What does it all mean? Well, I think the future of the internet is completely up in the air. On the one hand, I really enjoy the freedom the internet seems to give to media consumers, like myself. The ability to interact with the worlds we enjoy is a major selling point of new media to me. On the other hand, established media formats, like newspapers, are dying, and quickly. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the changing times.
I have friends that work for the newspaper industry. One friend works for the Naperville Sun's sports section. He has covered NCC's sports teams on several occassions, opening our sports to a wider audience and sharing ourr teams with the local community. He is staring right into the eyes of a very possible layoff in the near future, thanks to the economy and the decrease in newspaper sales. I like the newspaper format, but it is hard to fit it into the modern busy lifestyle. I don't know how to save the newspapers, but something has to happen.
At the same time, I really enjoy being able to easily find and interact with likeminded people on the internet. I am slowly exploring things I never would have before, had I not had the internet to do so. The internet has actually caused me to seek out other forms of media, like comic books. Comic books can be a very complicated medium to get into. The plotlines are constantly changing, past events are frequently retconned out of existence. Spider-man has more than 4 different comic series released about him at the moment. I would have been scared away from this aspect of geekdom without the internet, but with it I was able to meet other comic readers and get a feel for what the hobby is all about. This is where I think the internet is going.
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