A Fan

It seems that I have always lacked something in order to understand the fan phenomenon. How should we define a fan, anyhow? Does the fact that there are certain musicians, writers, actors, movie directors and other creative groups or people whose activity interests me more than some of the others' and I have seen, read or listened more than one piece of work they have produced make me instantly a fan of theirs? Or should I collect some objects related to their production or create actively some new content based on their work in order to be a fan? In case the answer to the last question is "yes", I am definitely not a fan of anything or anyone and for what it's worth I don't feel myself like being a fan of something either. For me, being a fan associates unfortunately mostly with the strange cases of affection like the ongoing one where tens of thousands or more teenage girls and their mums just cannot stop dreaming of Robert Pattinson (leading actor of Twilight Saga that I have been unable to watch for its mawkishness). It may be that I misunderstand something completely about fanship, but fan practices have always seem a bit sad and desperate to me: why want to resemble to a pop-star or fictional character and not just be you? Why imitate or slightly contribute to other people's creation if you could put this spare energy to better use and create something original and your own? To each his own: maybe being a fan just is not for everyone.

Media Diary 10.12-14.12.2009.

I apologize for the diary not being more summarized, but the fully summarized version of it looked so boring that if I had a blog I'd never post it there.

10.12 Thursday. Wrote the art and visual culture essay most of the day, so used the PC around 12 hours that day altogether. Used several internet sources for the essay (Google Books, for example). Also used several books in hardcopy. To get a rest and distance from an assignment time to time I read news from the internet (Estonian-language sites), checked the status of friends in Facebook and watched one episode of Estonian Idol from TV3 online archive. Stayed logged out from MSN for the whole day in order not to be distracted.
11. 12 Friday. Thought about finishing the essay but decided that I need still to gain more distance with it in order to revise it properly, so I finished a RPG Dragon Age: Origin that I had had in the PC for quite for a while, instead. Was unhappy with the ending of the game, because the only ethical choice to "save the world" was for the main character ("me") to commit suicidical self-sacrifice. Finished writing the essay. Posted an entry about it in Facebook and had a small discussion about the coming assignments with "sisters in pain".
12. 12 Saturday. Skimmed through a paper version of Iltalehti. Didn't get any new information but got an impression that there were even more reports of crimes that involved firearms than usually. Logged into an internet bank and for few minutes to Facebook. Searched info about hotels in Varanasi, India and sent an e-mail to one of them. Watched Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) with boyfriend who by some miracle hadn't seen the movie (probably seen it for 20 times for now, but it's still good). After that we couldn't miss the "rare" opportunity to watch Jaws (1975) from MTV3 before falling to sleep.
13. 12 Sunday. Put two new videogames to download (readers, it would be nice if you wouldn't report me to some authorities now for making that confession). Started with next essay. Didn't get the inspiration for it so spent a lot of time for doing nothing that also involved reading people's comments from online media and a internet forum Perekool (Family School). (The forum has become of the place where women who are suffering home-abuse or have found out about their husbands affairs come to pour out their hearts, so I'd call it endulging in a kind of "social-porn".) Talked with friends and the father in MSN.
13. 12 Monday. Continued with the essay. Used few printed books, some scanned books and some sources from the internet. Logged into Korppi and Optima for a few times. Also checked several of my mailboxes (have seven of them, unfortunately) and sent some e-mails. Skimmed through the headlines of online newsportals (Estonian). Continued writing the essay. Watched the documentary about Guantanamo prison from ETV.

Conclusion and some additions. My main media source is internet. I get news from online newsportals and internet is also a source for entertainment. I use the mobile phone every day but mostly just to talk and send messages, very rarely for internet, taking pictures etc. I tend to forget that I have a TV. Before coming to Jyväskylä I used it mostly for watching films and as a late-night background noise when being home alone. Finnish TV-channels show approximately 5 times less films than Estonian channels and finish their programs too early to fit with my rhythm of the day. I read newspapers printed on paper only if someone else has bought them and also tend to go through the printed newpapers in bars and restaurants if they're available. I work for the art and visual culture magazine kunst.ee (published in print), so apart from that I do not have an urge to participate in any other form of media (to create new content). I do not have a blog and except for Facebook that I use for keeping in touch with my friends I also do not feel the need to be overly active in social networks. The five days above didn't differ relevantly from my usual use of media.

Convergence Culture

One of Jenkins’s core claims, a change of the relationships between media and us as a consumer of media indicates our use of technology, might be a good way to start thinking about the future of digital culture. According to Jenkins, a convergence culture represents a shift in the way as we think about our relations to media, that we are making that shift first through our relations with popular culture but that the skills we acquire through play may have implications for how we learn, work, participate in the political process, and connect with other people around the world (p 23). In this regard, a convergence of cultural activities seem to appear as we expand popular culture through the use of information technology (mobile phone or internet as a platform, for instance). And we learn to apply such skills (skills to use information technology whatever the way possible) to get involved politically as an individual, to acquire knowledge and to build a relationship. It might not be overstating that such a new notion of media, which described here as convergence culture, is growing. And it is mirroring changes in our lives how we purse a more convenient and fulfilling life by expanding the use of technology. It is overwhelming how we always find a way to use new media technology and how much we relay on information technology in a daily life. Needless to say that there is only a fuzzy boundary between who creates and controls media and people who consume them at the moment. And I believe we keep pushing the boundary as the use of technology seep in our lives.

fandom

I have been thinking for a while what I am fan of. I am not a fan of anything particular. I feel this is a disadvantage for me not being a fan of anything (at least disadvantage for being in this Digital Culture program). The reason might be that I enjoy doing many things and cannot narrow down to few things that I would be absorbed in. I used to read a lot of mangas (Japanese comics) when I was in primary school and junior high school. However, I was never obsessed with any specific manga or writer. Osamu Tezuka was one of my favorites but was not crazy about his works. I used to listens LP records my parents had. MD, MP3 or music online never attracted me. I prefer using a manual camera than a digital camera. I used to go fishing often but was never happy about using a fancy fishing gear or a fishfinder (a machine which detects fish under water). I love watching sports, especially baseball and football, but prefer to go and actually see the match than on TV or game. Perhaps, another reason that I am not fan of any media would be that I am used to a paper format (paper book & paper photo) and manual machines and afraid to change such habits.

Diary of a Media Addict

     I am as a media and communication student; I realized that I spend the most of my time with technological devices. The first thing that I do every morning when I wake up, just going to in front of my computer, turn it on and then be online. I always consider why I am doing this. Is it obligatory? Is reason being  an addict? Or being human in the 21^st Century?

        As I said, every morning when I wake up, the first thing is pushing turn on button of my laptop and then eating something. It claims that, Internet and computer are more important than main needs of my body. I spent time in front of computer around 5-6 hours in a day but I am talking with people around 1-2 hours. I check my mails and Facebook profile generally more than 15 times in a day and there are maybe just 3-5 new important things happen on my profile and I receive maybe 2-3 important mails each day. Therefore, I spent maybe half of the time with internet for just surfing. I am reading Turkish newspapers, I am looking videos on YouTube and I am talking with friends and family on Skype. When I was in Turkey, I was watching TV around 3-4 hours in a day but in Finland, I do not have TV and also if I had, I do not think that I will watch it because language is very important thing for watching TV because when people watch TV, they generally want make their mind empty and relax so people prefer their native language speaking TV channels, in addition, for me it is meaningless to watch TV in Finland. Internet and computer take TV’s place and I am also watching Turkish TV series and channels through Internet. In Finland, mobile phone is not as important as in Turkey but still I always need to carry it with me everywhere. It makes me feel that I am connected with the world somehow and when I want to reach someone and if somebody tries to reach me, it is perfect way for me to have mobile phone. However, last week, I forgot my phone in my room and during the day, I always felt uncomfortable and “naked”. I was always checking my pockets because every hour, I forgot that I do not have my mobile phone with me. I felt helpless and hopeless because if I want to call someone and if there is an emergency, I could be totally lost without my phone. When I went back to home in the evening, I immediately  checked my phone, there was no calling or message and I felt strange, and I realized also when I have my phone with me, I am talking maybe once or twice time in a day and some text messages, nothing more and busy. Recently, the most important thing that I realized is how my computer is important for me. Two weeks ago, my laptop computer was broken and everything changed in my daily life because I was spending my time between home, school and friends. After I lost my laptop, I have not been in home as much as before. I felt that, everything is going on the Internet but I was out of that thing. I started to spend my time more in the school computer labs or in the library. I needed my mobile phone more than before to keep in touch with people and I met with my friends more often because there was nothing special to do for me at home after all.  When I was at home, I spent more time to read books. Generally I read book for 1 hour before sleeping but without computer, I started to get used to read books in daytime and any time when I got bored and I realized I started to read around 2 hours and maybe more. When I was reading, I felt that, I was doing more useful things than before and spent more time to improve myself. Also I realized that I have nice games on my mobile phone because I got bored without laptop and I checked what I have on my mobile phone to kill time and I found few good mobile games. My phone became more important for me after my laptop left me.

    It has been 20 days since my computer is broken and I think when I get my new laptop, everything will change to same as before and my new computer will be my new friend but after this nice and long experience, I will try not to lose myself in the labyrinth of the Internet and I will turn my face to real life more than before. This experience taught me, we can live without our computers but now, ironically, I am in a computer lab, I have got special key to enter to this computer lab for 24 hours and I am writing my summary on the computer to send it to my lecture blog on the Internet. Therefore, there is no escape from this big heaven of media and technology but I think the point is, we should control our using of these devices and media , and we should not let them to control our lives.