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?” (Paterson)
Hello & Welcome!
Today I will be discussing about the question above. This one is interesting because we are living in a digital era where internet has became one of the largest platforms for people to publish their own stories. People can use social media as a way to voice their stories. It is no doubt that with advancement of technology, it has enabled us to communicate and connect better with one another. And, it does not just limit to just internet, but also other digital methods that we may use such as cell phones (texting), video (webcaming), email, and much more.
When reading Chamberlin’s text, it really got me thinking of how people tell their stories and why it matters. When thinking about widespread publication, one of the most popular social media site that people use today on a daily basis is Facebook . It is one of the most leading social networking service as of today. And we are even using it for our course haha! A lot of people use it because it makes it easy for people to connect with one another and also share their stories. It has become a tool of communication. The most interesting aspect is that people have freedom of what they want to publish on their media profile. They are their own publishers. They essentially have control of what they want to post, share, or even hide. And readers such as friends, families, and even coworkers can interact with them by replying back to what they have posted.
Also, when thinking about hypertext, I think it does impact literature and stories because nowadays when people scroll on internet and encounter a word that they are unfamiliar with, they can just simply click on the hypertext and get quickly retrieve the definition. Hypertext has made it more accessible for people to not only get clarification on ter
ms or concepts but is also often used to link to another website to find out more information on that particular subject. This is also interesting because last term I was reading William S. Burroughs ‘s novel called Naked Lunch and throughout the chapter sentences with have written out hypertext. Therefore, hypertext is not only seen on the internet but also used in writing form within texts such as novels.
And I have a question for you.. can you think of any social media
that you use today that voices your own stories? Like I mentioned
before in my first blog, I use to do personal blogging on a blogging website and I found it as my own way of documenting my own stories. Sometimes i don’t think our stories have to be shared, but if it does
one might ask how would you go about it then?
Work Cited
Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2004. Print.
Burroughs, Williams. “Naked Lunch”N.p., 26 Jan. 2004. Web. 24 Jan. 2016. <http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7437.Naked_Lunch>.
Hello Karen,
Great blog this week.
To answer your question regarding how one might spread their story via social media I believe there are many options out there. I, myself, am not tech savvy or super connected online. This may be due to my age and the desire to interact face to face but I do know of things such as Snapchat and Instagram which have become an interesting way to tell a story through image or video.
When discussing how social media and the idea of publishing your own story has changed story telling in general I think it is important to mention the fact that there is the potential to spread hate. When it comes to social media we are not able to assure people see what we have posted. People look for what they are interested in and disregard what they are not interested in therefore, in terms of sending a message we need to question who that message reaches. To use an uncontroversial example I’ll talk about sports. Let say you want to convince people that football is better than hockey so you create this amazing football blog talking about all the amazing things about the game. Now, lets say I’m a super hockey fan and I’m searching the net for hockey stuff and up pops your blog on football, am I going to click on it? Most likely not because my interest is hockey. To bring this back to how hate can be spread via social media you could replace sports with religion, or political affiliation and you can imagine how the information is only going to reach those who are interested in hearing it.
That being said, social media and the internet has allowed many stories to be written and put out in the world but I wonder how much of the good information is actually reaching those who need to hear it most, those being the people who have a different opinion.
Hi Danielle
Thanks for your insight and feedback. Yes, I totally agree! There are many ways that people can tell their stories. And, it is definitely important to also think critically about who that message is for. Also, I do strongly agree that people do have the tendency to search for a particular story that interest them. And this also got me thinking of how stories can be quite selective since it is mainly derived by people’s personal interest. How can one determine which story to tell and which to leave out from the picture. And yes, I have been thinking about that as well in terms of how much so called “good information” is out there because it may be purposely geared towards a certain audience or group.
Hey Karen,
I was really interested by what you said about the hypertext within an actual physical book, now I have another novel on my list to read! The further I get into this course, I find that everything is interconnected, whether that be on a computer, cellphone or tablet. It is truly great to have so much information at our fingertips, a luxury which people even sixty years ago could not have dreamed of. As a musician, the ability to search for a specific piece for reference on YouTube is crucial, let alone the vast amount of literature readily available.
To answer your question, the blogging aspect of this course is as far as I’ve come with social media in regards to getting my stories out. Truth be told, I don’t frequent Facebook or Twitter or any other social media. I am actually enjoying this experience a lot, it’s always interesting to learn in a different way. I believe music (as does Chamberlin) is a big part of the communication of stories, and while it is not quite social media, the very essence of music is to express emotions onto an audience.
I really enjoyed your post, I’m looking forward to seeing more! 🙂
Nick Wilson
Hi Nick!
Thanks for stopping by my blog and giving great feedback! I really enjoy reading your insightful ideas. And yes, i did not really think about hypertext within an actual book until I took this post-humanist english course last term. I must say that book was a hard read but maybe it is because it is just so different from the ordinary book where it does not have a linear plot and you can start which ever spot you like. For instance, you can read from the last few chapters and go to another chapter and it is just all different stories. But that being said, it is definitely a good read and the hypertext within that book is interesting because it states it within sentences which is often not seen much. And I’m glad that you are enjoying this type of online learning, I do as well! It is definitely something interesting and I will check your blog as well!
Hi Karen. Last year in another course, we were looking at how social media has changed the voice. Traditional media has a hierarchy, publishers and editors and even just getting the right connections. It has been influenced and you can say plagued by systemic sexism and racism, not to mention lobby groups influence on newspapers they support and so on.
But social media has revolutionized this. Anyone can share an idea or have their voice heard; there is no censor or power control to sift out what should be heard or not.
To really comprehend how social media has given power to all voices, to a certain degree democratizing information, is really astonishing. We are living in that change, so often we don’t realize until we take a step back and look at its effect.
Connecting back to us being able to “hear all the stories” is one way this new information flow is changing the world.
Hi Maryam!
Thanks for reading my blog and the insightful feedback! And yeah you point out some interesting ideas about social media and it’s effects. I really like your interpretation in regards to stories. I guess through time social media has become a way in which information is passed on to people.