I thought the discussion tonight went very well. A book like Convergence Culture opens the floor to more straight forward discussion when compared to something like Pynchon where we must dissect and dissect!
Although we did not get to discuss the intricacies of the Matrix, I think we hit upon many interesting topics. The American Idol section proved to be the most engaging section for me. It just raises so many questions. These questions of course involve consumerism, interactivity, and other issues. However, I can not get away from the belief I held in class: American Idol has no value. Even if it gets families together, I still cannot see it as a good thing really. I understand the whole image of the close nuclear family has disappeared, but it doesn’t mean we cannot attempt true family bonding. Do we really bond over television programs? Jeez….I hope not. I pretty much like 4 shows-My kids are doomed!
I would like to also chime in on the whole idea of fan fiction we encountered in the chapter on Potter. Fan fiction is great. The whole idea of it is quite pure and untainted: people fall in love with characters and want to imagine them in their own world. Does anyone consider this canon? Probably not. Therefore, it does not hurt the story of the original work. It really is an homage to the greatness of a piece. Characters like Lupin and Ron Weasel spark so much interest in people that they want to use their time and creativity to feature these players in new adventures. As Ryan pointed out, some people may confuse fan fiction with canonical work. This could be a problem, but if a piece of fan fiction can pull someone in that much to spark confusion, then the original work must be one hell of a piece.
As for the Survivor section, i do not know what to say really. It was rather interesting that so many people from so many walks of life would be collectivized toward a goal. If we committed such efforts to the betterment of our world who knows what we could accomplish? I think that the concept of the “disappearing expert” is a bit over the top. We will always need people to be specialized. A community of specialized people, or even people with specialized connections offers the greatest wealth of knowledge. In some ways, things like Wikipedia are a great example. They started in anarchy(all people contributing wildly), but realizing that people who merely wanted to write profanities Should be monitored, organized it a bit. The moderators do make decisions, but overall, i think it’s for the betterment of that particular enterprise. By the way, Wikipedia is my main source for thumbnail info. They still wanted it to be a unique project, but they can’t have information that says something completely false in face of accepted truths within the group.
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Louis – First of all, I agree with you about American Idol’s completely moronic nature! I’m scared for the families that base their together-time around a show that has no moral value (but yeah, the auditions are hilarious!). I also really find Wikipedia useful for the most part, but at the same time I question your idea that they can’t have information that’s completely false in the face of accepted truths within the group. I guess this may be true of facts when it comes to collective knowledge, but what about ideological truths? They may not have false information, but the information can push an accepted truth and not allow for the questioning of that acceptance. That’s the only thing about collective intelligence like Wikipedia that I find.
I was referring to facts specifically, and i totally agree with your point. I was talking more along the lines of grossly erroneous things that moderators filter out. It’s hard to pinpoint them because they get cleaned up so quickly, and apparently i didn’t make myself clear. Thank you for your post.
Louis
I, too, was upset that we didn’t get to the Matrix. I was hopeful that our discussion of the Matrix as a transmedia text might help us navigate some of these questions we are having about the different ways technologies are bringing people together–or alienating them across greater divides (I don’t know which, yet And I kind of have this theory that Keanu Reeves is always the guy to be bringing up these questions, which makes me wonder if Keanu isn’t smarter than he looks…
I really liked when you brought up the subject of what is happening to “the family” during class and in your post. So far, we have been examining what happens on these generalized, sociological levels, which is fine, but we have yet to see characters grappling with this idea of the lost nuclear family and the loss of communication. I think you might like this WFMU blog post from Mike Lupica–check out the image of the New Yorker cover:
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/11/some-thanksgivi.html
I think it supports your argument in regards to technology and family deconstruction. When I look at the image from the New Yorker cover, I see this:, It’s not saying that these problems didn’t exist before all of our tech gadgets, but these gadgets are serving to further extend the divide.
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In regards to vinyl, completely unrelated to this discussion, the photo of Men at Work’s album was fantastic! I think the fact that you own the record totally earned you a pass for a shopping excursion to Last Vestige. Drop me an email or talk to me in class next week and I’ll see if I can get you set up with the secret stash of 45s.