Get A Stick And Get In The Game

With everything out there in our media and our society, we do a lot of taking. We take ideas from all kinds of media, and we take pictures, songs and videos off of the Internet. But how do we give back as a person living in society? How do we return the favour when our culture scratches our back?

To give back, one must engage in participatory culture which would be one's contribution to the society he/she lives in in relation to the media. It's throwing something into the giant mixing pot of culture, and putting yourself out there. Of course as amped as that makes me, the only real way I have contributed to our culture is through Facebook. I am a lazy University student who lives in residence and who sits at a laptop all day. So no, I don't get out much okay?

Facebook is probably the best way that teens and young adults can stay connected to popular culture today. Everyday, millions of people write on walls, comment on photos and join groups to talk about current events or things that matter to them. Every single day I use Facebook, and every single day I engage in participatory culture and involve myself in social networking. I consider it to be my way of getting involved and not sitting on the sidelines while the world carries on. It may be true that with Facebook there are privacy issues, but that is what it is all about in a way.

It's all about putting yourself out there and becoming a part of something, and it does matter because people are reading what you are writing and in many cases they are writing back. It's getting a stick and getting in the game, grabbing a chip and a chair and knowing that it may just be words on a page, but movements and shifts in culture begin with the words, and trasnlate into action.