Reading 2, Lauren Arnold

After reading Henry Jenkins' "Convergence Culture; Worship @ the Alter of Convergence: A New Paradigm for Understanding Media Change," I realized that the world of media and technology is changing more than I was ever aware. When I think back to even just fifteen years ago, when I was six, the most high technology there was was the cell phone and the flat screen TVs. But even within just one year from then, the technology was changing extremely quickly.

 https://sellorelse.ogilvy.com/2011/12/14/the-changing-consumer-mindset/
(The men in this photograph are literally just talking "social media" symbols, it is almost like they do not have their own voice and ideas anymore. This just goes on to prove the point that the convergence of ideas through different mediums can be an incredible thing, but it can also really take away from the individual's personal identity in their being and ideas. I also see that the man on the right feels silenced in that all he can contribute is a Facebook thumbs up "like" symbol, whereas the other man is having all of the agency with his talking. This can be related to Jenkins' third part of convergence through media that: "everyone will survive if everyone works together" where no one knows how to do this unfortunately. Clearly these two are not working together to explain their ideas.).

I related to this idea of ever changing technology in the part of Jenkins' novel where he states that "consumers are fighting for the right to participate more fully in there culture." This reminded me of all of the different types of iPhones, mp3 players, and chargers that have been coming out even in just the last five years! Similar to what Jenkins' explains, this kind of consistent new media innovation is extremely inspiring but can also be over stimulating. Jenkins explains it that if old consumers (probably relating back to when I was around six) were described as passive, isolated, and silent participants- then new consumers would be described as active, social, and noisy participants. (This can also be related to the image as Facebook is the oldest of the social media in the image).

He also explains that we as consumers, whether old or new, become "forced to buy incompatible appliances." This statement reminds me of the iPhone chargers that keep becoming recreated with new designs year after year. I remember getting my first iPhone three years ago, and even in just that time, we have had two new chargers. I also remember my dad's phone from about five years ago, even though it was the same phone as my mom's, the chargers would not fit- they were different chargers. I did not understand this. And each time we would buy a new Verizon Wireless phone, whether it was the Razr, the standard flip phone, or Chocolate (all discontinued phones)- all of these phones had different chargers. There was rarely ever one universal charger that all of the phones could share together. This was clearly instated for Verizon consumers to continue to purchase new phone charger after new phone charger so that Verizon could receive more money.