BitTorrents and Family Guy: teenage peer group interactions around a peer-to-peer Internet download community - 22 views
started by Chin Sing Wong on 25 Mar 12
started by Chin Sing Wong on 25 Mar 12
Start a New Topic » « Back to the Net 308/508 Internet Collaboration and Organisation S1 2012 group
This paper spoke the development of BitTorrent technologies make downloading comparatively simple to source large multimedia files. Authors pick Family Guy (an animated US television series) as research object as it present as teenage peer group against young adults. The findings of this paper indicate that Family Guy series is collected and consumed as a way of building group cohesiveness and identity.
Nor might the creators have imagined the specific kinds of BitTorrent-enabled, LAN-grounded under-18 school-based communities in urban Australia developing shared cultural practices around their collection and celebration of the series. The result shows internationally, the download culture has been clearly advantageous for Family Guyin marshalling public opinion behind the show and bringing it back from cancellation.
This paper provides very good case study by using the exmple pf downloading Family Guy, therefore to analysis the way that users The issue of download in moral methods is important while talking the BitTorrent technologies.
In using research and a well referenced argument the paper presents nuanced and reliable insights into bittorrent community. Of particular interest to me was the juxtaposition of 'real' and 'online' worlds, as are the bittorrent and LAN networks, as well as the' real world' effects of online collaboration as we see Family Guy revived from cancellation by a passionate fan base which had formed around the hub of bittorrent. The paper explores bittorrent culture, relating that social cohesion between users is formed as much by the act of downloading as it is interest in the actual media product (in this case Family Guy), "Each participant might do this [download episodes] without necessarily being a fan of the show, but because it forms a point of contact with others in the LAN. (p.6)" The value of this paper is its proffering of concrete examples of the way in which bittorrent culture is effecting real world social interaction as online mores gain cache in physical groups.
An interesting thing that can be taken from this paper is that it is good to look at BitTorrent as a part of the social groups which use it, alongside other tools used by those groups. Focussing on BitTorrent, like in all of the articles I shared, yields less useful understanding. This paper instead looks at how this group use BitTorrent alongside the tool of LAN, which allows it to share the downloaded content throughout the group. It shows how both of these tools help to facilitate the complex dynamics of the social group's individuals. How they share, why they share and how their identity is affected by what they share.
This paper offers a much more clear and concise explanation of BitTorrent and its history than my "Resisting free-riding behavior in BitTorrent" article.
Unlike perhaps some of the other articles that I looked at, this article looks at the possible social groups that can arise from file sharing and bit torrent and how they can become an extension and overall tool to help create social connections with others. It is able to show the impact that bit torrent is able to have to offline social groups as well as creating online groups and communities through methods that I saw through my own reading.
The study seemed particularly interesting to me as I probably considered myself to be a part of a similar social dynamic back in High-School when it came to file-sharing and also even now. The fact that programs like Family Guy and even music and other forms of media are readily available on the Internet and through bit torrent allows for that social connection and I guess water-cooler talk which helps to hone and strengthen offline social relationships.