Readings

Laughey, D. (2007). Music Media in Young People's Everyday Lives. In Music, Sound and Multimedia: From the Live to the Virtual (pp. 172-187).

"How is music interlaced with our everyday lives in general? What has been the impact of the Internet in the way music is used by young people privately and publicly (and the way this intermingles)?"

In this reading Dan Laughey explores how music is being consumed in both the public and private spheres of young people's lives and how these spheres are combining. It shows that highly portable multimedia devices such as iPods and MP3 players now make it possible to create a private listening sphere within a public one as well as existing mass media including radio and television bringing the public sphere into the private one. It also analyzes what music people listen to and how deeply they interact with it in various settings including social, reflective and active.

First there were record players, then radio, cassette players, music videos, CD players, Walkmans, boom-boxes, surround sound systems, MP3 players and finally iPods. Music has become so portable that it can fit in a pocket and be played anywhere. We can change how out environment is perceived emotionally by playing music that suites the mood we are in, or want to be in. In the car, at the gym, at work, in the bedroom, on a train; when we study, when we play, when we dance, when we chat or when we eat. Music is being used to distract from the everyday routines that seem mundane and boring.

I listen to music all day and change the genre in correspondence to the activity I'm doing. In the mornings I casually listen to radio in background as I work on a dairy farm. When I exercise I play the music that inspires me and invokes passions, I play it loud and listen intensely, the effort I put into my exercise fluctuates with the highs and lows of the song. Music also affects my creativity so when I'm designing the music I select that matches the theme that I'm trying to convey in my work.

The Internet has changed how artists are discovered, how individuals follow their tastes and how music is consumed both in public and in private. It is fair to say that the Internet has taken power from few and given it to many. The popular artists played on the radio, at social gatherings and elsewhere have new routes of distributing their music making it easier for them to be found. The Internet helps build niche communities based around a specific artist or genre and it felicitates the tools for individuals to locate more of their favourite music or discover unknown or rare music using P2P, online communities, social networks and Web 2.0 services such as Last.fm or Pandora that recommend new music based on the member's usage statistics and those of others.

As mentioned in the reading the use of the Internet for music downloads only boomed with the introduction of MP3 players and iPods. It seems plausible to say that the Internet provides the easiest way to purchase and download music, but use only blossomed after the wide uptake of portable media devices, most notably of which is the Apple iPod, as these devices allowed the downloaded songs to played almost anywhere. MP3 compatible devices can now be found everywhere: car radios, DVD players, stereo systems, mobile phones and even my surround sound system has a plug for an iPod or USB storage stick.

David Beer. (2006, September 30). The Pop-Pickers Have Picked Decentralised Media: the Fall of Top of the Pops and the Rise of the Second Media Age. Social Research Online.

"Would the Internet necessarily work against broadcast media (i.e. radio and television)?"

This article briefly analyses the ending of the television music show Top of the Pops (TOTP) and how the Internet may of been the largest factor in its demise. It discusses the rise of the second media age in everyday life, but focuses greatly on the challenges of researching decentralised media models like social networks MySpace and Bebo.

It appears the TOTP style of one-way music consumption has become outdated in today's society. Its focus on populist music fails to address the unique tastes of individuals and niche communities, whilst the social dynamics of the web has provided a means to follow a diverse range of music. Instead of being exposed to music that is popular overall, we can now base our music consumption on what is popular with our friends, our friend's friends, and within online communities that focus on a specific type or genre of music.

Even though the Internet has created an interactive, distributed means of music consumption, I do not see centralised media outlets such as radio and television being replaced, at least not entirely. I feel that people are still interested in music that is played on radio and music shows as it is generally of high quality, however I think it is vital that these media outlets adapt to the changes the Internet has brought by implementing some form of interaction. In fact many centralised forms of music consumption has allowed for user opinion based content. For example, the singing talent contest Australian Idol uses SMS votes as a means of measuring who is the public's least favourite singer which decides who is eliminated from the competition; and many music count downs use Internet downloads as a way to gauge public opinion on what is popular.

Overall, I see the Internet becoming the primary source of music purchases, instead of physical media such as CDs, cassette tapes and vinyl records, but not completely eliminating the usage of radio and music television. It is instead supplementing these conventional media sources by giving the power of choice to many instead of few. The Internet's viral nature means artists do not need to be noticed by a very select few to be noticed by globally, or within a group that share the same tastes.

Readings

Pascoe, C.J. (2009). Intimacy in Mizuko, I et. al. Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media.

"How do youths growing up with the Internet form and conduct relationships these days?"

This reading explains how teenagers are using social networks and other sources of information to research those they are interested in through their online profiles. It appears they most likely met the other person offline at school or through friends, but being unsure of the other's interests and feelings they find viewing the Internet a safe place to learn more because it removes the awkwardness of face-to-face discussion. I can personally vouche for this form of initial contact as a means of creating basis for extending a relationship. Knowing someone's interests, friends and curcumstances allows me to quickly 'strike common ground' in a conversation.

'Flirting' through profile comments is another way teenagers are using social networks to build contact with someone they are interested in, as comments can be carefully worded to sound simply friendly. This provides a way to gauge the other's reactions without much risk of embarrassment. It still appears that 'asking someone out' is most appropriate in person, though initializing contact online is acceptable. For important, closly personal discussions where it is vital to express your emotions exactly, I believe face-to-face contact is always the best option as 'matters of the heart' can be misinterprated via text, and the other person can more easily mislead you. It is harder to hide emotion in body language and voice tone than in simple words.

In the context of a relationship, some if not the majority of conversation is conducted through technologies such as instant messaging, phone calls and email. Some of these forms of contact allow for constant communication, but I can see it complicating matters through a lack of private time away, especially when trust is an issue. Furthermore, it may be excepted that the other will acknowledge the relationship on their social network profiles which may catch the attention of parents who they may not want knowing. When a relationship ends badly it is considered insensitive to 'break up' over a text message or online with an email or instant message, however they quickly remove or replace all reminders of the past relationship from their profile, with exceptions for 'hate' messages which they except the other to see directly or through friends. Personally, I would show the other respect by informing them in person.

Technology has certainly contributed to and change how those growing up the Internet and cell phones initiate and maintain romantic relationships, however I feel some areas are still best left offline. I prefer to socialize in person in most cases, especially when related to romance, but there is something 'magical' about the openness that the web provides through layers of anonymity.

Introduction

"What are the reasons for studying the Internet in terms of the everyday and what our chief areas of focus?"

In my opinion, everyday is what happens to a person on a day to day basis, at least once or several times a week in some sort of common routine. Even though the everyday occurrences of many people's lives may seem mundane it is vital to understand how the Internet is changing them, as overall our everyday life is more important than our anyday life. The common tasks that we pursue everyday are what we spend the majority of our time and effort on. Anyday events are unstructured and may only happen once in a life time, but the everyday is predictable and frequent. Anyday events in the past may define who we are and what we do now, but who we are and what we do now define our everyday, in essence our everyday is who we are.

Our society structures our everyday lives and changes in society affect our everyday lives. Society defines how power and wealth is distributed. In this unit we analyze how the social dynamics in our society affect the Internet, and most importantly what changes the Internet has brought to society.

Activities

Individual: your own experience of the Internet

Extracted from the discussion board.

1. "How did you first encounter, hear or read about it?"
   I don't actually remember because I was quite young and I guess the technology was already there as a grew up it didn't seem significant.
2. "When and how did you first ‘go online’ and what did you think of it?"
   The earliest time I remember using the Internet was for fun as a child. I primary spent my use of it playing games on Lego.com. I don't remember exactly what I thought of it but I probably thought it was a cool toy.
3. "How do you use it nowadays?"
   Study is the foremost use for me. I am a classic Gen Y kid and love Facebook, Twitter and MSN. I also spend a lot of time reading articles about web and graphic design.
4. "Do you think of it as different or part of your everyday life?"
   It is definitely a part of my everyday life. Four days a week I'm online studying. In my free time I'm using social networks, chatting to friends, purchasing music off iTunes, etc. It has become so interwoven in my life that I don't think twice about Googling for something or choosing to purchase something online.

Group: start on your first task for Assignment 1

Extracted from the discussion board.

Like many other teenagers my age, the Internet is part of many areas in my life. I have embraced social networks, online collaboration, instant messaging, file sharing, etc. From Monday to Thursday I log-on in the morning to check my emails, respond to friend requests, view updates from friends and post my own status to IM services, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace through Digsby, an application that centralizes my online communication.

Study, design and entertainment are my primary focuses of computer use. Throughout the day I spend my time reading course work, using Google for research, and viewing design inspiration articles filtered through those I follow on Twitter. During these tasks I will be chatting on IM and replying to emails as they arrive. Some of my less common uses of the Internet include shopping for electronics on eBay, purchasing songs on iTunes and using Aardvark, an IM questions and answers service, to solve problems that I cannot find the solution to using Google.

Even though my study and future career will almost fully rely on the Internet, I do not see the Internet as a substitute for the various activities in my life. Instead it is supplementing them.

Discussion

Extracted from the discussion board.

Subject: Anyday Vs. Everyday

As a 17 yr old student my everyday revolves around study, part-time work, friends, etc. Four days a week I'm online most of the day studying and doing assignments, through that time I check email, twitter, facebook, etc. Then I have Skype and MSN which I chat on will working. Sometimes if I have something to get done I turn all these notifications and distractions off till I'm done.

Subject: How do you define "everyday" and "typical" people

I think if we are going to generalize how a certain group use the computer we must also gereralize what they are doing. So instead of saying a teenager uses the Internet for Facebook we might say they use it for social interactions which would encapsulate IM, Twitter, email, etc. For a business man we might say that they use it for professional communications, primarily email but might include following other professionals in their field on Twitter or using LinkedIn to find new clients, etc.