed at teenagers, Club penguin, Habbo Hotel ect.
A quote from one of the players in this is "We can be who we want to be, not who we pretend to be with out friends, who we really are." 

There is a difference between how people represent themselves on a networking sight such as facebook and how they represent themselves in virtual worlds such as second life. With facebook you are connected to your friends and people you know in the real world whereas in a virtual world you are totally annoymous so its like starting on a blank canvas. On facebook you can't pretend to be something completly different to who you really are as your friends will think you're well.. wierd.

The positives of a virtual world is as i said, it does allow people who struggle to communicate in the real world to communicate freely online. It gives people the chance to be whoever they want to be, human or other, and to look in a way they would never look in their real world. The negatives are that it could almost take over real world socialising. If people prefer to sit inside and play on the computer as apose to go out and meet friends than they may eventually become lonely.