Thursday, May 1, 2008

how about another?

Don't you want to hear from me fourty-eleven times today?

In my pre-bedtime blog cruising, I did I quick drive by of Dean's Live Journal, because I heart him on account of The Most Romantic Moment of My Life that took place in the falling snow under a small tree and a street light on Altamont st back during the freak spring storm of '93, when we were tiny children. Anyway, he hardly ever posts anymore of on old LJ, but I check every now and then. He links to this article, which warrents another glass of whiskey and a more thorough rereading by me (I was so excited I had to blog it before I gave it a real go). Equate gin and television and throw around terms like "cognitive surplus" and I am putty in your hands.

ETA: And shit like this? Yeah, boy. That's what I'm talking about.

And I'm willing to raise that to a general principle. It's better to do something than to do nothing. Even lolcats, even cute pictures of kittens made even cuter with the addition of cute captions, hold out an invitation to participation. When you see a lolcat, one of the things it says to the viewer is, "If you have some sans-serif fonts on your computer, you can play this game, too." And that's message--I can do that, too--is a big change.

And also this:

media is actually a triathlon, it 's three different events. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share.
Because yes, yes we do. Lord. Just go read it already.

(Disclaimer - I love lolcats. I do)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Equate gin and television and throw around terms like 'cognitive surplus' and I am putty in your hands"

EXACTLY!

Anonymous said...

I love this article. His story about the little girl looking for the mouse illustrates the whole phenomenon beautifully. I see this sort of thing happening with my students. I see them less able to sit still and consume, but they're much more able to collaborate, to produce. Thanks for sharing this! It's the best thing I've read about media in quite some time.