Participatory Culture and The World of Education

Prior to last class and before watching the An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube video, when I thought about participatory culture my mind instantly went to newer forms of media such as TikTok or memes on Instagram. I didn’t think of YouTube at all but I was never big into the YouTube world and I guess I just didn’t see if as a place where people would recreate trends – or so I thought I thought.

However, as I was watching the video I got a whole wave of YouTube flashbacks from my childhood after the Charlie bit my finger video was brought up. Wesch brought up how “the Charlie bit my finger video was redone and remixed over 2,000 times” (14:12). My siblings and I found that video hilarious and we would watch all the remixes and recreations and quote it all the time. Then, I remembered how my siblings and I were also obsessed with thecomputernerd01 parody videos. I went back and listed to the “coke and sprite” Dynamite – Taio Cruz Parody for nostalgia sake and I somehow still know an embarrassing amount of lyrics. I feel like making parodies must have been a trend at one point because you could find so many. However, I think the fact that my siblings and I we were too young to actually join in on the participatory aspect of YouTube is why I kind of forgot about it and didn’t think of it as a big contributor to participatory culture – because it seems like YouTube now is just full of influencers.

I feel like participatory culture is really everywhere in the lives of youth now-a-days. I don’t know if I’m just getting old but it seems like the trends come and go way too fast for anyone to stay on top of them. When a sound becomes popular on TikTok I swear it will only be used for a week before there is a new major sound or trend.

I also have gotten myself onto fashion TikTok a couple times this year and even fashion trends move so quickly because everyone wants to different. So, once too many people catch onto the trend and everyone’s doing it, then it isn’t cool anymore so they find something else.

I think as educators it is very important to try and know what trends are happening in the lives of our students so that we can guide and support them and make sure students are participating in trends safely. Although Wesch stated that teens make up 25% of featured YouTube users and children make up 12% (13:17) these stats are from 2008. I think it is safe to say that these numbers would be drastically different today. Especially since we know that on average children today are 10.3 years old when they get their first smart phone and 11.4 when they sign up for their first social media account (Hildebrandt, 2021).

“Media is not content. Media are not just tools of communication. Media is mediating human relations“

Wesch (12:04)

In the video, Wesch describes how thinks of media as mediating human relationships because when media changes so do human relationships. This means that media has the ability to impact and change the education system. I think this has to potential to be a really positive thing. I always think about my first ever education class in university when the professors started by us “What is one thing that a time traveler from 100 years ago would be able to recognize in society” and the answer was classrooms.

So, if the education system let’s media in I do think that it would create positive change. For example, I think it would make more space for educational technologies. I think the educational technologies that teachers use also sort of follow a participatory culture of some sort. Teachers are more inclined to use the educational tools that are the most popular at a given time. The when a new and better tool comes along then all the teachers jump to that one. It also allows for teachers to use the various forms of media students use in classrooms to enhance learning. I think about a very simple but extremely creative example Sarah Stroeder found and shared on twitter.

Another thing I thought about was how the education system has been viewed throughout history and how it changes (or more likely how people want it to change) to better meet social values. So, already I feel like media sort of plays a role especially since it offers a way for views to become widespread very quickly. You can have a PLN of people you have never met in real life because as Wesch describes media brings “new forms of community…global connections transcending space and time” (4:58). Teachers are using this to their advantage sharing and getting ideas with educators from all over. An example of this is the #saskedchat that connects educators from all over the province and beyond.