Thursday, September 29, 2011

Trending New Words

What was exciting for me this week was that some of the terms for this class were also mentioned in my grad Liberal Studies Class on Globalization; especially Prosumption. In my globalization class the term was labeled prosumer-ism; same definition – individuals produce and consume simultaneously while on the Internet. In my globalization class we are discussing “The Clash of Civilizations”, by Samuel Huntington, and if there will ever be a unified world. And if there will be, how will we arrive at that point. We have read scholars debate that there will be an out rage of violence that we will engage in before we can arrive at a unified state. Prosumption was related to this topic because in class we have concluded (slash been thought) that the increase of mass media / communication as well as the advancements in technology has played a significant role in globalization. Civilizaions are clashing because we have yet to accept or coexist peacefully with other cultures beliefs, values, and history. Yet, why can we not coexist peacefully yet? Well we determined last night in class, that it is related to this term of presumption. People are placing their ideas and beliefs on the Internet that have been viewed around the world and seen and taken as imposing those that beliefs and values are better than other cultures, resulting in a clash among civilizations.

However, let me transition back on our class and the topic of “creating words”. I feel like we do this for EVERYTHING! We create words (or combine words) and hope they sound relatively relevant where it could possibly trend; or in Bruns words, trendwatching. We have created words that describe where we live; “Memphian” or I say, “Coloradian”. What we do; “I tweeted”. Names are created when celebrities that are dating; “Benifer” for Ben Afflict and Jenifer Lopez, or “Brangelina” for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. What about when we are intoxicated? Wasted, slammed, shit faced – “shwasted”?

Back to Bruns Trendwatching term – suggesting that anyone with even a tiny amount of creative talent can (and probably will be part of this not-so-exclusive trend… hello twitter! Hash tags equal trending topics and we like to watch those trending topics so we can stay involved and involved with what is happening locally, nationally, or globally.

Funny thing is we thought MySpace was the “neatest” thing that was put on the Internet regarding social interaction on the World Wide Web. But now we have Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google+, Blogger, Digg. This increasing growth of communication and creation among consumers, I might as well create a new social networking outlet that since its the trending thing to do in the cyber world. If I do I will connect all these terms and call it; “social-cyber-connect-work”. Or is that to long?

1 comment:

  1. Funny! We americans do tend to have a way with words. You should create a social network for something that you like...for example..the color pink! I love it! I think that is what it's gonna come to. They will began to be very personalized.

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