These upcoming social networks of today, for example, facebook, myspace, twitter, you tube, etc.; proves Birkerts theory of this world transforming from “print orientation and [into] that of electronic systems” (121). Everyday people around the world focus less and less on the use of a “print medium[s]” (123), and focuses more on the electronic age of using computers, blogging, communicating through computers, hypertexting, y0u name it. You Tube, in my opinion, is the main example of evidence that demonstrates Birkerts discussion of “Transmission” (159) from this print world to electronic in his two chapters.
This electronic/digital medium opens portals and opportunities for everyone in the world to communicate with one another. This language that is trying to get across has different pathways to move around the site and to get connected with different people, almost like a hypertext. Matter of fact, I would argue that you tube as an digital medium is a sort of hypertext. I would argue this because of the “NONLINEAR structures” (37) that Hayles would say makes you tube uniquely different from printed books. This website not only has language on it that could be read in different ways, up and down, side ways, etc., but also, this website has videos and music that can connect people also rather than just the text.
On this website people can actually see each other or send a track of music back and forth to one another giving information across that medium. Wait, but isn’t this the purpose of books, facebook, twitter, etc., “Getting information across to another person or multiple people.” This is the theory that Birkerts and Hayles is trying to explain, the traditional method of people getting information (reading books) has been processed and changed into them receiving this information in a totally different new way ( digital mediums). You Tube fits into this theory of this “Transmission” (159) from this traditional world to a new because on You Tube, you can gain information on authors, poetry, history, geographic etc., the same information that you can get from all the books in the world. The only difference is that instead of traveling from place to place or from country to country, you can do all this sitting right in front of a computer screen with one place of access You Tube.
April 10, 2010 at 11:26 pm |
the nonlinear systems quote is a good foundation for your analysis of youtube; it will help to focus on examples where you can emphasize this textual and hypertextual aspect–also would help to contrast it specifically with a print text of some sort. as we disucssed in class, perhaps a print novel (say Frankenstein) vs. how that novel shows up in youtube.