I Am User Generated

In direct relation to Ong’s redundant characteristic comes his classification of the oral tradition being conservative or traditionalist. The word conservative or traditional has not normally been associated with emerging social media, but Ong uses these words in a slightly different way than their normal associated meaning. In an oral tradition once the story was uttered it was only archived by memory. This culture put highest value on the “wise old man” that could conserve the stories of his tribe. In order to make it easier to conserve the stories the stories were more traditional and didn’t invite intellectual experimentation. Without the luxury of recording stories, the stories needed to remain simple and easily retold. Although in a social media space we do have the ability to record and archive, the most successful stories are still the ones that are most easily retold. This is the foundation for virality. Stories that are easiest to spread are the most viral. Hence stories tend to be short, reliant on classic tropes without a high degree of intellectual experimentation.Who are the ‘wise old men’ in the social media space? Again it is the person that can aggregate and conserve who are the tribal leaders of the social media space. When Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp acquired the social network, Myspace he was able to conserve a multitude of interpersonal, brand and media stories under the heading of his electronic age media company, adding a new participatory element to his media offering.