The "White Paper" put out by MIT has a lot of useful tips on how to become active in the media and in the community. The outcome of all these young people communicating with each other on such a massive scale is yet to be determined. But I notice some things that make me feel uneasy, such as this: "Participatory culture shifts the focus of individual expression to community involvement". Personally, I like being an individual and I like having an expression, if mine is different than the communities then I vote different. If I vote different than you am I a bad citizen, or do you think I do not want to be involved?
If all of these higher thinkers would just leave these kids alone, I guarantee you they would learn to work together, but to believe that everyone is going to work with everyone else is just a pipe dream in an imperfect world. The paper also goes into how media shapes what people think or believe and that is so true. Look at how many people waste their time keeping up with Hollywood and believing HW shapes America, when to me they just make movies and I watch them, I don't live my life by them.
Here is how I am portrayed by our current federal government, I do not approve of the way our President is handling our country, so to the people in charge I am a white, racists, Nazi, bigot. I just cannot get behind all this mind control, I must think this way, I must think that way! And I do not want to adopt an alternative identity for the purpose of improvisation and discovery. Why can I not do that with the identity I posses now? Why must I change?If I do not change, am I a bad citizen? If you would like to read MITs paperclick here
How do we maintain our individuality in a culture that appears to implores us to be communal? An excellent question!
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