Analytical Essay (Assignment #1)

NETWORKED MEDIA // S3610253  ELIZABETH MAIDMENT 

ANALYSIS ESSAY

Networked Media can be closely linked to media production and the new media landscape. Over the last six weeks, I have been documenting my media usage closely through the development of an educational blog. Through this, I have been able to share my experiences on a range of topics including blogging, copyright, network literacy, technological determination, Web 2.0, social media and new media as a whole. Through this research, I have taken an interest in the importance of the social media and how it affects millennials on an everyday basis. This interest has been ignited through the development of content on my blog. I have not only learned a lot about my own media usage, but engaged with others in my course through the dashboard application. Martin Lister (New Media, 2009) believes that “(characteristics) can easily be taken to mean the ‘essential qualities’ of the medium or technology in question. When this happens to be ‘digital’, for example, ceases to mean a source of possibilities, to be used, directed and exploited. It becomes, instead, a totalising or overarching concept which wholly subsumes the medium in question”. From this quote, I can conclude that the media is not only shifting as new technologies are introduced but also ‘controlling’ the consumers. This idea of the media as an ever-changing vehicle can also be seen through Gauntlett’s ideologies where he notes “(the) media has changed from being primarily about watching, listening and reading to being most significantly – or at least most interestingly about creating and discussing and so bringing about change in people, ideas, and culture and how these things are valued and developed.”. These two ideas can be heavily linked to the world of Networked Media as both Lister and Gauntlett’s philosophies influence the way individuals react to Web 2.0 and social media as a division. I experienced this firsthand endeavor of running my own blog, develop my writing skills as a media professional and allowing critique and analysis of myself and others. Through Networked Media, it has exposed me to new views on “faceless communication” (Goffman, 1955) and how everyone is interconnected via the web.

I have also gained some insight into the beliefs of theorists who argue that the influence of social media on the youth in the twenty-first century is controversial. Whether this be through the communication via Facebook messenger, sharing photos on Instagram or checking the news on twitter, the attachment to Web 2.0 is astounding. Through documentation, I have seen first -hand how much the internet controls most, if not all, portions of my life, in an educational and recreational sense. Theorists such as Sefton-Green highlight the importance of tailoring youth’s exposure to the media through the quote “we encounter anxiety about the negative effects of the media current in contemporary debate – for example, around the role of media in childhood obesity… they (the media) also frame how we theorize and study children’s interactions with the media as a pedagogic relationship with significant educational potential” (Youth, Technology and Media Cultures, Chapter 8). But why neglect and prohibit exposure of media to the youth of today? Is it really as detrimental as the older generations suggest? As all debates, there are two arguments surrounding the idea of youth and the media, particularly the high usage rates.

According to the Pew Research Centre, in 2015, over “95% of teenager’s report going online daily – including 24% who say they go online “almost constantly”. Of the 1,060 teenagers surveyed aged thirteen to seventeen in this study, Facebook remained the most popular with 71%, just after Instagram at 51% (Pew Research Centre, 2015). Thus, this not only shows the widespread use of social media amongst teens but the influence these applications have on the youth of today making sure they attract the most engagement. Alongside this fact, I can examine my own usage through both my laptop and smartphone, I was able to identify clear patterns, similar to those found in the study above. Throughout the week, I was most active on Facebook and Instagram for personal and business use. Facebook is one of my prevalent forms of communication for me as you can see in detail in my final day of my media usage experiment. I not only explain the change in Facebook’s original intention (ie: from a university-only online space to a worldwide space) but my own ideas about sharing online and how I use Facebook as the predominant platform to not only communicate with my loved ones but on a mass basis over the globe through business.

I agree with the statement that “participants use the internet – especially social networking sites – to connect or reconnect with friends and family members” (Subrahmanyam et al, 2008) and that it “(Facebook) is seen as an online knowledge- sharing network forged by interpersonal interactions (Huang et al 2010)”. Both these statements can be seen through my own personal use over the week, where I connect with friends and family through sharing personal photos and ideas, thus, bringing me closer to them, no matter where they are in the globe. Furthermore, I could conclude to say that Henry Jenkin’s ideas of convergence culture also connects to my social media usage. This drive for constant change and development from old media to new media (Jenkins, 2008) is what makes Facebook so unique as it grows with an individual throughout the years. For example, they have now released a ‘memories’ feature so you can look back on your treasured time with friends and family over the past number of years. This not only allows the individual to reflect on happier times or hardship but to remind the individual of the ones closest to them, the true reflection of Facebook’s motive to continue to expose the interconnectedness amongst individuals, especially those growing up in the twenty-first century.
Thus, sharing my experiences on my own educational blog has made me understand and analyze my social media usage and the way I connect with others, both online and offline. Furthermore, it has exposed some of my technologically-bound habits, such as my high Facebook usage, something that is common amongst the youth of today as I have discussed. Publishing and authoring online have been both rewarding and challenging as I navigate my own personal voice in the online world. Through this endeavor over the rest of the semester, I hope to gain that voice as I feel it is not currently as prevalent as it should be, making a strong shift from an academic into a semi-personal blog.

Word Count: 1,038

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