Considering Internet Culture

Jacob Neilson’s paper Writing for the Web uses studies from several sources to quantify reader habits and behaviors and suggests user and design application of these findings.
Research presented in this paper shows web designers must style their work to better engage the audience. Clearly writing styles for the web must be different from print because the web audience is different. Most users are looking for specific information and will pay attention only for a minute or two.
The average web user does not read the page from top to bottom instead they scan the page in F-shaped patterns for what they need. Some other techniques to captivate the audience:

• Titles/Headings – attract the reader to content with key words
• Inverted pyramid style paragraphs – most important information on top
• Bullet lists – specific concise easy to read
• Images, boxes, colors for pizzaz and to attract the eye – web pages are not linear
• Fonts, bold words or phrases

These all seem like common sense guidelines for average users and web designers. However, for seniors and low literacy users they are essential for positive and productive experience.

Nielsenwire.com showed in 2009 people 65 and older made up less than 10 percent of the active Internet universe but, their numbers are on the rise.

Because of my work with seniors and my parents (80+) I have some insights to the difficulties and frustrations many seniors encounter when using computers.

Most seniors never used personal computers when they were working so they have limited experience or knowledge of the advancements in technology. For example, grasping the concept that the Web is an active medium is a major obstacle for my parents. They also struggle with physical and cognitive challenges of aging that make reading, scanning, navigating, and typing difficult.

• Vision
• Precision motor movements and shaking
• Memory
• Multi-tasking and focusing

Henry Jenkins is an American media scholar and currently a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

He is the author of several books including:Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture and What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic.Nine Propositions Towards a Cultural Theory of YouTube

Henry Jenkins’ blog dated May 28, 2007 presents nine ideas to explain his “Cultural Theory of YouTube” that were adapted from his remarks at the 2007 International Communications Association conference in San Francisco. He describes YouTube as a hybrid media space for commercial, political, social, educational, and grassroots groups.

Jenkins enumerates the ways contemporary culture will be influenced by and relate through production and circulation of media content. Not only does Jenkins recognize YouTube as a marketing tool to measure demographics and economic trends but he foresees a participatory culture growing from YouTube’s technical platform. It supports social and civic engagement and encourages collaboration among its’ users.

Jenkins also has ideas on the importance of youths to participate in the cultural convergence on YouTube. He proposes present and future social skills develop through social networking and participation in new media experiences. He warns that lack of participation and barriers associated with the digital divide will prevent personal growth and access to converging cultural experiences.

I cannot speak to the accuracy of Jenkins nine propositions toward a cultural theory of YouTube because I am part of the non-participatory group. I am part of the over 50 generation and until I went back to school and specifically this Internet Cultures class, I used my computer solely for business. My lack of experience and knowledge of YouTube has not affected my business and social relationships, nor has it prevented me from being a productive member of society. For future productivity and sociability, I can imagine the importance for developing a wider range of technology and social media skills.

In this YouTube video Jenkins discusses the role of digital media in cultural transformation and concerns for the widening participation and digital divide.

http://youtu.be/4tpLIlxaPMM?t=7s

I read the excerpt from “Reality is Broken” by Jane McGonigal with great skepticism. I thought this lady must be joking about her crusade to expand the number of people and hours on gaming for the good of the world. It seems to be a contradictory cause to fix her early points of, the more time people devote to gaming, the more they feel like something is missing in the real world, and reality does not motivate gamers because reality was not designed to “make us happy.”

McGonigal says the book is meant to inform gamers and non-gamers that virtual experiences develop cognitive, behavioral, and organizational skills and can be interpreted to reveal personal core strengths and motivations. Readers will better understand gamers, the benefits of games, and how they can fix real-world problems.

The essence her message was, people should spend time gaming to learn collaborative and cooperative skills, engage in critical thinking activities, and adopt cyberworld habits to make the real world a better place. Among the miraculous changes she claims gaming  will bring about are, fixing our educational systems, treating mental disorders like anxiety, obesity, depression, and managing global problems like climate change and poverty.

I must admit to being tempted several times to get on my soap box and lecture on the joys of living in real life with real relationships, goals, experiences, and the fulfillment of volunteerism and being a productive member of society but then I realize I’m channeling my father. Since I have little experience and knowledge about gaming and her theory I did a little research.

In aTED presentation Jane McGonigal explained how Games like World of Warcraft (WoW) and others inspire players to live in real life like the heroes they are in alternate realities. Character traits like optimism, perseverance, citizenship, fairness, and more are transferable to real life. I looked at two games she used in her presentation to support her theory.

World Without Oil (WWO)

Concept: Imagine the world in 2019 during the first 32 weeks of a global oil crisis

60,000 participants engaged in serious issues in the context of an alternate reality game. However, WWO is no Wow. There is no role playing, super powers, levels, et., only real players living the fiction and reporting their lives and collaborating with other players by phone messages, e-mail, blog, video, and images.

I found countless videos by WWO participants that support McGonigal’ theory that games can be a teaching tool and bring out the best in people and in communities

Superstruct

This was a multiplayer forecasting game that tells of a fictional future world (2019) using video news reports. Players choose a mission from one of five threats: Quarantine, Ravenous, Power Struggle, Outlaw Planet, and Generation Exile, and work on ways to organize the human race and solve the problems.

The game is no longer live, but you can still learn about how the game was played and explore some of the archived game content. I think Superstruct  is much less educational than WWO.

McGonigal’ theory comes with a huge downside. If she is correct that gaming provides teaching tools that are world changing and character building it also stands to reason games promote negative character traits, thoughts, and behaviors; One game may make a hero another makes a villain. I plan to read Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World in hopes of learning how and why gaming is such a powerful magnet for so many people. Next time I get up on my soapbox I’ll know what I’m talking about.

“Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life.” By Danah Boyd (2007

Danah Boyd is a highly published and respected person in social media research, a senior researcher at Microsoft, and fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. What I like about her works is she is clearly happily entrenched in the intersection of social media and youths.
Boyd presents data of ethnographic studies to examine online social practices of teenagers who prefer networked publics like MySpace rather than unmediated public spaces. Boyd posits that networked public experiences are important venues for social and personal development and a safe alternative to restrictive lifestyles and cautions in today’s unmediated publics.
I agree that managing and sharing profiles and links is a learning activity that creates community with social norms and queues. When creating a profile or posting, individuals arrange their thoughts, ideas, and preferences. These tasks give pause for consideration and definition of their true selves and viewing others’ profiles is a form of vicarious learning and modeling for behaviors and ideals. Connected profiles, sharing links, and surfing the network creates larger and more diverse communities than would exist in unmediated public spaces where kids gather.

According to Boyd, networked publics are the first place most youths choose to congregate. So thank goodness they have some healthy and positive consequences. They are facilitators for self discovery, social, and cultural learning and, they compensate for the limited freedoms youths have to explore and play in real life (neighborhoods, parks, malls, etc.,)

However, what is missing from this chapter are any negative aspects of social and emotional development on networked publics. Specifically there is no mention of the uniqueness of real life experiences. A person cannot learn intuition or to read a person’s face or body language on networked publics and youths with countless friends online may learn too late they are socially inept at real life conversations.

Surely there was some data in Boyd’s studies that alluded to such issues but, they must have missed the print somehow. Columnist Pamela Paul of The New York Times describes her as a “rock star emissary from the online and offline world of teenagers” and I would have to agree.

Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy by Lawrence Lessig

Larry Lessig is reportedly the authority on contemporary copyright issues. He is not only a Harvard professor but he is the founder of Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society and chair of Creative Commons. Creative Commons mission is to provide “a set of copyright licenses and tools that create a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates.”

For persons attracted to technology, debates over piracy vs. remixing, and evolving copyright laws and regulations, this book would probably be a good read. However, If you’re a low tech person like me (who would prefer to read a good paperback novel) you may want to view Lessig‘s lectures on these topics. His video on “laws that choke creativity” is both entertaining and informative and, it shows several examples of remixing. Continue reading →

Pramod K. Nayar’ first chapter from An Introduction to Cybercultures and New Media gives an overview of several important issues evolving from advancements in technologies and media forms. Clearly, cultural, social, and economic inequalities exist and future challenges regarding these and others, such as the governing of Cyberspace are important topics for discussion.
An issue mentioned in this chapter that interests me most relates to the permeation of technologies in our everyday lives and how they have changed values, determine emotional states and social status. Today, especially when the iPhone 5 is being released Nayers statement rings true:

The mobile phone needs to be more than a phone – it now has to serve as a personal diary, a health indicator, an entertainment device, and a status symbol….it represents aspirations, lifestyle choices, cultural values, sentiment (empirical research has demonstrated, for example, that people are emotionally attached to their cell phones; see Palen and Hughes 2007;Srivastava 2006), and functionality.

Ryan Williams

Ryan Williams proves this argument. He camped out for days to buy the first iPhone at  Covent Garden in London and was quoted:

There is nothing cooler than being the first. Now I am gonna go home and unpack it slowly and with joy — this is gonna be better than sex!

Really Ryan? Better than sex?

Continue reading →