2.
Youtube has changed the way that people absorb storytelling in the modern age. With
tools like a comment section, the consumer of the content can actively be able to change the
content one creator might make, the audience may disagree with the development of the
channel or the new things the producer of the content makes. With Youtube being a full time
job for some creators the comment section and the like to dislike ratio is a major part of the
output of their work. The fans can outwardly insult or stop watching the different videos that
a Youtube channel produces making it harder for the creator to want to make different forms
of storytelling. These interactions make the audience the main producer of the content as they
are the ones dictating to the creator what they should and should not make.
Video games as a medium are based on participatory storytelling. In games like
Skyrim and Mass Effect, the player of the game dictates the story through their own choices
and combat skills. One play-through of Skyrim could be completely different from another as
the game is as open ended as you want it to be. For example, one run through Skyrim I may
want to focus on magic rather than brute force, I can study different forms of magic and learn
different things about the game world. This changes the entire way I play and allows me to
experience the same game differently. The consumer of these games no longer takes in the
story that they are being told, they can actively change the world around them by the choices
they want to make. The game developers intend for the players to make wildly different
choices from one another making them the producers of their journey. This is not every game,
however, God of War and Dead Space put the player on one set path with one main goal, the
way the player decides to interact with enemies through combat may be different but the
ending stays the same.
Another form of participatory storytelling is the world of fanfiction, this form of
creative writing allows the consumer of any movie, television show, or game to create their
lore within the fabric of the fiction world they love. The writing does not have any effect on
the actual story going on in the piece of media they love but it allows them to produce their
creative works in the world they love. Popular fan fiction can even cement a consumer of
content into a producer, for example, the book and film series "50 Shades Of Grey" started as
fanfiction for the film "Twilight" this piece of creative writing was so popular that the author
was spring-boarded into one of the most famous authors in the world creating a beloved
series that now has others fanfiction. This form of participatory storytelling can allow others
to air their grievances with a particular movie, for example, "The Last Jedi" was hated by a
lot of Star Wars fans for what the movie did to Luke Skywalker's character. This made people
want to rewrite the entire movie into something that they could tolerate. In conclusion, fan
fiction allows consumer to produce their own stories in the fictional worlds they love.
3.
John Harris was ahead of his time when it came to the format of filming yourself for lengthy
periods while people watch you live. This form of content was something never seen before
and Harris was able to see the problem that it may cause in the future. Through "Quiet: We
Live in Public," Harris live streamed multiple people for 24 hours a day living their life. This
is a predecessor to a very popular form of content that millions of people watch every day on
a website called "Twitch." While Harris's project was made as a PSA to own your privacy the
world of today took his idea and stripped the meaning. users on Twitch live stream for
multiple hours a day either playing games, eating, or walking around and having the chat
interact with them in real time. Completely taking away the meaning behind Harris's art.
Another aspect of the technological world that Harris was able to predict was the ways people
will do anything for views on social media. On the Quiet website Harris put "With Quiet,
Harris proved how, in the not-so-distant future of life online, we will willingly trade our
privacy for the connection and recognition we all deeply desire." This quote perfectly
predicts the world we live in today. If you want to get famous on apps like Twitter or Tiktok
all you have to do is film yourself doing something or someone else doing something wild to
get mass attention. This is what Harris is saying, we now are willing to post private aspects of
our lives and even other people's lives that do not willingly consent to be filmed in order for
even a little bit of attention and likes. This aspect of the world today is what John Harris was
trying to avoid but all he did was predict the future.