The Great Seduction

1.) Keen refers to democratized media as "the great seduction" because it has so many possibilities, so much revolutionary potential. In most people's eyes it promises that the latest media technology in the form of will enable everyone to become widely read writers, journalists, movie directors and music artists. It also mistakenly suggests that everyone has something interesting to say. In the world we live in today most people tend to over-share, whether this is through frequent status updates, tweets, or posting videos of personal moments and events. Another issue is that many people are just looking to get their fifteen minutes of fame. An example of both of these issues is this video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs. As soon as this home-made video begins there is a pop-up to "click here to see our new video," which shows that these people are just looking to get as many views as possible. Keen's main argument against democratized media is that it will have a destructive effect upon our culture, especially criticism. He says that "taste resides with an elite of cultural critics able to determine, on behalf of the public, the value of a work-of-art." With democratized media the value of a "work-of-art" may now be determined by how many page views something gets, regardless of its aesthetics or message. People with little or no talent can become famous over night.

2.) Keen has an extremely negative view towards democratized media. He believes that it will lead to the destruction of our culture if it hasn't already. He believes that it allows people with little talent to become popular and influential even though they don't have anything important to say; in short amateurs are phasing out professionals. Professionals are having a harder time making a living because everyone is stealing. In Keen's opinion the internet trivializes culture to the extent that everyone is uploading, broadcasting...etc. He believes that objectivity is gone because bloggers cherry pick facts to support their point. We need objective professional journalists who responsibly collect the news rather than anonymous bloggers with their own motives. Rushkoff on the other hand, believes that advances technology and social media may in fact benefit our culture. While he acknowledges some possible drawbacks of media technology, such as distraction and ineffective multitasking, addiction, and possible cognitive effects, he believes that the positives outweigh the negatives. He thinks that social media provides us with better and easier ways of communication and ways of obtaining information, that it gives us more control over what is in the media. In my opinion, I think Keen is too critical of democratized media, while Rushkoff is too positive about it. I think that people should be educated on how to use the internet and obtain information from reliable sources, but I also think that it is important to see professional and amateur work and that social media has done wonders for communication.

Social Media and the Wisdom of Crowd

"The Mob"

             When I turned on the radio this morning on my daily commute to school, I expected to hear the inconsequential chit chat that I normally hear, but instead I was shocked and disturbed to hear about a suicide committed by a freshman student at Rutgers University. Why did this 18-year-old student, Tyler Clementi, end his life by jumping off of the George Washington Bridge? His roommate, Dharun Ravi, used his webcam to secretly broadcast Tyler kissing another male for all the world to see. On September 19, Dharun Ravi tweeted “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” The day after this Tyler updated his status on Facebook to say “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.” His two classmates have been arrested and charged with invasion of privacy, which could get them up to five years in prison, but is this enough to prevent it from happening again?

            This sucide demonstrates the immense capability of the Internet as a way to torment other people and yet this is certainly not the first time something of this nature has happened. In 2006 thirteen-year-old Megan Meier hanged herself after she was cruelly dumped supposedly by the boy of her dreams via Myspace messages. It turns out this “boy” was the mother of a fellow student who wanted to get back at Megan for something she had done to her daughter. This is a perfect example of the anonymity of the internet; you can pretend to be anyone to take out your anger on your victim. Another example? Earlier this year 17-year-old Alexis Pilkington took her life after receiving a barrage of hurtful messages. These are just a couple of examples of the irreversible damage that cyber bullying can inflict. After these suicides have been given national attention it would seem that something more would be done to combat cyber bullying or that teens would understand the consequences of such actions, and yet cyber bullying continues.

            According to Yahoo News, Gregory Jantz, the founder of A Place of Hope, a mental health care center in Seattle states that: “young people who use the Internet to spread something damaging about others often don't realize how hurtful it can be because many of them have grown up in a world that has blurred the line between public and private.” I think this is a completely accurate statement. In the world we live in today adolescents feel the need to share everything through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. By clicking on your profile almost anyone with a Facebook account can see your relationship status, pictures, and updates about anything from making a trip to the grocery store to a painful break up. It has been reported that Facebook has over 500 million active users, while Twitter has approximately 145 million registered users, most of whom have the capability to update their statuses at anytime, anywhere with the technology present today.

            What does this mean for harassment? For one thing, “cruel gossip and vengeful acts once confined to the schoolyard or the dorm can now make their way around the world instantly via the Internet, along with photos and live video” (Mulvihill and Henry). This brings harassment and bullying to a whole other level. As Marlene Sandstrom, a professor of psychology at Williams College whose research has focused on social vulnerability during childhood and peer relationships at school, has pointed out, cyberbullying shares many features with traditional forms of harassment. These include “a clear intent to harm and the hostile use of power within the context of a relationship.” However, it is also very different from traditional harassment in many ways which make it more sinister and dangerous.

            Sandstrom states that it is difficult for the victims of cyber bullying to escape it because they can be tracked and assaulted constantly for two main reasons. The first is that bullies can harass their victims through emails, texts, chat rooms, and social websites such as Facebook, all of which can be used continuously at anytime of the day. Bullies can continue to harass their victims even after physical contact has ceased. “Walking away from the perpetrator, avoiding contact, or finding a protective ally (which often helps in the context of traditional bullying) no longer does the trick” (Sandstrom). Secondly technology provides anonymity, in comparison with traditional bullying which can often be observed and addressed. I think this is one of the main reasons people use the internet as a means for harassment; people who would never bully someone face to face believe that they are much less likely to get caught and receive punishment. They may also participate in cyber bullying because they fear that standing up to the bully or even removing themselves from the situation could cause them to become the next target, not unlike traditional bullying.

            Cyber bullies are also able to “wield their power,” which is what most bullying is about, from far away, which makes it less likely that they will have to face any consequences.  This fact most likely makes it even easier for bullies to ignore the impact of their actions on the intended target. In addition, the potential audience for cyberbullying is almost infinite. “Traditional forms of bullying typically occur in front of a handful of witnesses, but cyberbullying can be witnessed by hundreds, thousands, or even more online viewers” (Sandstrom). In addition to this, cyber bullies can exploit social networking sites to gang up on their victims.

            There is no doubt that the internet is a wonderful thing; it provides endless hours of entertainment, information on anything you need to know in a matter of seconds, and multiple ways to communicate almost instantaneously with anyone anywhere. Unfortunately this connectedness also has a downside. The internet is also an outlet for bullies who take advantage of its anonymity and ease of communication. So, regrettably connectivity often does equal cruelty and misbehavior because people are able to get away with much more than they would if they harassed someone in person. There are few things that can be done to prevent cyber bullying, the best of which are educating children about the severity of its consequences and strictly enforcing punishments when it occurs in the future.

Sources:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100930/us_yblog_upshot/suicide-sparks-outrage-on-rutgers-campus 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100930/ap_on_re_us/us_student_taped_sex 

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/09/30/cyberbullying-and-a-students-suicide/more-insidious-harassment 

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/09/03/how-many-people-are-actually-using-twitter/

Social Media and Web 2.0

1.) I think that amateur user-generated content will continue to get better overtime instead of professional production values continuing to drop. I think that the technology required to make higher quality "productions" will become more accessible to the general public when prices on technology come down, as they always do. Even websites like YouTube that feature amateur productions are adding new features for HD viewing. I think that if professional productions were to sink to an amateur level they would become less attractive for most people who count on a certain quality from them. I think that currently both have their place in the media. For example "reality t.v." is popular because of the amateur quality of production but that is only because it complements the whole idea of it...people want to believe that what is happening in these shows is not staged and that it could therefore just as easily be captured by a friend or relative picking up a video camera. While the concept of reality t.v. may be around for a while because it is very popular and inexpensive to produce, I think the quality will begin to improve. On the other hand, people are more likely to go to The New York Times to get quality, reliable coverage of the news, as opposed to a video someone uploaded to YouTube.

2.) The social media site that I use the most is Facebook. I log into Facebook daily to feel more connected to all the people in my life whom I'm not able to see on a day to day basis. I like that Facebook has so many different features available for communicating with people: Facebook chat, wall-to-wall, and messaging. Facebook can also be used to share pictures and videos. I never had a Myspace...I wasn't allowed to because my parents didn't think that it was safe. I think one of the reasons Facebook is more popular than Myspace is because it is much more secure and has a lot more privacy options. I think that Facebook is also easier to use and has a lot more options for communication. I think Facebook is here to stay for the long term because it is user friendly and has something for everyone.

3.) Transparency is extremely important in the online world of social networking. Without transparency sources would no longer be trustworthy. How would we believe that someone meant what they said if they were getting paid or compensated in some way to say it? We obtain so much of our information from the internet that we have to be able to trust that the information we are getting is the truth. I think that transparency is even more important in the offline world because being an open and accountable communicator is necessary in order for people to be interested in and believe what you have to say.

In Class Photoshop Assignment

For this in class assignment I chose iTunes and iPods. I wanted to play off of the traditional iTunes commercials and visuals with the black silhouettes dancing around listening to music on their iPods to show that iPods are changing/have changed the way we listen to, purchase, and store music.

McLuhan Photoshop Assignment Final Draft

All images found on monitor can be seen and read in a larger size on my previous post.

           For my Photoshop assignment I chose to use YouTube as my media. The content that can be found on YouTube is video, images, audio, speech, language, music, text, and photos. To portray the messages associated with YouTube I chose to use a computer monitor with the customary YouTube video screen displayed on it. YouTube is now giving corporations the opportunity to advertise on their website and these advertisements often appear before your video is shown. The advertisement that I created says: "Your [world] Here." With this statement I was trying to convey the message that anyone with an internet connection can post a video on YouTube that can be viewed by a worldwide audience and therefore that we are very connected. In addition to being able to post your own videos and reach a worldwide audience, the world is also yours in the sense that through these videos there is a lot of information available our fingertips because people can search for and find just about anything. I chose the image in the bottom right corner of the monitor because to me it means this is, in a sense, "Our"Tube and anyone can use it. I think it also transforms "tube" into a verb by implying that we tube, he tubes, she tubes, etc. This shows that posting videos and viewing videos has become extremely prevalent in our society today.
            Several of the images that I chose to display convey similar messages. The image in the top left corner says "Gallery of Great Presidential Campaign Strategists" and images of Lee Atwater, James Carville, and Karl Rove are shown. In addition to them is the image of an anonymous (and seemingly young) boy using YouTube. This shows that people posting videos on YouTube have a great amount of influence over their viewers, maybe too much? Enough to influence who becomes president? Are people simply watching these videos and buying into whatever someone has to say? Have we, as a nation, become too lazy or too easily manipulated or unable to form opinions of our own? These are some questions to consider.The videos and their messages that are being posted on YouTube are not going unnoticed by our worldwide or nationwide audience. YouTube has also transformed the way ideas, news, and information are spread.
            The second image shows a young boy holding a video camera while his father is in the shower. The boy is saying "Relax Dad! You'll be famous on YouTube." This cartoon shows that many of the people posting videos on YouTube are solely looking to display themselves and get their fifteen minutes of fame. In addition to that it also shows that people do manage to get "famous" because content is more important than presentation and if you have something funny to show people want to see it. The content that people want to see is other people like themselves, not professional productions. Many people, such as this boy, who post videos on YouTube use handheld video cameras that are not very high quality and yet this doesn't matter.
            The next image is a cartoon of a woman in labor whose husband is holding a video camera and saying “Push, Honey! YouTube has a ten minute limit!” I think this cartoon demonstrates that in the world we live in today most people tend to over-share, whether this is through frequent status updates, tweets, or posting videos of personal moments and events. Why do we over-share? To feel important? To feel more connected than we are with a false sense of intimacy? Either are legitimate answers. Another point that this image makes is that most videos on YouTube are under ten minutes long. Does this suggest that our attention spans are not very long? We want to learn and be entertained by one thing for a short amount of time and then quickly move onto the next thing. Society has seemingly become very distracted and unable to focus attention on one thing for very long, we are constantly seeking new entertaining stimuli.
            The image in the top right corner is a “retro” advertisement for YouTube which reads “Your films will last forever on YouTube the champion address on internet.” This demonstrates the fact that YouTube can be, and often is, used for archiving such as speeches or clips from concerts. The last image is a cartoon about cell phones featuring YouTube videos. On one side it says that “the impact will be huge.” The other side shows about a half dozen automobile collisions. This conveys a lot of messages about society. First of all, it shows that the internet in general, and YouTube specifically, are very time consuming for this generation. Some people spend a lot of time putting videos together and the majority of people spend a lot of time watching and being entertained by these videos. We are no longer good at entertaining ourselves and we feel the need to be constantly entertained, even when doing other tasks that require all of our attention—like driving. While the effects of this medium may be open to debate this is my interpretation.

Photoshop Progress

Here are some of the images I will be using for my project:

 

Photoshop Assignment Part 1

The medium I am focusing on for this assignment is YouTube.

Some of the content associated with YouTube is video, images, audio, speech, language, music, text, photos

The conveyed messages:
1.) Anyone with an internet connection can post a video on YouTube that can be viewed by a world wide audience - we are very connected.
2.) Users want to watch other people like themselves, not professional productions. People may fictionalize situations/scenarios and videos in order to gain attention.
3.) Corporations can use YouTube for marketing.
4.) Used for archiving; speeches, clips from concerts, etc. 
5.) In addition to being able to post your own videos, people can search for just about anything, including how-to videos, there is a lot of information at our fingertips.
6.) It can be used as a tool to display yourself and your talents for people all over the world to see and judge, many people are looking to get famous, and some have.
7.) The internet and computers are very time consuming for this generation - some people spend a lot of time putting together videos or being entertained by them. We are no longer good at entertaining ourselves without technology.
8.) Content is more important than presentation, if you have something relevant and interesting to say people will tune into it.
9.) Most clips are under ten minutes long - our attention spans are not very long? we want to learn and be entertained by one thing for a short amount of time and then move on to the next thing.
10.) It has transformed the ways ideas, news, and information are spread.