Vannevar Bush wanted a system, the Memex, that would unify a community of scholars to share information and knowledge. In “As We May Think” Bush mentions, “Certainly progress in photography is not going to stop.” And he certainly was right! He noticed that the development and innovation in cameras and film weren’t developed by just one person but from many different inventors throughout the years. With this in mind, it’d be easy to see that his intention for the Memex would be to help the expansion of our knowledge so that we could innovate and develop our technology faster.
In the article by Dennis G. Jerz the idea that Google would be providing a blog platform comes with mixed emotions. On one hand, some could see Google as being too powerful in their ability to sway which searches are prioritized for profit gain. On the other hand, Google providing this new service could advance the way people blog and how their content can be discovered. I believe that Bush would jump for joy at what Google was doing in 2003. He would probably consider this an amazing opportunity that more people are able to find and contribute information more easily. Blogs are also a great way to bring communities together that otherwise may not be possible due to the location of the people and lack of quantity.
Fast forward to today and now we have sites like Medium, which lets its users be just readers or writers or both. It’s is known as a great source for information and its great design. I think this site reflects Bush’s vision for shared and collaborative knowledge to help create communities of people that make learning interesting. I wouldn’t normally consider Instagram or Tiktok to be collection or authoring tools, but they totally are. They are spaces for people to share their interests, and sometimes knowledge, which the users then kind of fall into as they use it. They are then a part of some communities whether they know it or not.
I feel like I forgot how important blogs used to be. When I was a kid even I had a blog. I was obsessed with Club Penguin so I made a “Google site.” I would upload all my opinions and ideas, the digital art I made about the game, and I would post when new in-game items came out and where to find them. It was a total blast and I did it like it was a job. Eventually I “grew up” and wasn’t blogging. When things like Myspace or Facebook came out it was like blogging came back but with a different meaning. As an everyday user we weren’t using these services like Julie Powell was. We were goofing around and not really doing much because it was “meme’d.” Myspace made it easy and fun to feel connected to your favorite celebrities or musicians and customize a space for yourself. In a way it was more about yourself than shared ideas.
I remember when MySpace first came out; I jumped on that platform instantly. It was like showing yourself to the world and then Facebook basically took over and I practically forgot about my account in MySpace. I also think that Bush would be happy to see how his vision of the Memex has evolved into the internet and authoring/collection platforms.
I totally feel that by the evolution of our social media develop, it all has the same propose that is to bond us with our generation and with things that we feel connected with.
I like how you use anecdotal evidence to support blogs and how you used to use them in the past. I agree that Bush would jump for joy seeing how far we have come like how Google in 2003 impacted society.