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May 10 2007, 3:31 PM EDT (current) ijoshi 228 words added
May 10 2007, 11:24 AM EDT roz89 1 word added

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This is where we list and elaborate on the characteristics and consequences of the advent of electronic networks. You should feel free to add the concepts you find helpful (or aggravating), along with your reasons why, to the page as the semester goes on.


AOL Instant Messenger as it relates to convergence

AIM has been a form of communication for a lot of us for several years now. I have noticed that it was definetly more common in high school than it is in college, but why is that? I noticed that college life has given us a social environment that is ideal for meeting new people in person, and the need for AIM has kind of dissipated. But I also belive it has a lot to do with the idea of convergence.

We are bombarded with so many forms of new media and technological advances that we cannot help but approach things like AIM with less importance than we once had. Now we chat, use facebook, listen to music, watch movies through the internet, browse the internet, etc, all at the same time. It has taken some time away from using AIM on its own to the extent that we use to. But, the idea behind communication is still very prevalent through the internet. Now we are using facebook as our main source of connecting to other people. Does this have to do with or need to no longer use AIM, or is it just another form of AIM? I feel that all these new mediums are just other ways to aid in our sense of communication through the internet. (ijoshi)

Convergence: Fidler's claim that contemporary media technologies are merging more and more into one another (LitIA 39). We watch videos on our computers, read emails on our cellular phones, with fewer and fewer physical "toys" with which to access all this data. (I do not believe this term was coined by him, in conjunction with New Media, only used a central principle.)
Question: Does Shenk's concept of "Data Smog" (see below) make convergence more promising or more problematic?
Question: Was this term coined by him? Who coined the term "convergence" with regard to New Media?

Data Smog: Shenk's term for the fact that our ability to produce information (or, perhaps, "content"?) has outstripped our ability to process it (LitIA 158).
Question: To what extent is his choice of terms--"smog" especially--instrumental in shaping the way we end up understanding this development in information "signal-to-noise ratio"?


--our lack of processing information is also held back by the affects of spamming as well. In essence, the ideology of convergence links to the high potential for more "data smog", while also allowing more opportunities for spammers to infect themselves into our lives. As the president of Brookline, Barry Shein, states "Spammers are gaining control of the internet. Well if we have the ability to check email through cell phones, spammers also have the ability to "spam" through other technological media as well. Therefore, it would be safe to say that the newer the media, the more the maintenence. (rsororian)


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