Introduction
The advent of a modern era of digital media manifested the emergence of new dimensions in each field of life, including political, economic, and socio-cultural realms. Considering it, the question of content creation and its impact on personal and public life becomes an issue of utmost importance. The purpose of this study is to examine different aspects of the influence of content creation, as a contribution to various kinds of digital media, on several aspects of social life. First, the disposition of social media and education will be examined; second, the intercultural functioning of digital content in the context of globalization will be considered. Third, a socio-cultural overview will be complemented by philosophical insight, concerning the place of the individual in the new digital era, and the disposition of the self and the world.
The Role of Digital Content in Education
The question of the use of digital media in the educational process is widely discussed. Apart from new possibilities, opened by modern technology and evaluated as an undoubtedly positive gain, the problem of the content of the media, and its proper selection, arises. When the student is surrounded by diverse information of any possible kind, source, and level of reliability, the role of the teacher changes. As Gomersall argues, the teacher is no more an information supplier for the student, but a “navigator,” adviser “in a vast sea of knowledge” (2012, p. 92). The impact of the diverse digital content is claimed to be unpredictable: “it is difficult to theorize the possible variants in the interplay of learner, task, and media… the impact on the actors, outcomes, or processes” (McFarlane, 2012, p.150).
In this concern, an interesting example of the use of media production in the school environment is presented by Herr-Stephenson (2010). She examines the case study where the students were asked to create a short documentary on the issue of junk food consumption, viewing it “through a critical lens” (p. 110). The collision was experienced by students in the process of the creation, as they were not used to treating the media as a source of critical content. Thus, the use of digital content in education demonstrated new, although unexplored, perspectives in the learning process.
Content Creation in an Age of Globalization
It would not be fallacious to argue that the development of digital technology became one of the accelerators, if not the reasons, of globalization and the concept of multiculturalism. In the words of Atay and D’Silva, “mediated texts circulate globally and hybridize local, national, and global cultures (2019, p. 1). From a similar point of view, Haslett states that “digital communication has altered the fabric of social order” (2019, p. 22). Chattopadhyay (2019) investigated the concept of cyber-ethnography, as a study of communities created through the interaction, mediated by a computer. Thus, the creation of digital content ultimately establishes the mode of operation of modern society, with its cultural communication and globalism.
Content Creation as a Self-Creation
As it is evident, digital content may present the world to the individual in the process of self-education or institutional guidance; it may also connect him with the world through global communication. Moreover, the digital environment allows the construction of the individual and introduces this “profile” to the world through a process of “impression formation” (Haferkamp & Krämer, 2010, p.130).
While the most illustrative example of such a construction is communication through social networks, another way of identity creation is an immersion in the narratives of the computer games. The possible form of the interaction of the individual with the environment, according to Clarke and Mitchell, are: “I’m the character,” “I control the character,” and “I control the character in the world” (2012, p. 16). In this regard, it is interesting to address an emerging technology of telerobotics, which is as well connected to digital content problems. Internet is used “as a means of communication and control” (McNeill & Hutton, 2012, p. 128). Devices are designed to be supervised in their actions by a remote user, who observes them through a web camera and controls their actions.
Thus, a new stage in the development of digital technologies enables an individual not only to explore the world, connect with the world, but create his identity in the world, and even gain a certain level of control over the world. This new perspective in the area of content creation opens new possibilities for investigation, which may consider not only economic, political, and socio-cultural aspects but, reflecting on all of them, turn towards its philosophical perspectives.
References
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