Get a Life!

In “Get a Life!“ Henry Jenkins discusses textual poaching. According to Jenkins, poaching is “an impertinent raid on the literary preserve that takes away only those things that are useful or pleasurable to the reader.” Jenkins says that what you need to enjoy and should enjoy is told to you. Boundaries of taste are in continuous struggle. At a young age, we are taught that bad taste is unacceptable, and what is considered bad taste. In addition, in school we are taught how to understand things. When we read works from different authors, our teachers expect us to understand it correctly. When an author writes a text, they put some form of meaning to it. Thus, if we do not understand the author’s intentions and meanings of their writing, then our teachers reduce our grade.

Fans on the other hand, read and interpret texts differently than how it is taught in school. Fans read author’s texts, take part of their texts or paragraphs, rearrange, rewrite, and do whatever they want to it. They distort the meaning to introduce new meanings. This is what Jenkins describes as poaching. Fan reading is more participatory than reading for educational purposes. Fans don’t want to sit in couches all day and be locked down to authority. They are obsessed with, love, and adore some form of art but are frustrated because something is implied but not pursued. Thus, they decode and fragment the text and recreate another form text. They participate in the creation of their own meanings, which is where the production of other forms of media comes into place.

Through this, Jenkins states that there is a constant struggle for controlling the meaning of texts. This is why teachers penalize students for not understanding the author’s meaning of their text. Through this, they do not allow any forms of expression. If students were to express their thoughts about text differently than the author’s intentions, then they would fail. This is a form of control that the teacher has in order to control the meaning of texts. There’s a struggle for controlling the meaning in texts. Regardless of if the meaning is implied or not, it still introduces contradictory meanings, or things that would annoy the author. Many people do this.

An excellent example of poaching is shown through a YouTube Video of the Teletubbies. The Teletubbies is a show for young children. However, someone took clips of the Teletubbies dancing on tv and put it on a video with a rap song called “Shake that ass bitch.” On this video, the Teletubbies are dancing to this rap song that is not appropriate for kids. There are a bunch of Teletubbies videos in which they are dancing to different vulgar rap songs. People poached the Teletubbies shows. Some reasons people poached these videos were for a different intended meanings. Many people have mocked the Teletubbies shows and have questioned if the show is really educational or not. Thus, people have taken portions of the Teletubbies videos and have recreated them to show a different, bad meaning. Click here to see this video.

My Flickr experience

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23741723@N03/sets/72157603907164450/

I really enjoyed the Flickr project. Our topic, the smoking ban, was a great topic to choose. However, we did not take into consideration two things. Our class is at 9:30 in the morning. Not as many people smoke that early in the morning. The second thing that we did not take into consideration was that it was so cold out and there was snow on the ground. A lot of people don’t want to wait outside in the cold to smoke a cigarette. Thus, it was hard to find actual smokers smoking. Instead, we had to stage almost all of the pictures.

After walking around Wells Library, the IMU, Collins, Swain East, and other areas, we were only able to find one smoker. Surprisingly, when we asked him if we could take a picture of him, he guessed right away that we were doing a project on the smoking ban. Even though we staged the pictures, these pictures still show the same storyline, that Indiana University does not enforce the smoking ban. I always see smokers everywhere. Supposedly, people are not supposed to smoke within thirty feet of a building entrance. However, this is where most people still smoke. Many people smoke as soon as they exit a building or before they enter one. In addition, we took a picture of one of the many ash trays located on campus. This makes you wonder why there are so many ash trays on campus if the administration is so serious about banning smoking.

Even though we ran into complications finding smokers on campus, I still had a positive experience with Flickr. It was exciting taking different pictures on campus with the idea that they are going to be used to tell a story. I thought our finished product of our Flickr experience was good. People viewing our Flickr probably not even know that we staged our pictures. Thus, I would definitely use Flickr in the future. After reading Flickr Changes Lives, Launches Photog Careers by Jennifer Woodward Maderazo, I was able to relate completely with someone in the article. They went to art school and hated photography classes because they couldn’t understand the information and felt discouraged by their work from others. They then stopped with photography and picked it up again when they created a Flickr account. Through this account, they were able to learn photography techniques from other people’s Flickr accounts and regained their passion for photography. I can completely relate with this person because I love taking pictures but got discouraged from photography classes in high school. I didn’t enjoy the classes because it dealt with too much history, terminology, and content that wasn’t interesting to me. I didn’t like developing my pictures and felt rushed to complete the assignments on time. Thus, I stopped with my passion for photography. Now after reading this Flickr article, I want to start up with my photography hobby again. Instead of taking photography classes that don’t interest me, I can learn what I want to from other people’s pictures on Flickr.

In addition, I found it fascinating how people like Laretta Houston and Daniel Krieger were able to make a transformation of a person with a photography hobby to a professional photographer. When Daniel Krieger said “Being able to watch some regular Joe Schmo buy a camera, hop on Flickr, and develop into a talented photographer with a vision is something revolutionary in the art world. I would say. I don’t think there’s ever been anything like that,” it really made me fascinated with the entire idea of Flickr. There isn’t anything else like it. There are programs and websites that you can upload your photos onto, but not ones that you ca get advice and feedback of your photos from others. Flickr really gives people the opportunity to do whatever they want with photography. After reading this article, I am definitely going to pursue my photography hobby further and see what Flickr has to offer me.

Photoshop for Democracy

In Photoshop for Democracy, on page 214, Henry Jenkins talks about how we are creating a “convergence culture.” Jenkins has a Convergence Theory in which the old and new media are converging. Politicians once only used commercials to help inform the public and to aid in winning elections. Now, our culture is converging and political campaigns are using games with imaginary communities, films, websites, concerts and performances where people can register to vote, e-mail announcements, blogs, and so much more. Through these different channels of communication, politicians are gaining support of the voters. For example, Kerry prepared an announcement through e-mail about the different downfalls of the candidates of who he is running against and sent this through people who were registered as supporters on his web site. People forwarded this announcement to others and Kerry gained more supporters. In addition, politicians use blogs in which they can communicate with the public. They gain more supporters through their blogs in which the general public can read what the politicians have to say about certain topics. Jenkins expresses how these new communication channels are important through this quotation on page 208 “diversification of communication channels is politically important because it expands the range of voices that can be heard.“ If politicians did not adopt these new communication channels, then they would not be able to win the election. However, Jenkins also believes that a candidate cannot win an election only through the internet. They also need to use the television to win the election. This is how our culture is converging. The old media (the television) and the new media (the blogs, internet, websites, etc.) ad both merging to make up our political culture.


One Website that I found extremely interesting was called Vote Match Quiz, which is a website designed for people who do not have the time to research the different candidate’s positions on important issues. The website has a few questions on important issues in which the viewer will select the degree in which they support or oppose the different topics of those issues. After answering all of the questions, they get a list of the candidates that has the same view and beliefs as them. In addition, it only includes biography. This exemplifies Jenkin’s Convergence Theory in that years ago people had to read the newspaper about different things going on with the candidates in the elections and they had to watch the television to catch up on the candidate’s viewpoints and stances on current issues. Now, instead of watching all of those things and researching and reading the newspapers, people could just take one minute and get matched up with the candidate most like them. That is a huge way in which politics have converged within the past few years.

How to Recognize the Future When It Lands on You REVISION

Howard Rheingold’s “How to Recognize the Future When It Lands on You” discusses how mobile devices affect everyone’s social practices and how technology will shape our future. After reading this quote, “The sight of this behavior, now commonplace in much of the world triggered a sensation I had experienced a few times before-- the instant recognition that a technology is going to change my life in ways I can scarcely imagine, ” I started to wonder what the future will be like in a ten years.

Rheingold talks about how technology has evolved throughout the years. Personal Computers evolved in the 1980’s. Since then, PCs have become so much more powerful and have a sleeker look. In the 1990’s the Internet evolved. The Internet became open to hundreds of millions of people. Since then, the Internet connection has become much faster and has become wireless. In addition, mobile telephones are much faster, sleeker, and have internet connection and many more capabilities than they previously had five years ago. Ten years ago people could not have imagined what mobile devices and technology the future held. Mobile telephones now have “location awareness” in which they can spot where they are located. Through text messages, in Manila, Smart Mobs organized revolts and demonstrations to overthrow their president in 2001. Communities of interest are being created on the internet. In Helsinki and Tokyo you can use vending machines through the use of your telephone and you can get directions on your wireless from where you presently are to where you want to go. In Japan, people can locate dates in their area through their mobile phones. Presently, people lend their computers to those who search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Many businesses now receive a lot of their revenues through sales online, many cafes and restaurants have wireless internet to attract more costumers, radio chips are used instead of barcodes on some objects in stores, subcultures in Europe and Asia have evolved through the use of mobile telephones, and so much more. Rheingold predicts that “within a decade, the major population centers of the planet will be saturated with trillions of microchips.” These advances in technology and mobile devices have made “certain kinds of human actions possible that were never possible before” (Rheingold). This makes one wonder “what’s next in this self-accelerating spiral of technological, economic, and social change,” (Rheingold).

If these technological advances have erupted within only a couple of decades, what other technological advances will there be in the future? No one could have possibly imagined or predicted all of these advances to occur. It makes me wonder what the future will be like in just ten years. Just like Rheingold, after witnessing all of these technological advances, and how much of a role technology plays in people’s lives, I have realized that technology will change my life in ways I cannot even envision. I wonder if there will be an end to technological advances, or if they will keep on evolving?

Curious about how technology will influence our future, I decided to research it and found a YouTube video about robots that will perform surgery in the future! These will save time and money and improve surgery. It will improve surgery by making recovery for patients faster and making them lose less blood. People’s hands shake but robots are steady, so the incisions will be perfect. Rheingold’s prediction within a decade, the major population centers of the planet will be saturated with trillions of microchips is accurate. Even surgery in the future will revolve around microchips! These robots will make surgery more precise and much better than ever before. Rheingold was completely right that technology is going to change our lives in ways that we could not imagine. If robots are going to be performing surgery, what other technological advances does the future hold for us?

"How to Recognize the Future When It Lands on You"

I found Howard Rheingold’s “How to Recognize the Future When It Lands On You” article extremely fascinating. Mobile devices affect everyone’s social practices. In Rheingold’s article, this quote especially stuck out to me “Mobile Internet, when it really arrives, will not be just a way to do old things while moving. It will be a way to do things that couldn’t be done before.” I completely agree with this quote. The mobile internet has not only advanced certain technologies and practices, but it has also continued to create new uses for devices and technology. It has made things possible that could not have been possible before. For example, no one would have ever predicted that there would be such technology that would allow people to talk to people all over the world through the computer and internet. This made me think about what new uses of technology there will be in the future. Rheingold states that within a decade, people will carry with them a device that will allow them to point it at a street sign and tell it where you want to go and then follow the map it beams to the device in your hand. That is absolutely amazing to think that we will all have that technology one day. This would prevent people from getting lost.

Presently, mobile technology is being used for organizing demonstrations by sending text messages on cell phones, organizing communities of interest, operating vending machines, receiving directions, searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, location awareness, finding potential dates, and so much more. In addition, most people own a cell phone and either make incoming or outgoing calls on it, or use it for text messaging. Text messaging has become increasingly popular over the past couple of years. One thing I did not know that I found interesting was that in poorer areas where phone calls are much more expensive, people send text messages or SMS messages.

It amazes me to think how all of these uses of mobile devices came from one mobile device.
After reading this article, I was fascinated how many countries in the world are affecting their social practices. Thus, I decided to research it. Things are not being referred to as cell phones anymore. Instead, they are being referred to as mobile devices because they are more functional and as powerful as computers. Healthcare industries are going to adopt wireless applications and services. Healthcare industries are expected to one day offer “HealthPhones” which will offer solutions to healthcare providers, virtual visits, and much more. Technology and mobile devices in the healthcare field are increasing in Singapore, South Korea, India, Mexico, and Thailand. It is insane to think about what our healthcare industry will be like in the United States a decade from now.

Douglas Rushkoff's writings

After reading “Networked democracy” by Douglas Rushkoff, one statement really stood out to me. “For early internet uses, sitting alone in their homes or offices, connected to one another only by twisted pairs of copper phone lines, the notion of being connected, somehow, in the manner of a fractal was quite inspiring.” This statement really made me wonder what was running through people’s minds when they first heard about the internet. I wonder if some people were skeptical about it. For example, now people are skeptical about “Sexbots,” but perhaps “Sexbots” will actually be invented and become popular. It also made me wonder how the internet inspired people. Is this what inspired people to put porn with children on the internet?


It is a bit disturbing that when the internet first came out people were using it for good reasons and people were able to talk to each other online. However, after a few years, many bad things started to happen with the internet. A lot of adults were posing as children to try and get them to sleep with them or meet them and then kill them. People were putting up porn of children. “It was in fact that U.S. government, concerned about the spread of pornography to minors and encryption technology to rogue nation, that took more direct actions against the early internet’s new model of open collaboration. Pornography on the internet really is disgusting. Some people become so obsessed with it. People order subscriptions to it monthly and become so involved with it. The internet has made it easier for them to look at porn because they do not have to purchase a company and just have to walk a few feet. This humorous YouTube video shows how obsessed people are with pornography. Even though the US government is concerned with the spread of pornography to minors, I don’t think that children pornography is as common as he makes it out to seem. I am not denying the fact that there is children porn but, I am simply saying that I don’t think that it is as big of a deal as Rushkoff makes it out to be. I wonder how long it took for the internet to be around before a lot of people started doing bad things in relation to the internet. The internet really has inspired many people to do many things.