New Media Addiction

Reflective portfolio

When I first found out that I was going to be taking a network media based module I had a rough and kind of basic idea of what I would be learning and I found that this would be a new interesting subject to learn.

My first impressions on this course was it was going to be creative using the Internet such as creating web sites, blogs and basically exploring the uses and development of the internet.

In my network media workshops we would be touching topics such as web 2.0, pychogeographical project, remix culture, and the public sphere and whilst learning these we would be documenting them down in the blog we created. These where subjects I had never heard of but was egger to found out what it was about.

After the 30 weeks of my network media workshop I realised that there is more to it that I initially taught and at the same time it made me think more about new media and its development, also the way it has evolved around me.

New media consist of the ever-developing technology that has been the main attraction in this day and age, the new technology that our generation have been brought around are things such as, smart phones, laptops / computers, video games and consoles and elements of social networks.  

This was in relation to one of my essays and workshop, during the workshop it was more like an eye opener, because of the questions asked I realised how much I have been consumed by the new media age in the year leading up to university at one point I owned all new media technology such as an blackberry, Xbox, laptop, computer and at the same time I had roughly signed up to every social network.  

A normal start to the day for me work be to wake up and first thing is check my phone, for any new updates, such as messages or any missed calls then log onto my laptop and visit all my social network site and information sites and then I will spend all day on social networks such as facebook and twitter and the only breaks taken was to consume food other than that it was internet based which I think it was creating a dent in my social life. It caused me to prefer staying inside on my laptop rather than meeting with my mates, which I believe, is in relation to ‘the eight traits of the new media landscape’ by Henry Jenkins and in my case it has become an everyday trait, Jenkins says ‘our family rooms have become home entertainment centres. Our family hearths are now electronic. Media technologies are fully integrated into our everyday social interactions’. This trait creates a fixation, a wedge between families and isolates them from the environment and people around you.

When I read through this article in university I set myself a little task to reduce the use of any of my new media technology for a week and see if I could survive.  After a week I realised that I really didn’t rely on new media technology to enjoy myself, it caused me to be more sociable with the people around me but it kept me out of the blue with my mates in other parts of London.

In conclusion there are many pros and cons to the ever evolving new media and its generation but new media is always developing and is becoming more of an addiction for younger people, speaking from experience and this is going to be a continues cycle because there are always new technologies being worked on to make it better than the previous, which leads into a sense of convergence adding a lot of different components into one device such as a smart phone where you can access every social site such as twitter on the go. Developments such as this add to the addiction. 

Jenkins. H (2006) Eight Traits of the New Media Landscape [WWW] http://henryjenkins.org/2006/11/eight_traits_of_the_new_media.html (accessed 26/04/12)

campaign project

To end of the network media year we was given a final project, which was to create a short campaign video. This campaign video was allowed to be about anything we wished for, whether that might be as small as something that gets on our nerves or maybe something on a more serious scale. This was a good task because it did not restrict us, and allowed us to put more of our own creative and imaginative style to this project.

For this project I could chose to work by yourself or in a group, I chose to work in a group, which consisted of David, Tia, Andrea and myself we wanted to get started straight away and started planning what our campaign video will be based on.

As a group we decided that we wanted to take a more serious approach whilst creating this campaign video, we wanted it to reach people and have a meaning or awareness about it.

Our first idea that we came up with was to do a campaign about porn, but after much brainstorming and discussion we decided to do a campaign based on the effects of sex which would led onto the topic of porn.

For this project we rented out a camera and used it to film a very short play on real life situations that occur before during and after sex, then we was to go around asking people abut their personal taught on sex, our initial idea was to have like a focus group with both sexes and have a discussion about sex but instead we asked friends and random people on their own opinions.

The questions that where asked during the interview where, what reasons do you have sex, how much value do you believe sex has and has porn given you a different look on sex.

Due to unfortunate situation, which was hard to over come, ended up scrapping the idea, this was because the filming we had done went missing but fortunately David was running for a ACS Campaign at this time and we taught this would be a good idea to create a video for his campaign. This was killing two birds with one stone, which was to help our group campaign and help David promote his run for elections.  

We enjoyed creating this campaign video we all contributed different ideas and how we want the outcome to look like. We did our own research and looked at other election videos to get the best out of our project, such as Barack Obama’s ‘ it begins with us’ and the very famous Kony campaign video.

Psychogeography Project

in our day to day lives we do a lot of travelling, which has come to the point that we are not Consciously aware of the surroundings we may walk past every day this even applies to being in a new environment , for example living in leicester is a new area for me and being here almost half a year i am yet to take in the surroundings it is just me getting from A to B. which is way this project will show me taking a route around leicester and taking photographs of this i would not take any notice of.

For this project my task will be exploring different locations at the same time and how it relates to the human this could be with the street name or in relation with a song, my initial idea was to walk the night life and add to a song which would explain the photography. I am planning to start this project in the evening, after 6pm, and I want to start local but not obvious from the university.

My aim for this journey is to travel past the local areas that people would go on a night out which will be taking a route through the city and multiple places you could end up and multiple things you could go past without recognising.

For this project I am trying to map out how the public fit into their environment depending on the time of day, also would be graffiti, facial expressions still images of the landmarks and atmosphere.

My choice of documenting my project with a media device will be a SLR camera borrowed from the media department I would also like to include audio but this will be uploaded to my made tumblr.

The direction of my journey is based around exploring the in’s and outs of Leicester and memory of most common areas.

The Medium is the Message

In my recent Network Media workshop we was given a task which would have to be done in pairs, with was to interview each other on the effect of new media and how it has effected us.

We had to pair up with people we would not normally talk to or where different that way we know this way we would get more different and more interesting questions and answers.

Questions such as, how do you feel about these changes, do you feel nostalgic for times prior to the current media you use, and how has your experience of culture changed for example image, text, sound, and consumption.

The first set interview questions was based around the famous blackberry, known for its Blackberry Messenger (BBM) which allows you to keep connected socially the easiest way.

The first question asked was what kind of impact has it created to your life? For my answer, I had said at first I found it great and good way to keep in contact but at the same time it is a bit of a distraction causes you to live a cyber social world and takes you away from reality, for example you could be in a lesson and not concentrate or be with your mates and still trying to keep in touch with your other mates. This answer ended up being both of our answers but I had more to say which was that the blackberry hype had died down for me and become more of a drag being able to be contacted around the clock and instantly via facebook, twitter and the messenger. Another question, which was asked concerning the blackberry was what values and emotions do, I have with my device and I answered that I have no emotional connection to my device and could get rid of it whereas my interviewee said the opposite and would not be able to cope without her blackberry and will start getting withdrawal symptoms, this shows the different effects that people have with the device.

Secondly we moved onto another everyday used device, which are a laptop, the same questions and more was asked about the laptop. Firstly my values to the laptop are different from the blackberry as I wouldn’t be able to live without my laptop and because I work with a Mac book I love it even more whereas my partner doesn’t really have a emotion that connects to her laptop because you can do what ever is on the laptop on a blackberry. I was also asked how often I am on the laptop in a day where I answered I am normally on it all day unless the battery is dead. Also asked has it had any impact on space and time spent been transformed by it where I had replied a bit because when a event is happening with my mates sometimes I would rather stay in and browse my laptop, this is because I think what I do with my mates I can do right he on my laptop which has changed me.