Unfortunately this reading was also a bit too dense for me to quite follow as much of it as I would like. But, I did learn some new phrases. "Metamedium": As Alan Kay and Adele Goldburg described it, "...a wide range of already existing and not-yet-invented media." This also seems like another "hard to define" word, and I did my best to come up with my own meaning for it, that is hopefully close to the intended definition... if there truly is one. The only thing that I can come up with is that everything is a version of another type of media, and everything will eventually just become a different type of media originating from another type of media, and so on. Which leads me to the next "take away": "Searchability", "Visualization", and "Findability" - elements that have become key, and the driving force of media apps today. Manovich asks, "If we can now use the same techniques across different media types, what happens to the distinctions between media?" This inquiry I assumed is asking - what is to distinguish one app from the next if they all basically offer the same thing? If that is in fact what he is asking, then I myself wonder that as well. Why? What is it that makes us choose one app over the other if the essence of each app is the same. I suppose much of it could come down to: - Is it user friendly? Some people enjoy complexity, some enjoy minimalism and simplicity. - Is it popular? / Are other people using it too? If you think about it, there would be no point in using Facebook if literally no one else was using Facebook. - Is it fun? If you can't use weird filters to squish your head out of shape, then what's the point? From there, I would say that in this case multiple apps serve essentially the same purpose and do fit the aforementioned criteria. In which case, I would venture to say that people would use multiple apps that all save the same purpose, in hopes of finding something new and interesting on one that they have not yet discovered on another.... (looking at you Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.)
