I’m falling behind on this bloggin’ situation, there’s no doubtin’. It’s not that I don’t find it enjoyable, it’s more the fact that critiquing academic/scholarly pieces is something I don’t necessarily want on public display. See, if this was a blog that purely focused on my ramblings I would be happy to push it through the obvious stream of facebook for my ‘friends’ to read. But even still, how many people would read what I’m writing right now? 5? 10? 50? I’m not looking for an answer to be honest, but it’s interaction and engagement with “the people formerly known as the audience” that I and everyone else in this Media program should be seeking.
This blog post was an interesting read. Although it’s 9 years old, the message is probably more relatable now than it was back then. Technology will not stop improving and this means the desire and ability for consumers to become the creators will continue to increase. Everyone has a voice and the Internet is the driving force behind these voices attempting to be heard. For instance, 300 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute. 12 and a half days worth, in 1 minute. That is a damning statistic, and arguably an over saturation in content, which only continues to overflow.
This isn’t a necessarily a bad thing though. I suppose it just means that the original, creative and ‘great’ content will rise to the top of consumption lists. But who’s to say this original, creative content will ever be seen or heard? If more and more people are focusing on creating than consuming, will there eventually be a point where consumption stops all together? In that case, who will the audience be then? Sympathetic mum…
Who am I kidding, there’s always an audience. Instagram and facebook are two of the most easily accessible platforms for dispersing information to huge audiences. It’s the process of ‘sharing’, ‘commenting’ and ‘liking’ in this age that ensures at least someone will be there to consume the content. I can’t guarantee anyone will be paying attention to me unless I make it so. This is the approach I want to take with this Media program from now on. We have the ability to engage in and share huge amounts of content amongst a huge audience of like-minded people, it seems stupid to not put it into practice.
– Gabriel