Media-Mixing and Me
While I have found most of the readings we have done in class very interesting, stimulating, I find it necessary to focus on “Imaging, Keyboarding and Posting Identities” by Sandra Weber and Claudia Mitchell, as it opened my eyes to prosumption and inspired my final topic. Furthermore, it presents a range of salient points in regards to online identity construction. It opens with a consideration of trying to understand “coming of age” in an ever more digitalized and mediated world: not only is there a considerable digital divide, but there also exists a gap in understanding, as adults who have had to learn cannot understand how natural technology can be for children today.
The article then goes on to describe technology’s role in the adolescent “identity crisis,” as well as prosumption and digital production as a sort of ongoing experimentation of the adolescent “identity-in-action.” The adolescent identity, in this framework is a bricolage of media products, redefined and reworked, and pieced together as self-expression until the right mix sticks. It then looks at four
I connected to this because, in reflecting on my adolescence and identity construction, its various stages and phases were defined by the outlet I chose to express myself on. Whether it was Geocities, LiveJournal, MySpace or Facebook (now I find my identity much more separately), each seemed to fit at the time and provided me with tools through which I could express myself. Similarly, as I look at younger kids experimenting on the internet, I am fascinated by their experimentations. While their media mixing is very different from mine, it is, in many ways, the same.
I found that Weber and Mitchell adequately address this theme by focusing on media mixing in four different contexts. In each, the broad strokes remain the same. Each young person finds his or her voice through mediation However, each medium also has its own idiosyncrasies, allowing certain unique expression, and also prohibiting other kinds. While I did think that this issue could be explored further and more in depth, especially as it relates to media mixing and prosumption, each case study was interesting and tired to the others in interesting ways to create a well-rounded understanding of mediated adolescent identity.
Ceci