Wednesday, December 5, 2012

post 4


It is hard to predict what the future of convergence will be. Everyday people are inventing new things. We see new ways of communication, new ways of storytelling, new ways of mass media, and new technology. We have witnessed a rapid advance in technology and in all the other forms mentioned above. Looking back just a couple of decades to the 70’s per say, we can see a community that lived without any cellphones, any portable computers, or any major internet websites. (those which we feel like we couldn’t live without today) Instead, all they had was radio and some television channels. Despite their restricted means, humanity was able to make it to the moon and back. According to Brad Meltzer the author of many best selling books, the iPhone 4 has more technology than the entire Apollo 17 did back in the 70’s. It is astonishing how in such a short period of time we were able to accomplish so much.

With the knowledge we have from the past, that I used in my previous example. I would say that in just a couple of years, our daily life will look like a scene from a SciFi movie. With the advances in the gaming industry we will probably be able to create surrogates like in the movie. We might be able to acquire such technology that will allow us to walk around like in a video game with a character portraying who we want to be. Of course besides it being fun, we have many benefits like everyone staying safe at home as well as hiding your true identity.

Furthermore, the gaming industry is also advancing in helpful ways. Despite the bad rep video games have, there is a great idea that can change the way kids learn in school that can potentially change the entire education system. New York’s school Quest to Learn uses game like learning strategies that with their research and method have proved to be effective. Perhaps in a couple of years the education system of the entire country can be like Quest to Learn. Doing this will allow every public school across the nation to adopt the same method, therefore making it fun and easy for kids to learn.

When we look at the way storytelling has changed, we see the progress in transmedia over the years as well. Today we get the same story over and over again. For example with the Pixar’s movie Cars kids can get the same characters they loved in the movie in t-shits, apparel, video games, books, and even decoration themes for parties. In the past actors in a movie were not even famous stars. In the future however, I believe that things will continue progressing rapidly as they have so far. If technology allows, we could be watching movies with a completely different experience than that we have today. Perhaps we can have life size holographics that allows us to interact as if we were characters ourselves. 

In order for us to get in the game of the future generations, we have to stay alert and in touch with the social media and all the new ways of communication that we have today and that we’ll see in the near future. In my opinion it is important for the media such as news reporters and journalists to start thinking of new ways to bring across to us what they want us to see. As we had discussed in class, with mass amateurization, journalism is one of those careers that might become obsolete because of everyone being able to deliver news in similar or better ways that the professionals can. We are able to do this in real time with tools such as facebook an twitter that allow for fast and easy communication. In addition, we are able to see and hear news and opinions of real and average people, instead of an exaggerated story, which we some times get with major news casters. 

Finally,  I would love to see a future where the entire universe is connected through such platforms as the internet. Most of all, I would love to live in a world where the media didn’t restrict or censor things from the rest of the world. These are stories that are of high importance and we need to see but they don’t feel the need to show. Lastly, I feel as though, while it is unclear and hard to predict what the future of convergence may be a decade from now, I believe at the same time we witness it everyday. Perhaps we are too close to see the bigger picture clear enough to realize we are the future.



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