Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Digg

Prior to reading this chapter I had never really heard of Digg. According to the website it offers the "Latest News Headlines, Videos and Images". However is this title really fair? Because Levinson does not discuss relevance to time (ie: latest) but stresses that articles make it onto Digg's pages based on popularity. Something that might have been created a while ago can find new found popularity and rise to Digg's homepage if enough people support it. Something old can become new again if it gains enough momentum. This goes back to the concept that things, such as videos and images, can live forever on the Internet. Unlike solitary writing or sound recordings, items on the Internet can never be fully destroyed. Perhaps Digg then also presents an opportunity for long lost things to have a second life.

2 comments:

  1. I think this important factor not only applies to Digg, but also plays into some of the dangers of social media. We have to be careful about what we have saved onto the web because at any point, it could come back to haunt us (i.e. inappropriate photos on Facebook, degrading comments on Twitter, etc.) There are plenty of examples of celebrities and professional athletes who have been a victim of this.

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  2. This is true in theory, but in practice it's novelty that gets people's attention.

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