In Henry Jenkins’s blog, he says that the focus of society has been gradually shifting into an online community. As the young generation actively participates in the online community, people are connecting each other by creating and circulating their own means of media. Because the online community encourages creative expression and active participation, with more people’s involvement, the new participatory culture has emerged.
As Henry Jenkins said, it is true that participatory culture has tons of benefits for our young generation. People interact with each other through communicating which in return helps create new forms of media, improve their self-awarenesses, motivate personal advancement, and etc. I totally agree with the author that we should “encourage youth to develop the skills, knowledge, ethical frameworks, and self-confidence needed to be full participants in contemporary culture.” However, as Henry contrasts participatory culture with the traditional learning environment, a question is raised in my head: will participatory culture eventually dominate our society one day?
I think we all have some similar experiences of making friends online. When I was a freshman living on campus, I became friend with one of my hall mates, Luke, on Facebook. We talked about our habits, interests, and our own experiences in college, but we never met in person. We had great conversations and I thought that one day we could introduce ourselves to each other and hang out together. However, it was interesting that one day I ran into him in the hallway and each of us just stared at each other and merely said “hi.” It was such an awkward moment because I couldn’t believe we couldn’t start a conversation in real life even though we were “good friends” on Facebook! That was the time I realized that there was a difference between a virtual community and real life. Think about we post a status on Facebook or share something funny online. Even though people hit the button “like” or give nice comments, it does not necessarily mean we get the same approval in life. Living in the virtual community sometimes connect one and another, but it also creates an illusion of seemingly reliable relationship which is not the same in reality. As we spend so much time in the virtual world, we are getting confused of who we are.
Henry mentioned a few genius kids in his blog about how they used Internet to be successful as some of them are being frustrated with the school. It was lucky that these kids found their keys to success; however, we cannot generalize the situation to every kid. There are means of ways to be educated. Some kids are influenced by their families, some by friends, and some by the education they receive at the school. It is difficult to determine which one has the greatest impact on one’s life because we all have different capacities of getting education from different resources. But one thing for sure is that being exposed to the real society and acquiring knowledge in broad fields is critical to one’s advancement. Compared with the participatory culture online, schools definitely play a more important role in educating with the awareness of reality. I could never imagine one day I open my laptop and get the message from my professor by saying “Now class begins.”
As Henry Jenkins said, it is true that participatory culture has tons of benefits for our young generation. People interact with each other through communicating which in return helps create new forms of media, improve their self-awarenesses, motivate personal advancement, and etc. I totally agree with the author that we should “encourage youth to develop the skills, knowledge, ethical frameworks, and self-confidence needed to be full participants in contemporary culture.” However, as Henry contrasts participatory culture with the traditional learning environment, a question is raised in my head: will participatory culture eventually dominate our society one day?
I think we all have some similar experiences of making friends online. When I was a freshman living on campus, I became friend with one of my hall mates, Luke, on Facebook. We talked about our habits, interests, and our own experiences in college, but we never met in person. We had great conversations and I thought that one day we could introduce ourselves to each other and hang out together. However, it was interesting that one day I ran into him in the hallway and each of us just stared at each other and merely said “hi.” It was such an awkward moment because I couldn’t believe we couldn’t start a conversation in real life even though we were “good friends” on Facebook! That was the time I realized that there was a difference between a virtual community and real life. Think about we post a status on Facebook or share something funny online. Even though people hit the button “like” or give nice comments, it does not necessarily mean we get the same approval in life. Living in the virtual community sometimes connect one and another, but it also creates an illusion of seemingly reliable relationship which is not the same in reality. As we spend so much time in the virtual world, we are getting confused of who we are.
Henry mentioned a few genius kids in his blog about how they used Internet to be successful as some of them are being frustrated with the school. It was lucky that these kids found their keys to success; however, we cannot generalize the situation to every kid. There are means of ways to be educated. Some kids are influenced by their families, some by friends, and some by the education they receive at the school. It is difficult to determine which one has the greatest impact on one’s life because we all have different capacities of getting education from different resources. But one thing for sure is that being exposed to the real society and acquiring knowledge in broad fields is critical to one’s advancement. Compared with the participatory culture online, schools definitely play a more important role in educating with the awareness of reality. I could never imagine one day I open my laptop and get the message from my professor by saying “Now class begins.”