“Here Comes Everybody,” Chapter 4 reflection:
The chapter begins by saying that “media landscape is transofrmed, because personal communication and publishing, previously separate functions” are now merging together. The media landscape becomes more miscellaneous. The problem is that bad filtering is mixed with good. In other words, “bad” miscellany clogs up the internet.
Peronal postings, messages, twitts, in-joke photos, and other “user generated content” seem like a bad information that we are better off without. The argument is that this is not really a “bad” information and it is not addressed to the millions of users, instead, in the sea of misc. is simply not intended for everyone to read. Public is not writing it for you.
Internet is like a public place. One can sit in a park and hear a group of friends talk to each other few feet away. The cyberspace is a public park also. Most information that is generated is not even a content, it is just a way of communication with one another.
Communications media is a one-to-one pattern, where one talks another listens, and the other way around. Broadcast media is one source to many recipients. Today’s communication technology is changing and evolving and the traditional ways are “evaporating” Social media networks are the cause to that. It is important for us to understand what we are seeing and not mix up apples and oranges.
Fame Happens. It is obvious that we now are able to accept mayors and city council members as well as famous celebrities to our blogs, posts and pages, and, more than ever we are closer to those people, but… not really… even though these webblogs and pages democratized and socialized the community, the fame the social factor, kept the one-way communication because, simply there are too many inputs from the audience that it is simply impossible to return the favor to all. But with a small groups and social communities, the egalitarianism is possible.
Filtering a tool for Communities of Practice. We so got used to the physical order of things, we can’t stand the messiness of the new media. But in all that mess, we enable ourselves to do more and better things, to share and to find, to create and to consume. I loved the way this paragraph ended is by mentioning that in the past “little things happen for love, big things happen for money.” Well, today we can do big things for love.
Revolution and Coevolution. Today we live in an era of increased “expressive capability” More of us can communicate out to and receive from others. Today we can instantly communicate with the other side of the world only with a split-second delay. The new technology to a modern society presents us with a challenge, at the same time making new things possible. If enough things that were previously impossible today are possible, that is revolutionary. Owning a TV does not make us to be able to create television programs, but owning a computer, makes us create and receive a vast amounts of content.