Module 3: Digital Media Theory

For me websites like Facebook and Myspace were only tools to communicate with distant family and friends. It also helped me reconnect with early childhood classmates. Amazingly with the help of google two long lost uncles brothers to my mother that were born in a different country were found after 45 years! I am sure there are many other stories like mine from all over the world. But it is important to appreciate how this technology works and the origins of it. Because like many others I am one of the people that are taking advantage of it without really understanding all the hard work and time spent to have this technology so easy to use nowadays. Nicholas Negroponte’s book “Being Digital” is full of knowledgeable and true vision. Many of the approaches and possibilities he mentions have since been realized and many more are yet to be actualized. Negroponte spends a lot of time filling in the gaps between what you were supposed to know in the late 90’s about the rise of the digital era, and what you actually absorbed from everyone else who were also just pretending to know what the difference between digital and analog meant.

The Relative Advantage. Like many guys from my age bracket I spent many years of my life playing online games. During those years I learned a lot about computers and internet. You may wonder how can a person learn anything while playing a game! The answer is that in many of these online games there are online communities, each community contains a large number of teams, guilds or clans. While being a part of a team you are expected to have a good internet connection and a reliable computer to perform your part of whatever the task is you are doing in that game. Over the years I relied on my teammates to trouble shoot a technical problem or get an advice from the game’s discussion board on how to upgrade my computer or how to install a certain hardware or software. As years went by I became an IT expert without having a degree in computer science. Which also helped me in my career because everyone in the office would come to me to fix an issue on their computer or their internet connection.

Even though gamers are sometimes seen as nerds or anti-socials, “video games are good for you—and good for democracy, too. With all the talk of violence, addiction, and isolation, such an idea is not intuitive. But a recent study showed that online game communities provide access to social capital. “Online gaming has a positive effect not only on each gamer’s life, but also on society as a whole,” says Tetsuro Kobayashi, a social psychologist at the National Institute of Information in Tokyo” (Stanford Social Innovation Review).

Video games now are different from video games before. In the past you were only able to compete or play against the computer. Now you can compete against other players, interact with other players, there are personal and team goals that can take months to achieve. During that time a player creates a social interaction where he or she can make and lose friends. You get to meet people that are from different backgrounds and cultures, therefore you get to learn new things and experience things that you might not have been able to experience by joining your local chess club.

The challenge with video games is time. Usually players quit once they graduate from college because their time becomes limited with the added responsibilities. Sadly some people end up struggling with video games addiction and organizing their time.

Going back to diffusion of innovation after reading “Diffusion of Innovation” by Everett Rogers I was able to relate online gaming to it. One of the elements of diffusion is Communications Channels, Rogers states that diffusion is a specific kind of communication and includes these communication elements: an innovation, two individuals or other units of adoption, and a communication channel. How was this video game introduced to me? Through friends at work and college that shared with me their joy and experience.

Works Cited

http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/research_online_gaming_is_the_new_bowling_league

New Twitter accounts, (@egypt_jobs_) following this account because I am looking into the possiblty of moving to Egypt. (@ICRC)  following this account which is for the International committee of the red cross because I currently work for the American Red Cross and it is important for me to see the news of the ICRC. (@BritishAirways) following this account because I use this airlines a lot in my traveling.