Digital Ethnography: Cool Ass Sh*t
Michael Wesch's research is like E = mc2 of ethnography. This video give me chills everytime I watch it. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU&w=480&h=390]
"Creating characters gave me an escape. It allowed me to be silly. It allowed me to act how I wanted to feel. It became a form of therapy; a coping mechanism. And after awhile it brought fun back to YouTube for me. You accepted my characters, even embraced them. And by doing so, you opened your arms to me. You allowed me to continue to have the escape I still need from the hard times while giving me the chance to talk about what I had gone through. And I'm eternally grateful to you all. Some people have said that the video that we make on YouTube should be created in hopes to change the world. I've made mine to help me live in it. And whether I make a hundred more or a thousand more, I will know forever that this website, that this community, helped bring me life again. And there's something really special in that". - bnessel1973
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb-QALaXlFc&w=640&h=390]
#coolshit #geeksunite #digitalethnography #YouTube
We're totally technologically gentrified (I think)
Where are you located on this data map of the Internet? Where ever you are, odds are there's a Facebook around every corner. (source)
I wonder if it’s at all possible that as we strive toward a culturally pluralistic society in the new millennium, we may find ourselves technologically gentrified. It's already happening. We're utilizing virtually the same types of technology and media to spread ideas. What happens when said technology turns into a monopoly, where do our ideas go? Who owns them? When the Internet can be easily turned off like a light switch, one wonders, what the hell's next?
Facebook is to the Internet as Starbucks is to any random block in Manhattan. Everyone's *at* Facebook. Facebook is how many folks socialize and learn in third space. Google is the quintessential search engine that hoards all of our data. I’m not certain what the implications of technological gentrification are (if I may use my own completely random term), but it certainly makes a cyborg chick wonder.
#Internet #culture #Facebook #Google