The Participatory Culture of Social Media
So, to start off with a term that is not in everyone’s lexicon, participatory culture is a culture that is constantly evolving with the times, especially in our society where culture reigns supreme, social media has been a big representation of participatory culture, as the constant evolution is evident over the different platforms over the past couple of years, from incorporating stories and likes and essentially taking the best from what culture provides and assimilating it into a well-rounded website for everyone to use.
I’ve seen social media evolve a fair amount in my short lifetime on the internet, and ever since I’ve been 13, I’ve remained a constant on social media no matter what has happened. Having a community, being able to be in contact with friends or finding those people who have similar interests have really kept social media enticing to me, and in this period, social media (mainly Twitter and Instagram) have done a strong job in making sure that some sort of sanity is maintained. I’ve grown fond of sports, video games, and music over the years, and with live sports going away, much of my ample free time that I now spend is on social media and Xbox, having debates about sports or music or connecting with people to play sports (virtually). In a way, it is almost like having two sets of identities, one in person, and one online. Online, there’s really no age besides of how old you sound if you were to speak and relating to what Henry Jenkins said in his TED Talk, on the internet, everyone seems to be the same age digitally while not being the same age physically. There are people in the U.K. who I can remain in contact with and with this current crisis, we’ve even been able to talk even more than normal. It is both a blessing and a curse because of COVID-19, we are forced to remain distant, and thankfully have the technology to do so, but will this crisis create another revolution and make social media change once more when things get back to relatively normality? Obviously, no one knows but with the participatory culture that social media thrives off of, there is a strong potential for a permanent change.
Also, in his TED Talk, Jenkins mentioned that we have more power and capability in our hands than every generation that preceded us, and while that is good and can create good things, we can also use social media to negatively affect the world if not used correctly. Right around the time I was introduced to social media, Kony 2012 was becoming a thing, and the mini documentary had me thinking about Uganda on a personal level, unaware really of what was going on, much less even me thinking about doing the research, and while it certainly did a great job of raising awareness, much like many platforms and activist movements have done while utilizing social media, but Understanding Social Media, Sam Hinton and Larissa Hjorth mention that the things need life and attention outside of social media, and many things cannot be reduced to a singular video or article. It is almost like if this entire COVID-19 was mainly on social media rather than on the news, we’d be in a bigger pickle than we already are. But at the same time, social media has allowed connections from here to Italy to China, as we are all attempting to fight the same battle and overcome it united, and the world has become a community on social media whether we like it or not.
I guess as much as we’re going to grow accustomed to social media and digital learning and even just be confined to homes, we must take the time to figure out how to grow comfortable. Or as comfortable as possible, because it is our closest way to maintain the regular connection we crave as humans, and especially that I need.
