Hi, apologies for the late post, I had a really busy Friday and weekend. For assignment 1:3, I chose to answer question 7: “At the beginning of this lesson I pointed to the idea that technological advances in communication tools have been part of the impetus to rethink the divisive and hierarchical categorizing of literature and orality, and suggested that this is happening for a number of reasons. I’d like you to consider two aspects of digital literature: 1) social media tools that enable widespread publication, without publishers, and 2) Hypertext, which is the name for the text that lies beyond the text you are reading, until you click. How do you think these capabilities might be impacting literature and story?”
Today, information travels faster than ever because of the internet. With this advantage has come many social media platforms which make the publication of material easier than ever — material which can then reach millions of people instantaneously.
Nowadays, quite literally anyone with internet access and a smartphone or computer can create a profile online. The lack of mediation in people’s publication of content online gives the users creative freedom. The users are thus free to tell whatever story they want with this online presence by simply curating their feed to fit that vision.
The combination of this creative freedom and how widespread social media use is around the world has offered different perspectives of this world we all live in. Social media users from different nations and cultures create content that is unique in its own way and this collection of online content becomes representative of their culture — an example would be the Facebook groups called “subtle (insert culture here) traits.” I also find interesting how there exist memes such as baby Yoda nowadays that seem like they have propagated to every Facebook user in the world. The content, usually the caption, of the meme is what makes it relatable, making it, by definition, according to Richard Dawkins, a meme: a piece of culture that can be copied from one person to another (1976).
Another advantage of the internet and these tools is that they are multidimensional. YouTube, WordPress, and podcasts are examples of platforms that communicate to the audience differently. Videos themselves can be edited so that a single video is indeed aural, visual, and textual in nature. This combination allows the way stories are told to be tailored to fit the tellers’ exact specifications. Videos are also more engaging than text; if I had to choose, I myself would prefer to watch a video to learn a concept or skill than only read about it. They are dynamic in such a way that plain text just isn’t — they are visually and aurally stimulating. This makes videos a a powerful storytelling tool and also blurs the lines between what is oral and a written story. Even plain text can be enhanced with hyperlinks — they appear simply as blue and/or bold text, but are links to a whole new piece of digital content that can supplement the original text and lead to a new path of discovery on the web.
Stories about the culture of peoples, over time, will perhaps evolve to be captured in digital rather than written form. It is fitting that major social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat have a “Story” feature. The chronology of a user’s stories actually itself becomes the story of their life, or at least the version of their life they want to portray to their followers. On a larger scale, cultures can be represented by the collection of content created by people who belong to that culture, like the Facebook groups I mentioned earlier, as well as the memes that have a global reach.
With the rise of digital media and globalization, story is more likely, I believe, to prevail as the common ground between all nations and peoples. We all have our own beliefs and traditions, each rooted in the stories that are our own very lives. When we realize that what we have in common is that we all have beliefs (Chamberlin, 2013) that gives us our identities, maybe that is when we will understand each other better be able to live in harmony with those who are “different” than we are.
Works Cited
Blackmore, Susan. “The Power of Memes.” Scientific American, vol. 283, no. 4, October 2000, https://www.susanblackmore.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/The-Power-of-Memes-Sci-Am-Oct-2000.pdf. Accessed 19 January 2020.
Chamberlin, Edward. “Interview with J. Edward Chamberlin.” Writer’s Café, http://writerscafe.ca/book_blogs/writers/j-edward-chamberlin_if-this-is-your-land-where-are-your-stories.html. Accessed 19 January 2020.
Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, 1976.
Kwai, Isabella. “How ‘Subtle Asian Traits’ became a global hit.” The New York Times, 11 Dec. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/world/australia/subtle-asian-traits-facebook-group.html. Accessed 20 January 2020.
Hi! I really enjoyed your post for our class and want to bring some ideas that may or may not be new to you. It’s really interesting when you wrote about how the Internet creates hubs of ‘culturalized’ content but also allows more communication between different cultures. But in regards to mediation, you say that users are free to tell whatever story they want and this is true, but what do you think about the limits that different platforms are trying to outline in that freedom? Is the restriction of certain videos or messages a restriction on culture? And if so does that mean that these voices we see on the internet genuinely represent a culture? To be sure information will always be biased, from print to online, but what do you think about the pressure and psychological effects of Instagram and Facebook which forces people to portray certain truths and not the whole? Going off my first point, you also indicate that cultures are represented by the “collection of content created by people who belong to that culture,” what of the idea of an ‘internet culture,’ where an interesting distinct culture arises that do not exist in the world outside of the digital, such as twitch culture, or Tumblr culture, gamer culture, etc.? Also in this mixing of cultures as an ‘internet’ culture emerges do you think there is a dominant culture among them? Such as the fact that there are a wider verity and acceptance of the English language online, with of course Russian and Mandarin as well. I hope I gave you some things to think about, no offense to you at all, it’s hard to cover anything with only 400-500 words!
Hi Nargiza, thank you for reading my blog and for your input!
Firstly, no offense taken at all. We are all here to learn and I appreciate your questions and input 🙂
I think that the restrictions on what kinds of content can be posted are appropriate in that they prevent sexual, violent, or any other graphic content from reaching unintended viewers such as children. I do believe that those posting to share their culture may not be very heavily affected by this censorship, especially if they are aware of the restrictions and their main intention is to share. As for the pressures of presenting oneself positively on social media, I do believe that this decreases the extent to which people may share parts of their culture. This is especially true given that publication of content on the internet is unmediated and this opens avenues for unmediated negativity and bigotry. Another factor, in relation to the aforementioned, would be if the user is a cultural minority and is, to some degree, ashamed of their culture after being subjected to the pressures of posting things online that are desirable to members of Western society.
It is interesting that you bring up the concept of internet cultures, those that exist solely online. I am not quite well-versed on this topic enough to necessarily say that one is dominant over the others, but instead I would say that having a “dominant” culture among these can be scary, if the dominant culture is not quite a positive one and “dominance” is defined as steadily growing in number and eliminating other cultures by converting their members to become a one of their own.
Hello!
I enjoyed reading your thoughts! I did not pick this topic for my response, but it’s nice to view your ideas about creative freedom! As you mentioned, nowadays, people have an advantage of the internet to explore new worlds. Such as YouTube, WordPress, and podcasts allowed people to communicate with the audience differently. Now, people don’t have to read boring newspapers to get news around the world. However, this new phenomenon makes literacy rate lower than 5 to 10 years ago. Kids don’t have to read but rather listen or watch instead. Do you think this will change the written culture differently?
Thank you
Hi June, thanks for reading my blog!
It’s interesting that you pointed out that literacy rates are decreasing. I wasn’t aware of this and learned a lot from this website. Because of this, I am worried that there might be a decrease in how much quality literature is produced by our and future generations. However, I am also optimistic about the potential that new technology presents, particularly in storytelling. Firstly, there are digital educational tools that can improve literacy if implemented properly. Video can also be a powerful storytelling tool and perhaps majority of our and future generations’ culture will be represented through a medium other than text, maybe even a combination of audio/video/text like we see nowadays.
Best,
Chino
Hi Chino! It’s good to connect with you. I really enjoyed many parts of your blog post about storytelling and literature in the digital age. In particular, I enjoyed your point about Instagram stories. These are such a normalized part of our existence these days that I didn’t even realize the relevance of the functions name to this course — Stories! We really are sharing snapchats and photos of our lives in real time, and thus are sharing our personal stories.
My question for you is just from a more pessimistic viewpoint. When it comes to marginalized groups on social media, often times they are often harassed and bullied more often than majority groups (essentially white people.) While social media has the ability to bring us together and share our stories with one another, do you feel as though it also has the ability to tear us apart? At what point should social media platforms moderate and control hateful rhetoric that their users put out into the world? Is it even their responsibility to moderate this, or is it just free game online?
I’m interested to see your response – no right or wrong answer, I’m not even sure what I think!
Hi Chase! Thank you for reading my post and for your input — exactly what I mean, we share personal stories daily!
I think that while social media and other technology can bring us together, it also definitely has the capability to tear groups of people apart. Like I mentioned, the www can be a place where people from the same culture can connect with each other over their shared background. Unfortunately, this also means that narrow-minded people can come together and share in their backward views. Back when I took ENGL 112 with Professor Tara Fleming, we talked about debates on the www between people/groups of people with extreme opposite beliefs and mindsets and how they have the capacity to cause these two opposite groups of to be further entrenched in their views. Surely, social media tools are conducive to connecting with others who have a similar mindset as oneself.
I do think that hateful content must be removed, and hopefully the social media giants can figure out a way to do so, even if this content is not reported by users. Sad to say, but many really bad things happen on/over the internet and I am not sure that the amount of “bad stuff” on the internet can be reduced to zero. Ultimately, I think that the change must come from within each and every human being on Earth to be accepting, if not appreciative of those that are different than they are, and show empathy towards marginalized groups. My hope is that we use this capacity that the www has to help us connect with people from all over the world, and that from this increased human connection on a global scale, future generations will be raised well and taught to be accepting of any human being and compassionate toward those caught in the margins of society.