The Convergence Culture

     Convergence culture is the combination of new media and old media within a single piece of media work and the coming together of different media products/technology. The easiest and most common example of this is your smart phone, they’re able to do almost anything – you can watch television, listen to music, record videos/take pictures, play games, communicate with people through text messaging or calling, access different social media platforms and the list goes on. Cell phones today are probably the best example of convergence because it joins together multiple media technologies into one single device, which a lot of new devices do this because it allows many media technologies to form one product to perform many different tasks. This is what the new generations want, whichever device can perform more tasks and has the best features is the one more commonly chosen.

     The term convergence culture is a term coined by Henry Jenkins in his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006). Jenkins’ understanding of convergence is primarily a cultural process where convergent practices include both the consumption and creation of media. He focuses on the effects of media convergence and the combination of various media that offer new forms of communication and understanding between different media sources. The more our group continued to look and read Jenkins’ work we have become very interested in it and had many discussions on different forms of convergence along with the positive and negative effects it can have on society. Despite many new creations that have resulted from convergence, like new technology devices releasing, there are also conflicts when opposing ideas collide.

     Convergence also takes a role in the social aspect of things users may utilize multiple media technologies simultaneously, such as listening to music while watching TV or playing video games. Something commonly done that our group has noticed is many people will watch one sporting event on TV or even in person, but continue to check their ESPN app on their phone to check other scores or updates from other games going on that day. Media convergence is what makes people dependent on media, individuals now a-days can’t put their phones down for 10 minutes or leave the house without it. The convergence of media products means that in theory, we do not have to leave our homes because almost everything can be achieved at the touch of a button.

     In conclusion these multiple forms of media convergence are leading us to a period of transformation that will affect all parts of our lives and those to come. It’s sparking a social, political, economic and legal disputes because of conflicting goals of the producers and consumers. The advancements in the different forms of convergence are ever-changing and the advances in technology are progressing rapidly, some of the older generations have a hard time keeping up. Our group shared experiences when we had to teach our parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles how to operate all these new devices and show them all the different programs they have right at their fingertips.

    As Henry Jenkins said, these contradictory forces are pushing towards cultural diversity, homogenization, commercialization and towards grassroots cultural production.

Original Work of Electronic Literature | Kiersten Worthy

Check out my original work of electronic literature, Trumpocalypse.
It's a hypertext novel about a fictional scenario set 3 years in the future after Trump wins presidency of the United States. It has a post-apocalyptic/science fiction feel, with a few comical references to pop-culture.

Blog Post #9 Archival Work

For our archival work since we're all big hockey fans we decided to incorporate the Pittsburgh Penguins. We would take artifacts from their original arena, the Civic Arena also known to Pittsburgh fans as "The Igloo," there are a lot of leftover pieces from this arena as well as pictures and memorabilia. The Penguins then moved into their new arena, PPG Paints Arena formally known as CONSOL Energy Center. Once we have location established, mainly with images of the locations and areas then we can move into the most dominant players that have been with the franchise like Keith McCreary, Bob Kelly, Jean Pronovost, Ron Schock, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Evgeni Malkin and of course Sidney Crosby. There's so many players to list this is just a small handful, but with this section of the archive we can include memorabilia from players and accomplishments they made throughout their seasons as well as awards players have won. For example Sidney Crosby is amongst the most decorated NHL players having won  multiple Stanley Cup Championships, he's individually won the Hart Trophy, the Art Ross Trophy along with the Ted Lindsay Award some of these he's won more than once, some are shown below.

Also something we discussed including was players gear such as equipment like hockey sticks used by the players, goalie masks or skates, pucks and jerseys as well as autographed ones. Things like this, especially ones from the big name players, go for thousands of dollars and not everyone has the luxury of getting able to buy them or even see them, some may not by aware that they exist. This archive will be a great tool to Pittsburgh Penguin's fans who want to explore the different stages and players of their favorite franchise.

Mario Lemieux autographed jersey, average price is above $1,200.

Michel Dion - Canadian goaltender who played with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the early - mid 1980's

Hockey E-Lit

This google maps essay will take you through how the beginning of my college hockey season has played out thus far. The ups and downs that are included within any hockey season and how we as a team dealt with them and moved on. The title of this piece is "Hockey Travels."

Original Work of Electronic Literature

Here is the link to the twitter post where my original work of e-lit is published,
 http://philome.la/Sar_K5/how-it-feels

My piece is a first-hand look inside the mind of how it feels to deal with a mental illness such as depression, I've been doing collaborative work with this topic all semester in other classes for a semester project and it's something that hits a little too close to home for me and others from which I've discovered. No one likes discussing mental illness because of the stigma attached to it and that needs to come to an end. More people are willing to talk and even go get help once they realize they're not alone in this battle.

My Original Work of e-Lit

The Trip Across the Pond - is a Google Maps Essay that talks about a trip I went on to Spain the summer after my Freshman year of high school.

Blog #8 Data-mining

     Data mining is the process of discovering patterns in large data sets, the overall goal of the data mining process is to extract information from a data set and transform it into an understandable structure for further use. We got the opportunity to take our blog posts and see the patterns in each of our own individual blogs, and a group post. We were able to compare which words we used the most and see any similarities between our blogs. We all thought this was a pretty cool thing to see because we all had similarities with the words we used most often.

Sarah Francowic, blog #7 on virtual identity shows which words I used most frequently.

Mike Koleny - Data-mining for blog post #7

     The top picture is showing some of the words that were used the most in the 7th blog post. The bottom graph is showing the same thing, as well as, the number and frequency that those words were being used. The interesting this about the two images is the fact that almost all of the words overlap between the two.   

Mike Mahich data mining of the blog post #7 on virtual identity. Take a look below at how often each word is used and what is most common.

Group post - Do games count? With this group post you can see the pattern with how we consider games the most common words we used were video, games and art.

Virtual Identity

Virtual Identities
Social media can sometimes lead a person to believe things about another person that actually may not be true at all. Online media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and even Instagram allow users to post any content that they desire. This content includes pictures, comments, videos, or anything else that can be transferred online, like music uploads. All of this content put together is what is considered as a virtual identity of a particular user. Now, not everyone uses these online virtual worlds to create a "fake image." A lot of people like to use social media to communicate with other friends near and far and also to keep up with recent news that is occurring. On the contrary, there are others out there who prefer to express themselves as a different person to try and possibly create a better image for people to see. A great example of this would be the widely known TV show Catfish. The show finds people on the internet that have been trying to meet the certain person they have been talking to online. Most of the episodes end up with one person being totally fooled into thinking the certain other person wasn't who they were portrayed to be online or through text messages/phone calls.

My Virtual Identity

I personally do use a couple of the social media platforms currently out there. I use Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat to communicate with friends. My family really doesn't use social media besides my younger sister. I like to use Facebook to keep me on track with what is going on around town or what my friends may be getting into. What some people may not usually use Facebook or even Instagram for is following some of their favored companies or sports pages. Facebook is a solid way to follow hunting pages or sport team pages such as the Pittsburgh Penguins. A good amount of my friends use Snapchat to send funny pictures or short videos of things they are doing. I would say, the amount of content I post is less than average compared to how much other people post on these media platforms. 

Is My Intelligence Artificial?

I think computer intelligence is not really even close to where human intelligence is today. But, computer scientists are further advancing the capabilities of virtual intelligence in our social media world at a very rapid pace. Even while browsing applications like Facebook or Instagram, there are advertisements for products/services that pop up to try and get your attention. Another great and widely used example of artificial intelligence is how Siri interacts with iPhone users as a virtual assistant. You can hold a button and ask your phone a question to further be answered by Siri. This can be seen as very helpful to many people seeking a quick answer or directions to a certain destination.

My Virtual Identity

Virtual Identities

Virtual Identity is the idea that one's social media accounts may create a different identity of someone when they are online. For instance, someone may have a different identity on their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat than they have in real life. Also, some may argue that people have a very different identity between different social media platforms. I believe that this is very true. On one social media account, someone may portray themselves as one who goes out and parties quite a bit. On the other hand, on another social media account, they may not show they party at all. This, for the most part, is because of the fact that people have many different types of followers on their social media account. For example, someone may have almost all of their family members on their FaceBook or Instagram account, but have almost none of them on their Twitter or Snapchat. Also, people have the ability to block certain people from viewing their Snapchat story. Lastly, there are definitely people on social media who have a completely different identity than that of real life, but that is not always the case.

My Virtual Identity

I enjoy using social media very much. I have a FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. I check/use all of these on a daily basis. Like mentioned bellow, as well as like many others, I mainly use my FaceBook to keep in contact with my family members. As for the other three, I mainly use them for keeping in touch/seeing what my peers have to say and have been up to. However, I am very different than many others when on social media, I very rarely actually post something on my accounts, if fact, I really only post pictures on my social media account. I mostly just enjoy going though the different social media accounts seeing what people have been up to. I also like to think I am a relatively active follower by liking many of the pictures people post on Instagram. I believe that one of the reasons I do not post many things on social media is because if I do not post anything, it will be easier control what goes out. Nowadays, many employers look at social media accounts and I do not want anything to come back to haunt me.

Is my Intelligence Artificial?

I would say yes, my intelligence is artificial on social media. This is because of what we talked about in class the other day. I have had different social media sites suggest things to me that I have actually been interested in. Because of this, I feel that the different algorithms on the websites have taken what my friends have looked at, as well as, what i have searched before to make suggestions to new things for me to view. Also, if someone were to DM me or post something to my page and then have other people respond to that all before I see it, I would consider that to be a conversation that exists artificial. Lastly, there are different AIs on phones that one has the ability to command and ask questions to. I enjoy seeing all that the new AIs are capable of, and I am excited to see where the future will take us in interactive technology.

Blog #7 Virtual Identity

Someone's virtual identity is basically the presence one holds in the online community whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn or even a dating website. With all these different platforms there is a greater potential for one single person to have multiple identities depending on which site they're engaging with. The way people communicate on these sites is a big difference as well.
With emoji's they allow the younger generation to express different feelings in a more simple way which actually might seem more complex to older generations. The world of emoji's is also growing rapidly it seems like with almost every new Apple software update newer emoji's are being added, this leads to more ways of expression for users. There's also a new kind of emoji called a 'Bitmoji' these allow users to customize an avatar and send different messages or expressions with them. There are so many different variations of things like this and each one could have multiple meanings.

  

Bitmoji's

Regular emoji's

Personally I think my virtual identity definitely varies depending on which platform you're looking at. My Instagram and Twitter are mostly associated with friends or people similar in age to me, so posts on these sites are more carefree or goofy compared to Facebook where my posts would be more family appropriate since I have a lot of family or parents friends on their. My virtual identity on LinkedIn is very professional with links to my publications, awards I've won and courses I've taken in college.

Overall though, I maintain the same point of views, behavior and attitude (give or take some swear words) throughout my virtual identity on the various social media platforms I have. I wouldn't say there's much of a difference from my real identity and virtual identity. I personally know some people who are completely different on social media compared to real life, people who are very shy in person are usually a lot more outgoing on the computer because they're less afraid of being judged or don't have to deal with a face to face confrontation.

I found a great article from CNN discussing virtual identity and many more different aspects to the topic called "Identity in a virtual world" by Michelle Jana Chan. It says how studies do suggest that virtual environments can be a way of expressing a different side of personalities or escaping the social constraints of real life and that people tend to seem 'less ordinary' than their real selves.

I completely agree with both of those statements, a lot of people try to increase their sexual appeal or personality on social media platforms compared to real life and they might also express more opinions behind a computer screen rather than a face-to-face conversation like I mentioned before.

Is my intelligence artificial my answer is no. For a human our intelligence is somewhat pure, we have the ability to make decisions, recognize speech and possess a visual perception whereas artificial intelligence is referred to as giving a computer those human characteristics. Computer scientists have been fairly successful with this, a great example is Siri created by Apple. Siri is referred to as a built-in "intelligent assistant" that allow users to speak commands in order to operate the mobile device. I'm sure any iPhone owner has also asked Siri random questions and it has different answers built into it which can be very comical, but this feature does lack a lot of humanistic characteristics a big one would be things like emotions and just a physical presence.

BuzzFeed made a funny/informative video called "4 Things You Need To Ask Siri," for an example of this artificial intelligence.