Reading responses for Jenkins and Boyd

Reading responses:
In response to Jenkins’ four forms of participatory culture; I feel I mostly relate to the affiliations form. I do participate in facebook but choose not to blog online or really shape the flow of media. Besides facebook and e-mailing, I choose not to portray my personal life through the internet. This is just a personal choice of mine because I don’t feel the need to put myself out there for others to see. I’m satisfied with how I live my life offline. When it comes to the ‘new skills’ that Jenkins discusses concerning, there is the possibility for economic implications to be linked to these skills. In the growing world of technology, knowledge related to this technology can help an individual excel in the future. Younger generations are learning to tools needed for participation in tomorrow’s work force, while older generations are being left behind. Due to this the economic implications can be incredibly significant. Companies will be looking for employees who have the ability to push them to the next level, giving them the step ahead for their future. Economic and political power are also implied when discussing these skills. I believe that with economic power comes political power, therefore the points I made above concerning the economic implications of these skills can be linked to political implications as well. Unfortunately money really does rule the political world.
Through the online world, anyone who has access to the internet can become a media creator. Due to video capabilities as well as sites like facebook, youtube, myspace and friendster; anyone can post a variety of types of personal information and ‘publish themselves’ allowing others either a large or small peak into the type of person they have chosen to portray online. I myself do not like putting too much personal information on the internet therefore I choose not to participate in this practice to a high degree. I also don’t have any real special talent in photography, writing or music in which I would feel the need to publish myself in order to receive recognition for others. I usually keep most of my written work private, and this is why having to blog our homework for this class is proving to be a bit difficult for me. I’ve always been self conscious of my writing and worry too much about what other people think of me so I choose not to put myself out there for other people to judge. I don’t really plan on changing these habits throughout my life.
Transitioning to Boyd’s article, he brings up a very valid question which many adults seem to direct towards the younger generation involved with the ‘online world’. “What do people do in Myspace?” This isn’t a question that is easily answered and can be hard to describe to our non internet savvy parents who didn’t have the opportunity to grow up in the world of ipods with the internet, online worlds and the obsessive behavior towards checking facebook and myspace hourly. I see online communities as a way for someone to communicate with the outside world through pictures, wall posts, profile information and blogs or notes. Depending on how people choose to use these online communities will affect the way in which they choose to explain them. Through the internet people see their opportunity to “write themselves into being”. The capabilities involved with this have greatly increased as technology has also increased. We’ve gone from chat rooms to facebook and now we have things like second life, which I never would’ve imagined would come into existence. This may be because I’m not very active in the online world, which somewhat hinders my imagination for what the future may hold. Even now I don’t know the full potential of second life, but maybe after my involvement with it through this class I will have a better grasp as to where online technology is headed.
This younger generation of internet users has created somewhat of a divide between cultures. Those older generations who I mentioned earlier may feel the younger generation is rebelling and using the internet to do this. Through the internet, children and younger adults have a much greater amount of freedom than our parents had when they were younger. The internet opens up an infinite amount of opportunities for a multitude of purposes. This does allow for somewhat of a rebellious attitude since adults may not fully understand what their children are doing on the internet, and this will result in their inability to police their children’s online actions. Since anyone can have access to something like Myspace, then it can’t be qualified as ‘youth public’ but since many adults may not understand myspace, they do have a disadvantage when it comes to being involved in these communities. Due to the lack of existence of specific rulings against adults using these forms of communication, we cannot specify them as youth cultures or anti-adult cultures.