Flashmobs were interesting to me because I liked the collective creativeness of it all. The process of organizing a massive group of people who were all united in their desire to play a game of freeze or ninjas versus pirates was intriguing. Ones of particular interest were the ones involving little to no communication prior to the event. This is interesting because it illustrates how similar the human mind can think within a collective. For example, if I send out a massive text message or email to a group of unknown strangers, and tell them the vaguest details for a flashmob game of ninjas versus pirates, such as person A will be a pirate and person B will be a ninja, and tell them to meet me at a location, and then watch as these people, who come from different backgrounds and are of individual mindsets, suddenly all respond identically to the same vague orders, creating a hive mind of sorts.
The focus of my paer will based off the hive mind and its connection to technology. In terms of articeles that I would be referencing I could use Rheingold’s piece on flashmobs,the produsagearticle, Friendgame, and remediation
- hive mind; how technology connects to it
-how concept of writing has changed
- technology creates more autonomouslearning
- how course readings changed your understanding/use of technology
In devloping my hypertext assignment, I have decided to focus on the topic of text messaging, specifically the reasons and societal effects of doing so. My idea isn't yet concrete, and is more a lump of coal than it is a diamond. The questions floating through my head that I intend to hopefully consolidate into a defined topic are:
Why do people text more than talk?
Are there societal reasons for this?
Is this generational? Are older people using this form of communication heavily as well?
How are the communication skills of texters? Are they social when the phone is removed from their hands?
Why is there a certain lingo?
What are the possible long term consequences of reliance on text messaging?
Some sub points that I wanted to focus on are the generational differences in text messaging usage. Younger people tend to text more so than older people, and I would like to explore the reasons behind this. I'd also like to focus on the possible societal effects of text messaging, in particular whether or not texting limits or amplifies people's other communicative/social skills.
My experience on wikipedia was a rocky one. I decided to do my project on the health/psychical benefits of playing WiiSports. I researched about 3 sites that provided links to studies on the physical effects of playing the game. Two of the studies were conducted at accretied colleges by big time professors and reserachers, while one study was conducted by a regular blue collar worker in England. Unsurprisingly, the university studies were kept and the one conducted by the blue collar worker was ommited when a user edited my entry. I noticed that entires that provide links from popular accredited research institutes are retained while lesser known ones are not. Even though the study conducted by the british blue collar worker had coverage from several major media outlets such as FOX and NBC, and was a comprehensive study that included day by day and week by results both annotated as well as visual progress, it is still considered, at least in the eyes of the secret society of upper echelon wikipedia editors, as not being legit enough. I struck up a brief conversation with one of the major power players of the wii wikipedia world(try saying that tongue twister 3 times fast) and he told me that while my info was good, that he along with many of the editors on the site tend to side with research studies done by institutions of pedigree rather than personal ones. He wasn't necessarily disputing that the study of the blue collar worker was bad, but simply not credible enough. I appreciated his honesty, but I feel that part should have been retained. I am not mad that they basically re worded and shortened my entire entry, Im not the best when it comes to structure so it probably warranted an edit, but I felt that all of info should have been retained. Other than that I actually found my experience on wikipedia to be a simple and smooth, albeit bias, experience
Flashmobs have been going on for six years, ever since a group of people decided to have some very coordinated, organized fun in a Macy's. The experience has grown exponentially since then, with all different sorts of flashmobs taking place all over the world. From flashmobs involving TAG, to flashmobs involving a game of FREEZE, flashmobs have trancended to a global experience, making the world a giant playground.
Print can add even more to flashmobs and expand the artform via text messages. With traditional print someone would have to take out an ad in a paper, mail letters, or post flyers across the city if they wanted to organize a flashmob. This is archaic and requires entirely too much work. But by text this problem is alleviated.
Imagine a massive game of Red Light, Green Light in the middle of Times Square. Who would be dictating when the light changes? Someone with a bullhorn? Someone with a high powered microphone? No.....someone with Iphone and hell of alot of phone numbers.
I cannot write in pencil. My handwriting is atrocious, perhaps worse than that of a 2nd grader. The sparkling hue of a fresh piece of white paper always seems dark to me in comparison to the illuminating radiation of a computer screen, and in order to sit down and write I must be doing at least five different tasks at once. I am not a writer, I am a typer.
I am truly a product of the digital age, an agent of the informative era. I was born shortly before the advent of mainstream computers embrace by consumers, so I can recall the writing methods of past. I remember when very few people had computers, I remember when I had to write down everything. I remember when I had to use a typewriter if I wanted to be fancy. I remember having to sit down near a phone and actually talk to them, rather than send them a text message while stopped at a red light in my car. I used to be able to do these things. But somewhere along the line I crossed paths with digital convergence, and like Neo's introduction in the Matrix, or Flynn's entrapment in the Tron program, I have found myself unable to escape this vast new world.
Growing up I have always had a desire to write. As a child, my mother used to punish me by taking away my Nintendo and locking up my action figures. I was an only child, so to me this felt like child abuse. I had to find someone or something to display my imagination on, so I decided to use the only thing that she didn’t have the foresight to take away from me: my crayons. She may be able to take away my toys and games, but she couldn’t take away my imagination. So I used my red crayon and wrote a story…..on the wall.
This was my introduction to writing, and even though the beating that followed was painful, it was worth it because I was introduced to an entirely new outlet to express myself. I discovered a way to never be stripped of having fun. Whenever I was bored, whenever I didn’t have my toys, games, or people to play with, I could write. So I started carrying pieces of paper with me everywhere I went. If I was in class and found that Social Studies didn’t carry my interest, then I would pull out my piece of paper and pretend to take notes, but in reality I was writing a short story. On the ride back home I’d write a story, at the reception area while waiting to see my pediatrician I’d write one. Whenever I was lonely, which was quite often, I’d write a story.
Eventually, the number of papers in my pocket began to get too large. My mother took notice of large amounts of paper that would riddle my pants as she washed the laundry, and decided to get me a desktop computer. It may not have been as mobile as a piece of paper was, but at least it would be a much neater way of keeping my writings together. So I would toil away on my state of the art Macintosh, taking all of the thoughts that spun through my head throughout the day, and transfer them on the computer at night. My mother began to realize exactly how full of thoughts my head was, so after maxing out the hardrive within six months of purchase, she gave me my own laptop, that was not only filled with plenty of memory for me to write on, but was nice and compact. Now I could write all the time.
Over the years this evolved into having internet access, which gave me even more writing options, because now I had access to a magical service known as blogs. Now I could see what other people were thinking, and share stories, which made my stories even better. Then I purchased the best invention since the toaster: a cell phone. I finally had found a tool to constantly write with, that was as portable as my old pieces of paper were, but was as endless as my thoughts.
Tech narrative has enabled writing to be expanded to near endless levels. As a writer, I am constantly being bombarded with ideas and thoughts. My stories are dictated by my mind and my eyes, my thoughts and experiences. When something occurs or pops up in my head, it has to be documented. Carrying a pen and pad around is not only messy, but is limiting because it has to be temporarily stored until I can get to computer to edit it. Plus it kills trees. But if I am equipped with a cell phone, or a PDA, and have access to a wireless, streaming network, then not only am I able store my work more conveniently, but I am also able to get it out to the public alot faster. Digital technology is able to transform writing into a stream of thoughts, opinions, and viewpoints, enabling me to place my writing into a sea of other people's writing, and see if how it comes out once it emerges from this sea.
Digital technology has made me a better writer. Though it may have ruined my handwriting, and I dread what would happen if Y2K ever becomes a reality, digital technology has strengthened my writing. I am able to take my constant stream of thoughts and submit it into an even bigger stream comprised of everyone else's thoughts. I am able to be critiqued by my peers, I am able to see the qualities in their writing, and emulate those qualities. I have learned how to communicate through multiple technologies, speak through tools that do not have speakers, navigate through screens of all sizes. I've become more versatile because of digital technology, and though it may seem that my writing is limited to a screen comprised of colors and white light, it is actually endless.
The history of the internet is relatively interesting because there are some obvious, more recent milestones(Youtube, Myspace, Itunes, DRM) that I was relatively aware of, but then there are plenty of other milestones from the past 40 or so years that I had no knowledge of, such as ARPANET, or how WWW wasnt the only one out there, and is merely the most popular. I like how everyone adds what the deem as historic, rather than have to follow a strict guideline and basically copy and paste info from another timeline. This adds to it and makes it "ours"
