Final Reflection
Before this course, I never thought that there are so many deep meanings behind those everyday technologies we use. I am one of those spoiled children of technology, taking things for granted. The memes, remix videos I came across every day and the wikipedia I use to do my homework even the games I play all have deep meanings and relations to us. Writing these four blog posts gave me the opportunities to put the theories that I have learnt in the lectures in use to analyze different things I encounter in my everyday life. It helped to intensify the ideas and explores the internet world in a different point of view.
The most effective blog post
Out of the four blog posts that I have written, i think “Memes, memes everywhere” is the most effective one. In that blog post, I briefly discussed how an internet meme works and further discussed the process involved using the example of Neil deGrasse Tyson in a casual way. I pointed out that internet memes are not just pictures that make jokes, but they are the perfect examples of digital remixing. I reinforced the ideas I learnt in the lectures in this blog post. The idea of memeing, digital remixes and the idea from Lawrence Lassig were effectively explained using an lively example. There were clear explanations on how a meme is formed, how it is a process of digital remixing and the creators’ stances on copyright. Also, there were further readings related to the remixing and memeing issues provided at the end of the blog post. Readers can understand those ideas very easily through the examples provided.
The multimodality involved in that blog post is what makes it effective. Digital media allows us to incorporate more visual elements than before, we can use videos, images, soundtracks etc. to tell things. In “Memes, memes everywhere“, I have included various sources of multimedia materials such as numerous pictures and a YouTube video. Also, I made use of the top-down format. A brief introduction of the topic was put in the top, followed by a number of visual resources to support the idea. Each small paragraph was separated by a related picture. The short paragraphs make it easier to read. And as readers scroll down, they can see how I went deeper in that topic step by step.
The use of hypertext links also made this blog post effective. Hypertext allows readers greater flexibility to create their own reading paths. They can click on the hyperlinks and jump to a new website to read, or stay at reading the original passage. I included several hyperlinks in my blog posts to link to the definitions from wikipedia and several popular discussion boards that I have mentioned. Readers can read the text smoothly without clicking. They can ignore the hyperlinks if they have well knowledge of what that hyperlink is referring to. Readers who have no idea of what they are can click the link and get further information before continue in reading the text. The use of hyperlinks makes it easier for me to get my message across without writing a lot of explanations and definitions. It helps to provide sufficient materials and resources for readers who are not familiar with the topic to dig into the subject. Thus, making my blog post effective.
Reflection on individual blog posts
Memes, memes everywhere
The points that I have discussed in “Memes, memes everywhere” have strengthened. I talked about how internet memes are actually digital remixing of different media and how the original creators feel about copyrights. In fact, a recent example can be added to this blog post to illustrate the ideas.
The video above, Gangnam Style by Psy, has recently gone viral worldwide. It became the most viewed video on YouTube and you could almost hear this every where. The dance and the song were covered by countless people, even celebrities. People remixed the video and the song in various ways, such as making a dupstep version of the song or making an 8-bit video (as shown below),etc. The 8-bit video creator remixed the real-life 3-D video into a digital-based 2-D 8-bit video and it has gone viral as well. I would like to point out that digital remixing provokes and encourages creativity. One viral internet video can lead to countless creative productions. If you search “Gangnam Style” in YouTube, you can find hundreds and thousands of covers or remixes of the original video. The original video and the remixed version helped each other grow.
Also, same as Neil deGrasse Tyson, the original creator of Gangnam Style is happy with all the remixes seen on the internet. Because these videos actually help in promoting the original video. Thus, extending the life-span of a viral video (which usually has short life-span). This again strengthened the points that I have talked about in my blog post, creators usually want people to further remix their products in order to help promoting their creations.
The Internet hates emoticons and online language
In “The Internet hates emoticons and online language“, I have talked about the phenomenon of how internet users react negatively towards emoticons and online language. However, I came across several ACG (Animation, Comis, Games) discussion boards like Komica a few days ago and I found out that the phenomenon I discussed could not be applied there. The users of these discussion boards mainly put their interests in Japanese ACG. And they followed many conventions of Japanese online language. The use of emoticons (especially emoji – Japanese style emoticons) such as （・∀・）and (；д；) is widely accepted. The emoticon “XD” that I have talked about in that blog post is even more commonly used in those discussion boards. Also, the users would use Japanese online language such as “wwwwwwwwwwww” to stand for “hahahaha”. The attitudes towards emotions and online language in these ACG forums are completely opposite to those in mainstream discussion boards. One possible reason would be the users’ fondness of Japanese culture makes them follow the way Japanese internet users talk. And since almost all the users in those ACG discussion boards are ACG fans, they can tolerate this kind of behaviour, or even see it as a norm. After looking at these discussion boards, I would say that the phenomenon that I have described in my previous blog post only exists in mainstream forums where most users are adults or young adults. And the phenomenon could not be found in Japanese-culture-based or teenage discussion boards, in fact, the situations are completely different.
Don’t be another Leeroy Jenkins
In this blog post, I have discussed that one has to be able to cooperate well with others and interpret codes efficiently in order to become a good player. I used some examples to talk about the collaborative skills and texts within games that were mentioned in the textbook. And I have implied that the reason why bad players are bad players is that they failed to collaborate and interpret texts within the games efficiently. However, there is one common phenomenon in games called trolling that I did not mention in the blog post. Players or even internet users that are “trolls” will deliberately do something to piss others off. I always come across this kind of players in the video games that I play. And I always get pissed off by these kind of players. In this case, bad players in video games might not be playing bad because of the lack of skills and collaboration but because of intentionally trolling. Players of this kind might have the ability to interpret different texts within the games well such as subtle cues and different semiotic codes. They might also be good at collaborating with others. But they are just not willing to perform them.
As you can see from this video, this player clearly knows how the game works. He can change weapons well, he knows how the bomb works. Instead of playing the game seriously and collaborate with his teammates, he chose to troll and mess with them. He took all the health packs alone, he threw bombs at his teammates. When he saw a teammate in need for some help, he set fire on them. This is the typical kind of trolling behaviour. A good player deliberately messes up the game for his/her own fun. And this is the point I would like to add to that blog post. Some players can play well, they know how to collaborate and understand texts within games but they just want to mess things up.
The balance of seeking and paying attention
After revising this blog post, I think there is one point that I could add into discussion, that is the identity people present and build online. As mentioned in the textbook, there are generally two kinds of identity management: equipment for displaying information and equipment for concealing information. The issues of seeking too much attention and paying too much attention are directly related to online identity management. People who seek too much attention, that is the “attention whore” I mentioned in my blog post, wanted to build a vulnerable image online. They post vague statuses about being upset and lost in search for comforting comments. These kind of statuses build them a vulnerable image. Also, the kind of girl who posts way too many photos online is also building her own online identity. This kind of girl wants to present the fun part of their lives. Photos showing them going different places, with different friends help in building a positive image which the poster is outgoing, fun and confident. On the contrary, people who pay too much attention without seeking attention actually tried to conceal the information and not to build an online identity. They chose to be those people who only read but not reveal. They want to conceal their information, they do not want to reveal their lives to the people on the internet or in their social network. These would good points to add into that blog posts as the online identity management is closely related to the attention structure online.
Conclusion
To conclude, I appreciate the opportunities to write blog posts. To craft a good blog post, I need to understand the ideas taught in the course thoroughly and use lively examples to illustrate them. After writing those blog posts, I understand the ideas more deeply and I am able to use the theories taught to analyze different internet phenomenon. This whole course has been a fun and useful experience which I can explore different aspects of digital media that I encounter every day. As an addict of social networking, video games etc., this course introduced me the meaning, development and thought process behind these things. I hope you feel the same way as I do. Thanks Dr.G.
Curiouser and curiouser 