Jenkins

Out of the 4 forms of participatory culture I am most involved with affiliations. I have a Facebook, Myspace, and something called a Livejournal that I check daily. Even though at times I get extremely fed up with both as people take Facebook statuses or relationship statuses too seriously it allows you to be involved in this sort of “online community drama” even if you don’t even know the people. One thing that I love is that these communities allow me to find people that have the same taste in music/movies/etc. that I have, which is nice because I am extremely into music and Facebook helps me to find people that are into as wide of a range of a music that I am into or just into obscure artists that most other people haven’t heard of, but that I have a very strong passion for.
I feel as though some of the skills that are listed on page 4 would be difficult for someone of low economic class to acquire, because they are centered around experimenting with media material. Every one is how much you are able to work with different materials and programs, but if you don’t have the economic ability to buy a computer or a TV you definitely won’t be able to get comfortable with appropriation and the last 6 that are mentioned. However, I feel as though people that don’t have enough money to buy a computer or TV are forced to go out and develop the play, performance, simulation, and multitasking skills. More than likely, if a teenager’s family does not have enough money to purchase a TV or a computer they will have to get a job which puts them out in real world situations which makes them learn to balance work, school, and their social life which leads up to multitasking. However, not being able to just go home and go online or watch TV makes a great impact on the information that they receive, because they will not be able to discern valuable information from fake or over exaggerated information. I believe this is often why you will not see many poor presidents/politicians. In order to be a president you have to know how to represent yourself in the eyes of the public and if you don’t understand how the media works then you may slip up and give the media something that they can exploit just to up ratings. Our world today is solely based around technology and media. You have to type up papers, submit job applications online (I know that Nordstrom ONLY has online applications), and often times friendships are based on whether or not you have keep in touch online, because people don’t have time to call someone and have a long conversation, so writing on someone’s Facebook wall allows for you have to have contact without giving up too much time.
Jenkins has a very relaxed idea of what a media creator is. It can be someone who created a Facebook/Myspace/Friendster profile or someone who just simply blogs on a site like Livejournal, but they want people to value what they have to say in some way. I am a media creator because I participate in all of these, minus Friendster, but not only do I participate, but I put time and effort into creating elaborate profiles that people may find interesting or creating a profile that is so simple people find me “carefree.” Either way I am creating something that I hope people respond to in a positive way and if they read something that they have in common with me they’ll want to get to know me better. I find myself trying to push myself away from being a media creator, however, because in high school I as would sit at my computer at 2am when I have class at 8am the next day trying to convey myself in a real and yet interesting way in my Myspace profile, but I knew that I was interesting, so why did I feel like I needed to try so hard? I’ve come to realize that the internet allows you to be misinterpreted too much. If you have some quirky aspect of your personality you’re not going to want to put that out for the entire world to see, even if that aspect if an important part of your life. Having been so invested in being a media creator on Myspace I’ve used the skill of appropriation to convey myself in a simple yet honest way. But at the same time, I don’t want strangers to be my friend on Myspace or Facebook and everybody else already knows me, so why worry about what I put on there anyways?