The Texting Paradigm

            As you walk around one of the large shopping malls in Qatar, like the Villagio Mall or the City Center Mall, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a bunch of teenagers with walking with their heads bowed down, cradling something in their hands. If I didn’t know better, I would think that they were praying. But I do know better. Those teenagers are texting. They are connected to their friends who are miles away through a continuous exchange of information, no matter how insignificant.

            It is not uncommon to see a group of teenagers walking and texting without a word being uttered to each other. This confuses my understanding of the group dynamics. The “texters,” engrossed in their Blackberries occasionally look up only to see where they are walking and almost completely ignore each other except to decide on what movie to watch. Texting has become a dangerous game, at least in some cases that is. An increasing number of people text while driving and I would be lying if I said I didn't do it myself on more than one occasion.

            I myself use a Blackberry device. I find myself relying on the Broadcast messages that one person sends out to get my fix of the interesting things happening around me. Personally, I find these messages to be more valid than word-of-mouth communication. It is an underlying feeling that since this message was sent out to a number of people at the same time, it must be valid.

            With the modern technological innovations, word-of-mouth communication is evolving into the digital realm. Human beings are leaving an ever-increasing digital footprint. With more means of digital communication available at a lesser price and higher convenience, the people have gotten used to the information overload. They are constantly on the look out for more outlets to share their information, with social media networks fulfilling that need. 

            Taking a step back we observe a chicken and egg situation (albeit not so philosophical)–is the need for more means of sharing information creating the online world of social media or is the introduction of online media creating a need to share more information? 

The Twitter Sensation

Twitter is what some may call a global media phenomenon. It is in fact a global sensation, that started out not too long ago. But how come millions of people know about it? How did the website spread globally?

It spread through word of mouth communication. People who have accounts, or who heard about the website, told their friends about it and their friends told their friends. The cycle continues. Word of mouth communication is only made stronger by another global sensation - the Internet. Through the Internet and social networking websites such as myspace, facebook and now twitter there is instant communication between people who might not be in the same room, country or even continent. All one has to do is write on their friends’ “walls” and if those friends are at that very moment on the Internet, they will get the message. Also, Instant Messaging is very popular and it increases word of mouth communication exponentially. So ideas spread much faster now then they ever used to in the past.

People were talking about the new social networking website (Twitter) for a long duration of time and with great intensity and enthusiasm. Due to the global recognition of this website, there is now a collective consumption of this kind of popular culture. Virtual local scenes are emerging on Twitter through Twitter’s use of hash-tags and lists that people are allowed to make. People of the same subculture who do not live in the same place are constantly, in a way, in the same place because of Twitter. There are many downloadable applications that allow Twitter to be on one’s mobile phone, iPad or laptop. So people are constantly communicating with one another.

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As seen, Twitter can be studied sociologically. The concept of Twitter fits in perfectly with the interaction approach of popular culture. This approach focuses on the smaller and informal processes of communication such as word of mouth. This approach depends on interactions between small groups of people and the influences they have through those small actions and does not depend on big-budget marketing. This is exactly what Twitter does. One way it does this is by the trending topics one sees on the side bar. A concept or idea that started out between a couple of people somehow spreads around a region or the world and gains global recognition.

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On being a You-Tuber!



When the internet began invading our world, we started gaining and doing things differently. There is no doubt that the internet has shaped and changed our lives. So, instead of saying, "Look it up" We now say, "Google it" And  instead of saying watch it  we say, "You-Tube it!”

We think of you-tube as the ultimate multimedia website. The place where videos of everything exist, from education to meditation and entertainment. Many people now depend on You-Tube as their morning coffee! If you looked deeper into the meaning that You-Tube have, you would find many more other definitions than a multimedia web site. Simply, You-Tube is not a video site. You-Tube is the largest cultural community in the world wide web.

Some might say that You-Tube has the same effect of Facebook and Twitter on people, but there is nothing that influences people more than visual scenes and You-Tube provides it. This major web site allowed people to access many different cultures, through songs, movie trailers, vlogs, "How to" videos and sometimes even tutors that help you get your homework done.

You-Tube could be defined with the three definitions that Garzian used for popular culture. The reason is that, without a doubt, You-Tube is liked and successful and that successes is demonstrated by the amount of subscribers in the site. The second reason is that You-Tube has many popular, famous figures such as Dan Brown, Shane Dawson, Mitchell Davis and many others. Also, You-Tube is generated for the lowest common denominator which explains the verity of you-tubers.

The topics we search for in You-Tube, mostly don't exist in our country or society or otherwise we wouldn't have been searching for it. If you tried counting how many times you've searched for something in You-Tube that exists within your native country or society, you would definitely use your fingers to count them! Maybe that is the concept of You-Tube; to provide a dinner that through it we could get a taste of other cultures without the need to leave our rooms. 

You-Tube is a major community for cultural exchange known as "Cultural Diffusion." This great web site doesn't only hold millions of videos, it holds millions of subcultures. Personaly, I think that you-tube is more than a video site, to me, its a new world I enter just by clicking "Subscribe."