Response to Bolter & Grusin (212-271)

“Convergence is the mutual remediation of at least three important technologies—telephone, television, and computer—each of which is a hybrid of technical, social, and economic practice and each of which offers its own path to immediacy” (224)

Bolter and Grusin’s discussion of the convergence of the telephone, television and computer made me think of Skype, which I use a lot to talk to my sister who is currently living in London. The program combines these three media into one, offering immediacy to the users. Not only can my sister and I talk in real time, we can also see each other via web cams and chat through its instant messaging feature. In one of my classes earlier this semester, we had a guest speaker talk to us from California through Skype. In combination with the Skype video call, the guest speaker used Oracle to show us a powerpoint presentation from his computer. Although there were a few glitches with the video feed and the powerpoint presentation, it was as if the guest speaker was actually in the class with us.

On another note, I realized this weekend that I cannot use my computer or watch TV without considering the concepts we’ve been discussing in this class. Yesterday I was watching a few friends play the Lost video game and I found myself thinking about the ways in which the video game is a remediation of the television show. When they were at a particularly difficult part of the game, they considered rewatching certain episodes to see if it might provide some insight about how to proceed in the game. It was interesting to see how the game differed from the show, how the game introduced new characters and the voices the game used for characters from the show.