Emergence of New Media

With the way blogs and new forms of media are changing the world lately certain definitions or preconceived notions need to be changed. The one I would like to focus on is the idea of a folklore and how it has changed because of this new media. Folklore is anything and everything dealing with people, their customs, rituals, groups, etc... That's to put it simply. It is the expression of culture. With new medias such as facebook or myspace or any blog the expression of culture has changed. People from all over the world can communicate with each other and never meet. They can discuss everything and anything, become the best of friends, share experiences, yet may never know each others real names. This new media formed a new kind of folkgroup and a new kind of tradition.

The new folkgroup is related to each other because they share the expeirence of being online and participating in online activities. In this sense, nearly everyone is part of this new online folkgroup. They communicate with each other using medias like facebook or blogspot and even the act of using these can be considered a tradition or ritual so to speak. Many people check their facebook or myspace religiously, on a daily or every few days basis. In that sense, just the act of constantly checking your facebook would be considered a tradition. Granted, not everyone does use the media as often as this, but many do.

The internet and these new medias make forming folkgroups and traditions much easier on a more massive scale. The internet brings people together from all over the world, geography is no longer an issue when it comes to blogs. Any blogger can be from anywhere around the world. Cultures, previously formed based on geographic location and influence, no longer have these boundries set upon them. Medias nowadays make it so that you can be part of any culture or folkgroup regardless of where you live.

This blog was a little scattered but the main idea is that due to new medias, the previous rules of folklore and folkgroups hold less weight. Cultures and traditions that would form in a group of people close to each other no longer has those geographical limitations. Just being on the internet is a new tradition and forms a new culture. Not only that but it also connects people to other cultures and traditions all over the world. Like I said, anyone can form a folkgroup with anyone else all over the world. They can become best friends and not even know each others real names. The new forms of media, like blogspot, facebook, myspace, or even the world wide web in general brings people together who would never have met or spoken otherwise. In a sense, it makes the world a much smaller place.