Out on the Town Night 2

Out on the Town

            Using the Internet has become a daily habit for many people, especially in my generation coming up in school right when computer literacy started becoming very important.  With more and more people learning how to use computers the Internet became more than just a place for learned people to share talk about science and politics.  To say the Internet should not to be used for entertainment purposes and that only those using it for scientific purposes should have access to it would be almost offensive to a lot of people today.  Over the past 5-10 years there have been many social websites that have exploded in popularity and have made the Internet community what it is today.  Websites like MySpace, Facebook, eBay, and YouTube are all great examples of websites that provide people with entertainment.  What is amazing is the fact that people are using the Internet not only to communicate with each other in a new way, but they are actually building communities in the process.  I used to think that in order to be a part of an actual community, there needed to be some physical interaction with the other people in your community.  Now in some communities, you can know what someone else is doing even if you have never met that person before. It turns out that’s quite the opposite from what I originally thought.  When we watched the Michael Wesch video on the “Anthropological Introduction to YouTube,” I was really surprised how close people who have never met can be to one another.  Wesch said in the video that the purpose of Web 2.0 was to link people in ways that we have never been linked before.  It is websites like these that enabled Web 2.0 to succeed in this goal.

            One website that I never really used much until I went to college was Carolinanightlife.com.  I had heard of it plenty of times before but I had never actually had a reason to check it out.  When I finally did I was honestly amazed, I never had experienced an adult party scene before so I didn’t know what to expect from that culture.  To my pleasant surprise it could not have been any easier and more fun to use.  You could say that Carolina Nightlife could be considered an Internet community because people have the ability to post feedback and comments on any pictures posted.  You can go on there and create a profile for free using a Facebook account or an email address, after that you have the ability not only look at the content, but react to it as well.  It is not necessarily a large social community like YouTube or Facebook is but it is a community nonetheless.  As Wesch says in the video, “When media change, human relationships change as well.”  Although Carolina Nightlife does relate to Wesch’s discussion on community, and participatory culture it more closely relates to Zuckerman’s article on digital activism.  Zuckerman’s claim in the article is that user generated content is way less interesting than professional content, however there is way more of it so that is most of what we see.  Well if Zuckerman had watched Wesch’s video he would have been surprised.  Wesch explains that ABC, one of the worlds largest television networks, if they had been running programming 24/7 for the 60 years they have been around, it would not equal the amount of programming hours that have been on YouTube in a 6 month period.  That puts it into perspective that contrary to what Zuckerman believes, user generated content can be just as interesting as professional content.  The people in these photos on the website are not professionals, they are just normal people having a good time, which most everyone can relate to. 

            With the addition of these kind of websites onto the Internet, it is becoming much more of an entertainment tool than anything else.  However, this is just one way that people can build communities and build relationships with people in new ways.  Carolina Nightlife is just an example of how even on the Internet there can be geographic communities as well.  Although anyone can see the photos, only those in this region can use this as a tool to find out where people are going out.  Another website like this that is local to the Boone area is BooneDeals.  A friend of mine started this website while still a student at ASU, and now it has become one of the most visited student created websites.  These websites not only provide a place for community online, but also a place to share the events that take place at the bars.  I don’t use Carolina Nightlife as much as I use YouTube and Facebook, but every now and then it is nice to get a laugh from what people do and say when they are in that setting.  In contrast to Wesch, it seems that Zuckerman is appeals to an audience that would only use the Internet for academic or work related purposes.  I however do not find myself believing that user generated content can not be as interesting as professional content, in fact in my opinion it is the user content that is the most interesting.  I side with Wesch because when people are posting raw emotion and showing it to the world, that creates a deeper connection than anything.  The deeper the connection people have with one another, the stronger the community.