Is my childhood media now considered elementary?

Reading Response for Tuesday, 8/27

McLuhan Part I & Multimedia Foundations, Chapter 1

In reading Costello’s Chapter 1, I was taken back to the ‘90s when Netscape, AOL and Minesweeper were things the cool kids did after school on their parent’s Dell computer. If we were lucky (and had finished our classwork in time), fellow grade school friends and myself were granted a few minutes with the classroom’s original iMacs. We’d play “educational games” of course, with “Odell Down Under” being a classic favorite. (Check out this YouTube video of two guys talking through the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTB4jjAZxNQ). Costello reminded me of just how far we’ve come in regard to computers and their capabilities, and I thought I’d recount some of my experiences within this post.

I went from playing Asteroids and Centipede to Oregon Trail and The Sims without even pausing to notice that I’d inserted a disk that gave me access to the new games, the new worlds. If I had only known then what I know now! There’s only a short time frame to work within before something “new” is replaced with something newer. Shoot, by the time I decided to purchase the iPhone 4, the 4s and 5 were already on the market. The same goes for Adobe Creative Suite. It amazes me how quickly our society moves, and I puzzle over Costello’s question as written on page 12: “Is a day coming when you will no longer be able to distinguish between content written by humans and machines?”

A similar question might be the one posed by Dr. Spinda to his COMM 8090 Communication, Culture and the Social Net seminar. He posed: “How much of technology’s evolution is the result of we as humans optimizing it to do what we want it to do?” Two intriguing questions of which I hope to comment on in this blog throughout the semester.

I enjoyed Costello’s words about hypermedia and the nonlinear experience and immediately thought of Netflix as an example of this outlet. While a viewer would typically watch a television program in order from start (Season 1) to finish (Season 6), this form of media allows him to start at Season 4 and bounce around in no particular order. So, too, do the scene selections on DVDs and songs on a CD. I’ve even read some hypermedia texts; “select your own ending” books are known to have readers flip back and forth through the pages, bypassing some and going back to previous others. Will the nonlinear experience become commonplace?

Costello got me thinking about the consumer as the producer and the power of sensational interest on today’s Internet. These are a few videos that came to mind as becoming instantaneous hits after their release:

Sweet Brown’s Original Report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udS-OcNtSWo

Taylor Swift’s Goat Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB_qy53teeE

Five-Year-Old Girl Rapping Nicki Minaj: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9mOIDFYh04

Charlie’s Brother Bites Him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

Within a matter of minutes, these were sensations! Publicity of this magnitude wouldn’t be possible without the Internet (as we know it today) and the effects of social media. Regardless of how “important,” “newsworthy” or even “humorous” these videos are, we’re certainly drawn to them simply because of their popularity and the buzz they receive on the streets. We’re cultivated, as a modern George Gerbner might argue.

I’d also like to briefly comment on Costello’s mentioning of narrowcasting on page 20. While he mentions Pandora Radio, are we not using this same method of filtration for other aspects of our lives? When I subscribe to emails from my favorite grocer, clothing store or online newspaper, I’m prompted to “narrowcast,” or to select simply the categories for which I wish to receive information. I can have my news filtered for me; therefore, I need only open my email to receive pre-determined sports highlights, updated recipes and job/internship queries that I won’t need to sort through later. The work is being done for me.

I’m looking forward to learning new terms and seeing how they impact my every day media use and/or observations. I’m excited to embark on a journey toward “understanding media” and how it came to where it is today.

Sources:

“Let’s Play Odell Down Under.” 12 October 2011. YouTube. Accessed on 26 August 2013. Web.

“Sweet Brown—Original Report.” 10 April 2012. YouTube. Accessed on 26 August 2013. Web.

“Taylor Swift feat. GOAT [GOAT VERSION].” 28 February 2013. YouTube. Accessed on 26 August 2013. Web.

“5-Year-Old-Girl Raps Nicki Minaj Superbass original.” 5 October 2011. YouTube. Accessed on 26 August 2013. Web.

“Charlie bit my finger—again!” 22 May 2007. YouTube. Accessed on 26 August 2013. Web.

Costello, Vic. Multimedia Foundations: Core Concepts for Digital Design. Focal Press, 2013. Print.