The average person does many different things to relax after a long day, perhaps even a long week at work. They escape the daily stresses of life by any means necessary, finding solace in the back of a smokey club, at the bottom of a wine bottle at a friend’s apartment on a Saturday night, perhaps in the confines of an old book at their local library. For some people, however, this place of leisure, relaxation, and escape is not a physical place with walls and doors, but a place that can only be seen through a single window; that of their computer screen. The internet houses many types of blogs, but Tumblr happens to be one of the most intriguing of blog hosting sites. Tumblr possess a user friendly structure that can allow individuals from all ages and levels of technological skill to create an online atmosphere customized by them. The Tumblr community is broken into sections based on specific interests and types of blogs. Some blogs center around fitness and health, others around photography or travel, and others even examine adult content or subjects otherwise considered to be too taboo to discuss elsewhere. The concentration of this examination will focus on pop culture blogs that are often referred to as “fandoms,” centralizing around individuals who are fanatical about various television shows, book series, movie franchises, and other creative works.
An individual may find a typical fandom-centric Tumblr experience to be as follows: upon entering the url, the signature medium blue gray colour with the trademark white boxes surrounding each posting that will appear on your dashboard. When you elect to follow someone else’s blog, these blogs will appear on your dashboard, or dash. When examining a specific post, you may see ...
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...s,” “So many feels,” and “I has feels,”. An onslaught of feels can also bring on the use of expressions like “Nope,” “I can’t even,” “I quit,” and variations of “So done… (with this fandom/ with life/with this website)” and “What is … (air/life) etc. Another popular phrase used to express how exacerbated a user may feel is “I can’t even,”. On the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, if you see a post with a note or a tag that simply says “this,” or more likely “THIS,” it is a sign that the person who added the statement firmly and strongly agrees or enjoys whatever was originally posted.
I really look forward to further examining this subculture, and feel my experience thus far can best be explained by a quote I had found from a user on this site stating “You know Tumblr is like the ocean. It's big, It's blue, and the deeper you go, the weirder things you see.”
In “Modern Romance,” Celeste Biever describes romantic relationships in the Internet community. She describes how people can romantically be involved on the Internet and how the Internet teaches one to learn about a person from the inside out.In “Cyberspace and Identity,” Sherry Turkle also expresses her interest in the Internet and how it allows for the act of self-exploration. Even though their focus on what the Internet is used for are different from the perspective of one another, Biever and Turkle both see the Internet as a place for exploration in a general sense.
She recalls a disagreement that took place on Facebook between her and a close friend over a few comments placed on her timeline. Wortham describes how she felt embarrassed over the pointless argument. She discloses “I’m the first one to confess my undying love of the Web’s rich culture and community, which is deeply embedded in my life. But that feud with a friend forced me to consider that the lens of the Web might be warping my perspective and damaging some important relationships” (171). Introducing her personal feelings and perspective of how she feels Facebook is taking over her own emotional response online weakens her argument. Wortham reasons that others feel the same as she does. She says, “This has alarmed some people, convincing them that it’s time to pull the plug and forgo the service altogether” (171). Wortham does not bring in other testimonies of those who feel the same as she does, therefore the readers are only introduced to her personal
It would be hard for one to dispute the fact that MTV has influenced every pop culture trend since its birth in 1981. One could even say that MTV is pop culture. No other media network holds in the palm of its hand the power to control popular cultural evolution the way MTV does. What other media network has influenced and helped shape public opinion, filmmaking, newsgathering techniques, presidential politics, and world politics like MTV has? In addition to that, MTV can take credit for reconstructing the music industry (Rushkoff 126). One would be hard pressed to find a person who does not enjoy some type of music. Thus, "Music" television was built on a foundation that was virtually united by the whole world, and its popularity was inevitable. MTV chose popular music as its beating heart, instead of classical music or jazz. Young people around the country could now see their favorite music icons 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a result, the young people of America were given a national/international platform to share their common voice, a voice that to this day wants to be heard. Since MTV has such a large hand in shaping the young minds of today, it is important that both parents and children are aware of the impact MTV has in their daily lives.
The media is one of the most powerful tools in people’s lives, since it’s used by many as the medium for the delivery of useful information to diverse audience. Over the past few years, the media landscape has undergone noteworthy developments. Prized information about various cultural groups is often relayed through appropriate media, and it’s interesting to note that blogs are currently being utilized as the best medium for celebrity gossip. Celebrity blogs are usually thronged with readers, who would like to know more about their favorite superstars. The entries of different celebrity gossip blogs are often accompanied by paparazzi photos that are usually meant to trigger a stream of comments based on the readers’ observations, enthusiasm and criticisms.
The anxiety that fast-paced social media creates with social isolation necessitates a reason to take a tech break and de-stress, just like Ingrid had to. Social media is everywhere now, and too much of it can distort our worldview with the constant notifications and 24 hour news channels. This movie was created so that the age range from 15-28, the group of true digital natives can figure out their own way in the world– since birth these millennials have developed skills to learn how to be good citizens in the digital world, something that was not a problem in older generations. Ingrid is a perfect example of the fear of social isolation social media creates for society today. It necessitates breaks every so often, as Ingrid took her break in the hospital; her mind and body needed to relax from the hyper-activity of social media to re-center each other around positivity and real relationships. This problem of social isolation anxiety is so widespread and very likely to follow those affected by it now through their adult years; it needs to be addressed immediately, only after that can a head start on a solution
Anonymity can bring out the worst in people – people may become bullies, openly racist or sexist, or may even threaten or provoke others. The latest example of this behavior comes from student protests at this campus where racial tension recently led to the resignation of Mizzou’s university president. As evidence for racism in the campus community, the student body president had screenshots from this anonymous social platform. Launched in 2013, Yik Yak spread quickly enough to become a core mode of interaction among students in many universities and colleges because of its features of anonymity and transience of identity. As a social network, it is the perfect platform to provide a glimpse into the culture of a local community where people are free to not hold back any discrepancies. As is often with the case of anonymity, sometimes what people see is bullying, hate speech, and threats; however, the content like the hate speech and threats from Missouri are actually largely the exception for Yik Yak culture. Yik Yak feed usually contains typical sexual jokes and complaints about classes and weather, along with strains with positive messages of
The web has spurred communities exclusive to nerds. "News for nerds. Stuff that matters," reads the slogan of popular blog Slashdot. This blog, which receives 5.5 million visits a month, reports on “Linux, Technology, Games, Apple, and Science”. Voted on Yahoo in 2001 as the “Best Geek Hangout,” it has truly created a community for nerds to discuss their interests. As a result, the site sees active participation from its readers who discuss with others around the world with similar interests. These virtual conversations provide an outlet for visitors to express interests that they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to. Unlike other popular blogs, Slashdot publishes user submitted content alongside editor created. Because the minimum threshold of knowledge needed to contribute to the d...
Although Carr’s sources may be highly praised in their field or study, they are not experts in the effects the Internet has on our minds. Bloggers are often very opinionated and do not pose as reliable sources for information. The fact tha...
Fan Culture is something that has been around for a while, but it the last twenty years, since the introduction of the Internet, it is also something that has changed dramatically. A fan is an enthusiast of something and now the Internet is a good home for fans to gather and build together a community of fans, a ‘Fandom’. The turn Fandom means a community of a group of people who all enjoy them same thing and the Internet has created a place for online communities. Fan Culture has irreversibly changed the media industry because of the ability share information and fan made created content. The creation of these online based communities have meant that people from all over the world can talk about the latest TV shows, movies, books, comics and other forms of content and create groups dedicated to them. The Internet has also become a platform for the creation of a collective community, where individuals who all have shared interests can go. “Fans uses of technologies bring a sense of playfulness to the work of active reading” (2010; 12). Digital Fandoms are user-led forum of content creation, the fans create a number of things; fan fiction, fan blogs, fan made videos, fan art work, wiki leaks. The fans create a whole new life, another side of the TV show, film or book, that is complicity run and used by the fans. These fan made creation do not have to stick to what is canon in the show and can do what they wish with the character and the storylines. However is this an okay thing to do, Henry Jenkins refers to the fans who create these things are ‘Textual Poachers’. Those fans are now active interpreters instead of passive consumers. In this view the fans are poaching the created content of the writer. The fans have power to create t...
I combined different elements of myself, namely my autobiography, school, community involvement, and entertainment in each of the sub-pages. In addition, I used different modes (pictures, video, music, and gifs) to convey aspects of my identity experience in networks in different dimensions such as visible/invisible, public/private, and singular/networked. On the Origin page of my site, I put elements of the places where I started and am now with my attitudes and perception of those places. That page conveys information from my autobiography, community involvement, and entertainment. The Introvert page conveys my experience through school, community, entertainment, and my autobiography. Similarly, the Extrovert and Ambivert pages convey my experience through the same categories, just in different
Popular culture embodies the beliefs, ideas, perspectives, attitudes, and images of various cultures. Popular culture is heavily influenced by mass media, key celebrity figures, movies and related entertainment, as well as sports and news. However, in the past decade, the Internet and social media has come to be a significant influence on pop culture.
I aimlessly wondered the Internet trying to find a community suitable for me. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I have many interests, but I really don’t have a strong passion for something. So I decided to join a community in which I could express myself as a teen and talk about general issues. I joined the mtv.com community. There I expressed my thoughts on everything, ranging from music to daily events that shape our world. There I had a chance to share my opinions and beliefs, as others posted their thoughts and perspectives on certain subjects. Online communities are rather congruent to offline ones. They are both appealing yet displeasing at the same time.
There are many ways to define popular culture. Many individuals have grappled with the question what is popular culture? And how to critically analyze and deconstruct the meanings. Looking at the root words of popular culture is where to begin. Raymond Williams states ‘popular’ means: “well liked by many people" or “culture actually made for the people themselves (Storey, p.5). This is part with the word ‘culture’ combine to look at how the two words have been connect by theoretical work within social and historical context. John Storey approaches popular culture in six categories, they are as followed: “Popular culture is simply culture that is widely favoured or well liked by many people”, Popular culture is “the culture that is left over after we have decided what is high culture”, Popular culture is “mass culture”, “Popular culture is the culture that originates from ‘the people.” and “Popular culture as a site of struggle
Russo, Julie Levin. Indiscrete media: Television/digital convergence and economies of online lesbian fan communities. Diss. Brown University, 2010.
Social media came from two type of terms which are “social” and “media”. The term of social refer to basic need of human on connect with other human while media refer to which we use to connect with other human. The term social media credited to Chris Shirpel which state that term social media used to describe as online tool and utilities that allow communication of information online, participation and collaboration. In social media there are several categories such as blogs, social networking sites, wikis, podcasting and videocasting and social bookmarking.