theyuniversity:

Really? ಠ_ಠ

The Terms of Service even have plain English explanations of each paragraph. It’s the easiest Terms of Service I’ve ever read. 

You signed all your rights away at the start anyway, lolzers.

(Source: houselannister)

We are becoming less defined by what we take pleasure from and instead are judged by what we hold in contempt.

Reading this post got me thinking but it took all of a week for me to condense those thoughts into something more substantial than a tweet.

It came to me in a coffee shop that could be could be confused with a Spanish embassy, if you discount all of the coffee being served and the fact the Spanish embassies don’t get named after coastlines.

I felt like getting a coffee as a reward averting the potentially costly act of being overdrawn with my bank, even though this required the smallest of effort. But I wanted one of those iced ones for no particular reason. 

Usually, I end up in the coffee shop that’s named after a roman emperor but I couldn’t go in because I felt guilty. Guilty about getting a delicious iced coffee drink instead of a sensible, hipster-esque, coffee that I’d usually have. 

This is a ridiculous position to take, I know. I’ve done plenty things more embarrassing than earn the distain of a franchise barista, who probably doesn’t really care that much about my order. However, it did make me think about the ways that we sculpt and preen our public profiles, both on-screen and off.

Now that instantaneous sharing is becoming the new standard, we’re actively having to self-censor as opposed to sharing the content that stands out from the rest.

I suppose Last.fm has the honour of being one of the pioneers of this, as well as the concept of lifestreaming which never really took off with the general public until Facebook co-opted it into Timeline. 

Of course, you don’t have to do any of this. Shut down your Facebook, turn off your social readers, stop scrobbling the sounds that hit your eardrums. But there’s no denying that it isn’t useful sometimes because “that article that my friend just read looks really interesting” or “I didn’t realise that they had a new album out on Spotify”.

So you adapt because it’s useful enough, bending your media consumption ever-so-slightly to be who you wish to project yourself to be. 

As usual, this was just a way of throwing some ideas in a post but I think there’s scope to understand how instantaneous sharing blurs the line between being a consumer of media and a producer of media. If that kind of thing interests you, try reading around some of Henry Jenkins‘ work. See, a media degree is totally useful for these things. 

Well, finally, here’s a question for you. Do you ever find yourself self-censoring or choosing not to do something as a way to mould your personality, in a conscious way?

Just intrigued really.