Convergence Culture

The provided articles are an excerpt from the book Convergence Culture: Where

Old and New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins, and a couple of book review discussing the content of the book. Convergence, Jenkins says, “describes technological, industrial, cultural, and social changes in the ways media circulates within our culture.” Jenkins understands that the circulation of media content to create a convergence culture must have the active participation of consumers. He describes a story in which a relatively unknown person (Dino Ignacio) was able to inadvertently create a countrywide uproar from a collage he made of the sesame street character Bert and Osama Bin Laden after it made its way onto the news in coverage of the Middle East. From my understanding this discussion of convergence culture is a relatively new one. Current technology such as the Internet provides the means necessary for the wide involvement of fans that is available today. Before the advent of technology this participation was very limited and for the most part average people had little say in the products presented to them. Now that more people are provided an outlet in which to participate (in a wide variety of ways such as video, blog, ect.) it is creating a participatory culture that corporations have had to adapt to and even seek out participation from their audiences. If we are able to follow this pattern of media history then it is very likely that this convergence will continue to take place and become even more integrated into everyday life. 

"New Media and Technology" Article

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/technology/amazon-introduces-fire-smartphone.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As&_r=0

The article I chose to share is a New York Times article on the new smart phone created by Amazon. I would recommend this article because it is a well-written article that addresses not just this new product from Amazon but the potential impact this could have on the future of smart phones made by other companies like Apple and Samsung. The technology of this new phone is related to Internet communication because it is an attempt to make online shopping (an activity that makes up a significant portion of the way most people interact with the internet) even faster and easier than it already is.

Internet Privacy

I found the article on Privacy and Enhanced Personalization overall to be fairly interesting to read. I realize that I can’t speak entirely for my generation, but in my personal experience I have definitely observed there to be a lack of interest in privacy on the Internet among my peers. I don’t say that to necessarily say there is a problem yet but I could see how it could become a problem. I am also as guilty as the next person for agreeing to something or entering my information online without proper forethought of how the information might be used.

The article talked about three different groups of people that surveys since the early 1980s were able to identify. These three groups identify the majority of people’s attitudes towards Internet privacy. There are the “privacy fundamentalists” (generally express extreme concern about any use of their data and an unwillingness to disclose information), the “privacy unconcerned” (express mild concern for privacy, and mild anxiety about how other people and organizations use information about them), and the “privacy pragmatists”  (far more willing to disclose personal information when they understand the reasons for its use, see benefits for doing so, or see privacy protections in place).

Reading about these groups found from surveys made me think about what group I would believe myself to belong to. Thinking about this led me to think that one of the reasons my generation is a little more trusting of sharing information is because we grew up with the technology. When I was younger I was definitely a “privacy fundamentalist” I refused to use any personal information when signing up for anything. I even used fake names and birthdays to set up emails. However, over the years my view has changed and I believe I probably fall into the group of the “privacy unconcerned” now. I mainly say this because the article pointed out that many people are open to the idea of their experiences on the Internet being more personalized, however I personally have little desire to have my Internet experiences more personalized. I prefer to find things myself and generally don’t like the idea of my experience on the Internet being geared towards myself in any way which is why I still refuse to like business on Facebook or share more than the bare minimum of my personal information. This makes me wonder if others think that their trust of the internet (whether it is high or low) is directly related to their experiences with it growing up as well?

Predicting the Future?

For some reason I have always had difficulty when presented with the problem of imagining the technology of the future. This seems especially odd because I have grown up always loving a good sci-fi story and with so much exposure to predictions of the future I would think that it would fill my head with all sorts of ideas about what the future will hold. However, for whatever reason I still continue to have difficulty with this. I always feel like whatever I think of is either too far fetched or too cliché.

Perhaps this has had something to do with the major advances in technology (particularly in the way that we get news and information) that have taken place in my lifetime. It’s not like I didn’t embrace the technology though, even from a young age I was fascinated with technology. By all accounts it would make sense for the future of technology to be something I am always thinking about but for whatever reason it never really has been. I always imagine that advances will be similar to what I have access too now yet when I think back I would never have thought one day I would be able to type something like this on a portable version of the hulking mass that was our family computer.

I guess in order to try and predict what is ahead it is easier for me to look back over the changes I have experienced in my life and look for a pattern that might continue on. What immediately sticks out to me is the size. Just about everything technology related has been getting smaller over the course of my life from computers to phones to the sizes of electronic files. So, I guess if I had to predict what was in our future I would wager that our technology will continue to shrink, yet while this happens, what these devices are capable will increases dramatically. Even though it’s hard for me to imagine how our access to news and information will become any faster and easier than it already is today I’m sure it will continue to do so.

New Blog

This is a new blog created to share ideas and discussions on various content from the online summer class I am currently taking on online communication.