To what extent does the web form social identity.

In the era of intense social media, where people distribute their thoughts in 140 characters, and emoticons. A service like twitter, has not only allowed regular, average Joe's, like myself to interact with celebrities, or sports figures, it also detracts from said celebrities privacy.

With celebrities differing from lower league footballer, to "leader of the free-world", twitter has transcended the way we discuss and converse the goings-on in our own life, sharing public conversations on the net, for all people to read, and even join in.

Even websites like youtube, and a variety of blogs have a comments section, a section which is often fuelled with hatred, especially i've noted when it comes to sport, where rival supporters systematically insult and demean the other, the majority in anonymity.

This is an example of sticking to a social group, or alligning yourself with people similar. For example, as an avid supporter of Oxford United, if given the option to socialise with another set of people who share this support, or a group that follow a rival team, I would allign with people of my own ilk.

This view is supported in "This classic social experiment", where young boys were instructed to select one of two paintings they prefer. Experiment leader Henry Tajfel thought "it seemed impossible that people stood together for only 30 seconds can be said to form a group in any measurable way".

The experiment saw two groups split, one which preferred each individual painting,

When labels are branded so easily, and carelessly, when you can be dubbed a chav, an emo, a goth or a prep without having many common traits to either clique. It seems in a contemporary society every person needs to be grouped to maintain a social order.

According to Mooney, Knox and Schacht 2000, a social group is "two or more people who have a common identity, interact and form a social relationship. Would this mean Adolf Hitler and Benoit Mussolini would be a social group. They both shared a belief in fascism?

Social idnetity is a situation which is locked full of stereotypes and cliched thinking, the web has only helped to excacerbate these, with new volumes to air out uneducated, unnecessary words or phrases to group, and reduce people to a certain number of people they could be associated with.

21st Century News

News has always been seen as the writing and reporting of major events, whether it be local, national or International interests. A stories importance or significance was justified by its place in its publication, or how visible it is online.

Their has always been various types of news, politics, business, sport to name but a few, yet with the dramatic change in how we can view news, a great help being the inception of online news outlets. With news now accessible at the click of a mouse, and newspapers and their sales evaporating, the type of news we desire has also changed with it.

From days where news would be seen as political and royal affairs, the soaring popularity of tabloid papers or “red-tops” have certainly changed the topics of what news is reported. Galtung and Ruge (1973) discussed what they interpreted as news values in their book, they narrowed it down to 10 key components.

These were revisited by Harcup and O’Neill who modified and altered how they interpreted the values. Values such as celebrity personifies 21^st century news, where media and paparazzi court and follow actors, singers, T.V personalities etc, with intense scrutiny. Personalities like Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan or closer to home Amy Winehouse showed how intensely the media can follow a specific person, and treat there life as an ongoing narrative of news. The below video shows Charlie Sheen's interviews being autotuned and produced into song.

TV stations such as BBC and SKY now possess 24 hour news coverage where any breaking news is sized up and reporting within a blink of an eye of it happening. This, to all is not seen as a positive however with “Kovach and Rosenstiel” who proclaimed in their book “Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed Media” that journalistic standards had slipped and that “the press has moved towards sensationalism, entertainment and opinion” rather than just reporting the facts.

Some breaking news, to the females chagrin

Social Media has also seen a way of news being reported around the clock, with any user of Facebook, Twitter amongst others, having the ability to distribute news, whether it be fact or opinion, a reason for explaining the number of hoax celebrity deaths that are reported. The convergence of technology has also allowed news to travel to anyone anywhere, as most phones will possess cameras and internet, allowing news to reach them instantly.

The surging, and sheer addiction to sport, whether it be the latest injury news, gossip or whether a so called “expert” has shared their wisdom with the world, there is a huge market for sport, filling the need for values like celebrity and entertainment,

In stores and on the web there’s sports only sections, with most sports having journalists working specifically on their sport. Websites, such as Bleacher Report, have given the opportunity for anybody with enough journalistic talent to write and put forward their views and opinions to a mass audience. This, again concurs with Kovach and Rosenstiel and their notion that entertainment is surpassing professionalism.

Football only paper

A collage of various news outlets reporting the same story.

The art and meaning of cyberspace.

Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place. The term itself was coined by a science-fiction author, William Gibson. Gibson first used the term in his novel "burning chrome", published 1982.  Gibson furthered the term dramatically to years later in his novel "Neuromancer" where he referenced cyberspace as a "consensual hallucination experienced daily by a billion of legitimate operators".

The idea of cyberspace isn't exclusively a positive. Since the inception of the internet, and cyberspace, we've seen the uprising of "computer crime". Computer crimes include money laundering, hacking, copyright infringement and child pornography. Often in cyberspace, hacking, viruses et al are commonplace as the "hacker" systematically abuses, and infects your computer. Programs are put in place to thwart these viruses. Programs like "Norton's anti-virus software" is available at all computer retailers in a bid to put a halt to inflicted viruses.

Computer crimes such as hacking have become more common, with both Sony and Microsoft having their system hacked into regarding their video games systems and card details, amongst other things being recorded and used without consent or permission. Viruses are also a danger to your computer, e-mails often are sent with a potential risk if it's an unknown user. For example the "Friends" episode where Chandler infects Ross's computer by trying to download an email he has been sent, yet doesn't know who by, however the title drew him in, and manipulated him into opening it.

Cyberspace and the internet have surpasses television as the medium posing most dangers and risks for adolescents (Common Sense Media 2006) . With the exploitation of and easy distribution of illicit, sexual material, many parents fears are understandable (Galbreath and Berlin 2002).

The London school of Economics performed a study that results showed 90% of 8-16 year olds have viewed pornography on the internet.

Cyberspace now is seen and defined more as the "social interactions involved rather than the real technical implementation" (Morningstar and Randall-Farmer), they said that the core characteristic is it offering an enviroment that consists of many participants with the ability to affect and influence each other.

The cyberspace as a whole, offers direct communication in ways that have never been seen prior. The internet has provided a direct interface with other users, yet the security and restrictions that aren't always apparent may make "cyberspace" a harmful enviroment for those unaware of what they could potentially have at their disposal.

Does history help us understand digital culture?

To quote "wikipedia", the history of the internet begins in the late 1950's. The starting point on the metaphorical food chain were point-to-point connections and the early research into "packet switching". This co-incided with the "cold war", a bitter dispute between two of the worlds' superpowers (U.S and the Soviet Union).

Although the history of the internet may have started around that specific time, the origins of computing had started decades before. In the 1920's, the term computing was defined as "any machine that performed the work of a human computer". The first, pro-active usage of the computer was among this timeframe as millitaries began trying to create machines that could intercept and break opposition codes.

In 1943, the first great computing breakthrough was engineered. Alan Turning, in all his infinite wisdom manufactured and constructed "Colossus". A computer used for code breaking, and to read encrypted German messages during world war 2, "Colossus" was the worlds' first electronically programmed computer.

In 1962, the first computer game was played for the first time. "Spacewar Computer Game", albeit not at the level of graphics of a modern day first person shooter, it set the benchmark for games to be built upon. Created at the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T), the game later modernised for the Atari console.

The 70's saw the invention of E-Mail, by Ray Tomlinson at the start of the decade, this preceeded the invention of the floppy disk and the CD. By 1973, the first mini computer xerox Alto was "a landmark step in the development of personal computers". (history-timelines.org)

After Apple and Microsoft joined the fray in the mid 70's, computers began to distribute, with over half a million being in use in the United States by the end of the decade.

The 80's saw a development in the quality of technology with the Apple MacIntosh, the Commodore 64 and then later, the Nintendo hitting the shelves and metaphorically setting the cat amongst the pigeons. By 1986, the U.S has over 45 million PC's in use. All this took a back seat to the next big breakthrough.

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee fronted a team who developed "a hypertext system", which the following year  got the ball rolling on perhaps the most important invention in new media. The Internet. Thanks to the inception of the Internet we can post an e-mail or instant message anywhere across the globe, in a matter of seconds. We can keep in contact with friends through social media, despite living miles apart. The internet socially pulled people together, and in turn changed the modern world.

Since then, Amazon, Facebook, Java, Youtube have all been introduced to the world, Web 2.0 has taken over, and changed the way we browse, the way we purchase items, the way we converse.





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From this (Colossus)



To this.

This blog is...

Is this a blog that will consist of me exporting "Dear Deirdre"-esque advice for anyone reading? I would imagine not. Is it likely to be a step-by-step guide on how the political system is progressing, or regressing? Again, not likely.

To me this blog is the unravelling and distribution of what I think, or what i want/need to learn on digital culture. Whether it is the evolution of the internet, or whether it is the interactive nature of television. This blog aims to to release impactful, relevant postings regarding digital culture and varying aspects and facets of it.

The difference between this blog, and a blog, for example grantland.com is that this blog doesn't have a full repetoire of writers and reporters. It has me! A solitary blogger, with a little bit help from links, images and videos. This blog also won't address "sports and pop culture" in the detail "grantland" does. This blog will focus on digital culture. The internet, television, radio, etc.

The one way in which these blogs perhaps would be seen as similar is they both deal with aspects of "digital culture", both have/will address film and video games as genres. Both will write about the improvement of graphics, gameplay, high-definition. Both will write about if/how 3D is changing the way we watch film, TV. What is the future for 3D? Can it be watched without glasses?

One thing this blog will incorporate, like the vast majority of others, especially on blogger is a comments section underneath each post. This allows anyone reading to come forward with any queries or opinions on the content they've read. This allows for a more approachable writer-reader interface. The comments section is also extremely beneficial for me, as it allows me to easily see what I've done right, or if there's something I've done wrong or if the piece lacks something.

Also, similar to other bloggers, I can link the blog with a plethora of social networking sites. For example, my other blog has my five most recent tweets underneath the wall paper on the right side margin. Links to blog posts can immediately be posted to “Facebook” and appear on your profile for others to see. This is a very quick, cheap way of enticing new readers, which in turn can create a more active blog.

The "useful links" feature is also a preference of mine, similar to placing a website in your "favourites" it protects you from searching through “Google”, or trying to remember a name, as it will permanently be on your blog, their for you to find. This also helps the readers, as if you found something useful, the readers will more than likely find the article, blog etc what you're claiming as "useful" informative and necessary aswell.

In reality, this blog won't be fresh political satire. It won't be a "Perez Hilton" look into the Hollywood life. It will hopefully offer an intriguing look into the world of technology, see the transformations we've made and what could/will be done in the future.

Why Study Digital Culture

Digital culture, or the “information age” is the “period from 1970 onwards noted for the consumption and manipulation of information, especially by computers and computer networks”.

But why study the advancement of the last 40 years?

Digital culture is a culture of ever-changing advancements. Perhaps, and in my opinion the greatest advancement of recent times has been the inception of Web 2.0. The giant leap from it’s predecessor (web 1.0) has furthered, and deepened what and how we can browse the world wide web.

Before Web 2.0 their was no online shopping, gaming, even things like hyperlinks, facets of the internet and of the computer we now think of as second nature. All websites were HTML based. This video, “The machine is Us/ing us” by Professor Mesch from Kansas state, gives a glorious insight into Web 2.0 and the technological advancements it presents.

In a world where modern media is always surging to more astounding inventions and furthering what we can do with electronics, it gives a different perspective of living from my generation (the first who always had computers at their disposal) and ones previous. For example, aside from a T.V and a radio, my Grandmother’s house doesn’t possess anything of new age modern technology. Compared with me and my video games, TV’s, laptop etc, shows the difference in who relies on electronics for working, hobbies and in this case, writing blog posts.

We now habit a society where a walkman, an idea marvelled and revered not 20 years earlier sits at the bottom of the metaphorical food chain, whilst I-Pod’s, MP3’s  and less likely, Zune’s all become first choice(s) when it comes to listening to music. A society where I can play video games with people scattered around the globe from the comfort of my armchair. All that is required is a solid internet connection and 40 pounds out of my bank account. Who would of thought that was possible back when we were playing our “Sega Mega Drives”.

Digital culture is a fast-paced world full of miraculous and unfathomable inventions and discoveries, and it’s all something I want to know about, and perhaps be apart of. Whether it be something like digital radio, or something more drastic like a life-like robot with similar human emotions and life-like realism, something that’s well under way in Japan right now. This video shows just how far they’ve come.

Five years ago, the thought of robots to me were just converted “celebrations” tins with antennas on fighting on “Robot wars”. Yet now, with robots with human capabilities almost inevitable. What does the future hold for humans?

It’s all a part of a great, ongoing mystery. One I’m relishing!