the future of convergence culture. post 4

"We are living in a world where changes in communications, story telling, and information technologies are reshaping almost every aspect of contemporaty life -- including how we create, consume, learn and interact with each other. A whole range of new technologies enable consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media content and in the process, these technologies have altered the ways that consumers interact with core institutions of government, education and commerce." (Henry Jenkins, 2006)

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The era in which we live holds great technological progress that affects the way that we live. We went from a time when the only information that was available to the public was what gatekeepers allowed them to see. Today, mostly, if not all due to the internet and great advancements in technology, we are able to do so much more than what people just 50 years ago only imagined. It's a little overwhelming to imagine what the future of convergence holds when comparing to what it has been in the past and what it has become now.

In today's age, we are able to get all the information that we need at literally the touch of our fingers because in most cases, we get it all in a single mobile device. Our mobile devices have eliminated the need for a camera, music player, books, home phone, navigation device and in some cases computers. But as Jenkins explains, "Old media are not being replaced. Rather their fuction and status are shifted by the introduction of new technology."

In the future, I can only see a continuation of the developement of new technologies, the same way that has been happening for centuries. From Gutenberg's printing press, to radio, to radio, etc... For the future, I can see us adapting to the new technologies, the same way we have done, but just at a faster rate.

Jane McGonial's TED Talk was very inspirational to me, so for the future of gaming in particular, I see it expanding. I see gaming becoming big and possibly changing the world. Although I am not a gamer at all, I see how gaming has the capabilitiy to change the world. If we could get people in real life to work the same way that they do in video games and use our collective intelligence to solve the problems, I think people will be able to learn better, solve problems faster, and over all live better.

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"For the forseeable future, convergence will be a kid of kludge-- a jerry-rigged relationship among different media technologies-- rather than a fully intergrated system. Right now, the cultural shifts, the legal battles, and the economic consolidations that are fueling media convergence are preceding shifts in the techonological infrastructure. How those various trasistions unfold will determine the balance of power in the next media era."

Where is technology taking us?