As expressed in Lunenfeld's article our
society is moving away from download based media towards upload based
media. Here he is describing how
download based media was media that the audience has passively consumed and ‘downloaded’,
whereas upload based media, demands the audiences participation to upload and
create their own media. He puts
forth the idea that we are moving from a consumption model to a production
model and describes television, which was once the main source of domesticated
media, as “the high fructouse corn syrup of the imagination.” This expresses how television requires
no individual thought or imagination and instead the audience becomes sheep that
passively consume what the advertisers paying want them to hear. Uploading, on the other hand requires
active audience participation which expands individuals opinions and knowledge
of different forms of media.
As the Internet continues to expand we see how
uploading for ourselves is possible more and more through the convergence of
different types of media. Take
Facebook for example, what used to be simply a social media site to converse
and keep up with friends, has turned into a website that connects video functions,
audio functions, web pages for bands, movie stars and television shows and more
functions that one could possibly hope to harness alone. Like Sterne argues though, while its
true we are able to upload for ourselves “our
deepest commitments—to inclusion, equality and participation within a public—bind
us to practices whereby we submit to global capital”. In the example of Facebook, yes we are
able to use the functions to our advantage, but we are still consuming main
stream media and products by 'liking' the pages of television shows or other
cultural product pages.
Corporations use social media that is based on active participation, to get
people participating in what will make money for them in the long run. So still in an era where active
participation is encouraged, we are still essentially being controlled for the
sake of consumerism. This is
however now the only way in which corporations can continue staying in business
as forms of advertising on television have become less effective with the rise
of the Internet.
Who would ever think that I would feel sorry
for the large corporations that have been brainwashing my mind to consuming
products but as the Internet is expanding towards new media, television, music,
movie and advertising industries have needed to try extremely hard to keep the audience
engaged in their products. Since
the age of “produsage” the music industry especially has been fighting hard for
artists(and producers of course) to continue making money as it is now so easy to pirate songs of the
Internet. Similarly, movies and
television shows are less consumed through businesses, and more so freely
online with streaming and downloading website littering the Internet. This being said, I am sure the
corporations will find ways of continuing to make money, but they are going to
have to exploit the new media that is continuing to emerge, such as through pages on Facebook.
Everything
is done online or on a computer now, and we are finding new ways to make the
Internet accessible at all times, such as having it on phones or now on the
iPad. Technology has expanded so
much that I would not be surprised if in the next 50 years that our use of
paper could be completely erased and instead we will do all of our writing on
individual iPad’s or something similar. If the Internet and especially social media had not become so popular, I doubt that such technology would be created so quickly. As Rheingold discusses it was the power of communities and connectivity, like Facebook, that are the heart of the digital era and not specific technology like the iPad. This of course would not be a bad thing as it would help the
environment, but it just shows how much the Internet and the convergence of
different types of media and technology have changed, and are continuing to
change our every day lives.
Through
taking this course I have realized how many different tools for sharing your
ideas are really on the Internet.
While I have always assumed that these sort of functions were possible
given the immense library of apps and websites on the Internet, I had never
before used them or thought of using them to spread my own ideas. Now that I have had the opportunity to
share my opinions on a virtual world I have to say that it feels good to see
775 pages views on my blog, a number that I would have thought unachievable for
me, even if most of the views are my own classmates and professors. The feeling that someone is actually
reading and is interested in what I have to say makes me more inclined to
continue to use forms of social media to do some of my own ‘uploading’.
