And BAM! Gamer society FTW! Accepted into the art community!

And teachers said that we'd grow out of it.
Please. We made it a cultural revolution.

By a general show of hands, who here was raised on the N64, GameBoy, NES, Atari? I wasn't born when the NES or the N64 came out, but I sure played them like I did. I even bring out the good ol' green N64 that came with Donkey Kong just to play a couple rounds of Pokemon Stadium.

I feel as if those "video games are violent and gross and inhumane" people were at a loss for words when the Supreme Court stated that video games are a form of art. (We didn't even use the Konami code for that one.)

Oh, yes. The Judicial Branch head-honcho told California to zip it and let games express themselves. You see, California wanted to change the way it sold violent video games, stating that video games can't be art because they are "interactive". That argument was instantly rebutted with the fact that art has always been interactive, like make-your-own-adventure books.

Because button-mashing makes this NOT art
(This is a screenshot from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.)

It's not only the Supreme Court. Even the Smithsonian Museum has caught on to the beauty of video games. In 2012, the Smithsonian Museum is going to have a video game art exhibit including games like Halo 2, Final Fantasy VII, and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  The exhibit is going to show the growth of video game art over time, which I think would be exciting and awesome.

Xbox360 gamers probably remember her.
She's my twin. (Fear)

Video games are making their way up in the world. I'm not talking about Dance Central. Ignoring the weird things that the Wii is coming out with. I'm talking about the games that you become a new character and become a part of an adventure. They suck you into the storyline and you become one with the character.

Someday, the world is going to understand why I love video games so much, but these small triumphs make me feel awesome too.

Gamer girl signing off.
...to play Skyrim.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-27/tech/supreme.court.video.game.art_1_sale-of-violent-video-video-games-hansel-and-gretel?_s=PM:TECH
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/#games

"Social Media is about People"

When I was wasting away my life on Facebook yesterday, I came across this video. My cousin, a freshman at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, posted it to his Facebook page after watching it in his business class. Videos like this circulate from time to time, providing us with statistics that may or may not be true, causing us to question the role of social media in our lives.

While I find these video clips to be fascinating, this one specifically caught my interest in the first ten seconds, when it said, "Social Media is about People". Without people, social media would not exist. Who would post new information for us to read?

During this past weekend, we were instructed to go technology for 48 hours. After much deliberation and inspiration from the Disconnected movie in class, I was determined to go the full 48 hours without any social media. When the weekend was over and I was working on my discussion post for our section blog, I realized that the most difficult part of the assignment wasn't that I couldn't check my Facebook 4,000 times a day. For me, the most difficult part was the fact that I couldn't call my mom or my sister, two people that I talk to on the phone almost every day. Social media isn't about stalking other people's pages or seeing who can have the most followers on Twitter. It is about people, exactly like the video says.

At 0:57, Erik Qualman is quoted, saying, "We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it." Social media is an indisputable part of our lives today. But Qualman is right. Social media receives a negative connotation because we use it for the wrong reasons. So many connections can be made through these forms of social media and it is our responsibility to reach out to people, to grow as a society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo

http://www.socialnomics.net/

Post It Today: Regret It Tomorrow.

I was on Twitter today.

Now this is not an unnatural occurrence as I am an avid follower of Twitter – even if I’m not much of a tweeter myself. What was a big deal, however, was what I found on my feed. As I’m sure many of you know, Joeseph Paterno – the head football coach for Penn State – was fired last night in relation to the cover-up of multiple accounts of child molestation by a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky.

But I’m not going to go into that.

What I want to bring up is the reaction that followed on Twitter. Some tweeters defended Paterno – though most maligned him. “Jo Pa” and “Penn State” were trending topics – it seemed like everyone had an opinion on the matter.

One particular opinion stood out.

Former 70s Show & Two-And-A-Half Men star Ashton Kutcher tweeted the following in response to the news that Paterno had been fired:

@aplusk: How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste

Almost immediately angry replies swarmed the “@aplusk” feed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Tweeters replied, outraged. With over 8 million followers, Kutcher quickly realized his gaffe. Within minutes he posted an apology and claimed ignorance to the details surrounding the firing of Jo Paterno.

But it was too late.

Screen caps of the offending tweet were everywhere even after it had been deleted. Facebook, Tumblr, and various other social networks spread it like a wildfire – all in under less than an hour. As I watched this unfold I couldn’t help but think about the permanence of posting on the internet. Anything that is posted can be stored by practically anyone. Facebook photos, tweets, blog posts – once put out they are extremely difficult to take back. Much like the library of Babel from our first discussion, we have reached a time where it is possible to record almost everything.

The question now is how do we deal with that? What are we going to do knowing that everything we put out has the possibility of never being forgotten?

References:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/sports/ncaafootball/penn-states-joe-paterno-wants-to-retire-at-end-of-season.html

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigten/story/2011-11-09/Joe-Paterno-fired-Penn-State/51147098/1

https://twitter.com/#!/aplusk