What's In My Bag

In class the other day we were discussing the process of amateur cultural production, and how it shapes our values and behaviours.  The text, images and videos that we consume on a daily basis affect the way we think about things like romance, love, friendship, and our careers. Dr. Strangelove pointed out that there is a de-centralization happening right now, we're not listening to the loudest voice in the land of capitalist communication systems who create structures of preferred meanings, we're now watching and listening to ourselves.

What do I mean by preferred meanings exactly? In New Media: An Introduction, Terry Flew explains that preferred meanings are hedronormative (the dominant representation of what a normal couple is).  Preferred meanings also push people to be white, be normal, be productive at work and shop, shop, shop your heart out.

The internet is encouraging the rise of amateur cultural production on YouTube, with millions of users creating and producing their own videos to be viewed by people just like us. With our collective engagement at an all time high, capitalist structures need to capture our attention to stay in control and keep these preferred meanings in power.

But are we really breaking away from this capitalist system? With the amount of people creating their own content and manipulating commercial property (fan fiction, or putting an iPhone in a blender), amateurs are also socialized by capitalism. Whether we know it or not, our amateur production produces the preferred meanings created by capitalism. 

While I think it's great that the internet allows us to express ourselves, there is definitely a downside in that our values and behaviours are shaped by Facebook and YouTube, the middle ground between our amateur internet and the capitalist commercial systems. This can be seen through "haul videos" for girls and "unboxing videos" by guys.

Take a look at this "What's In My Bag" video to see what I'm talking about:

That's all for now! Until next time!