Without flow, the media would not allow for the vast connectivity we see today. Flow creates connection throughout media platforms, such as social media. In a social media app where we are required to form an online identity, such as Instagram, we are able to meet people from all over the world. Flow allows connectivity from one location to the next. On the Instagram explore page, we are able to constantly refresh the page and receive new content to explore. This flow of information is continuous and there is no end to it. With the short attention spans teens have today, flow allows individuals to remain interested in what they are viewing, since new things are constantly popping up. Also, flow allows popular apps to remain popular, since audiences follow trends. Unlimited content on social media, or having a vast amount of shows to pick from on the internet, are ways that flow helps to grab human attention.
Flow- Caroline Rowe
The keyword flow can be applied to media in today’s society. Flow can be defined as the constant stream of media to keep users engaged and constantly active on a site or app. Different apps and platforms have different ways to keep users engaged which creates profit for that platform. TikTok does it by having a constant and never ending stream of videos on the for-you-page. This makes it hard for people to stop scrolling and therefore users are almost tricked because they feel like they are simply watching short fifteen second videos, but in reality they have spent the past hour watching hundreds of these videos. As we discussed in class on Tuesday, flow can be seen in a multitude of ways such as texts, gifs, and ads. All these aspects of flow can either come in or out from the user. Ads are an example something that comes in because we process them almost unknowingly and often times get sucked into them. In general flow is the continuation of media that can be seen in all sorts of media forms from television shows to Instagram to TikTok.
Flow-Zoey Zeng
In the book, the writer mentioned that “what flows is secondary to the continuous movement of flow itself. ” Flow can be explained as an information exchange. It is important to see how flow cooperates with people. People are as a note in the central of the network, and then the flow brings us to connect us to different information. What is important is the interaction between humans and information instead of only information itself. Flow helps us have a better understanding of the relationship between capital, infrastructure, and information in the digital network. In the past, flow was only a one-way ideological system. Nowadays, with the development of technology, people participate in the network as a node and provide many data points. We receive light, sound, video waves, advertisements, notifications from the internet. At the same time, we will provide information like our different accounts, comments, credit card to the internet. Also, there is more two-way information flow like text massages, email, video, calls, and so on. This information represents different intimate relationships, which need people to spend time and energy to keep them. Flow is like a channel, carrying information that helps people deliver and receive data and information and maintain relationships with others.
Flow–Benjamin Cudmore
While reflecting on the reading during Tuesday’s class discussion, I realized that flow deals with all the keywords from this chapter. Flow appears to be a combination of these keywords as it relies on interaction. Flow is utilized like a hook in literature, grabbing the attention of its audience to get them invested in the story. For example, on Instagram, interaction, and lack thereof, is monitored. Likes, saves, follows, and views are all accounted for. The amount of activity on your page is also stored on the app and is visible in settings. The app presents all of the output, input, and everything in between as charts and percentages. The app also sends you notifications of people you might know or sends a notification asking why you are not using Instagram for too long to try and coax you back to using it, demonstrating how inactivity is monitored. Additionally, when you return to the app and post something after a long time, the app tries to reward you by boosting your post, sometimes even sending a message to your followers that you have just posted.
Flow – Grace Brogan
The most interesting line from this reading for me was the following : “The 1970s TV viewer was a relatively anonymous part of a one- way ideological system functioning largely at a macro level, but the 2010s social media user is constantly registered, addressed, and compelled to participate as a series of discrete and distributed data points.” This line details some of the important differences between the the past and current day of media interaction. As we discussed in class flow can be movement through things and interactions between them. In the age of social media flow is reimagined in the complex and data heavy interactions between media and users. For example on Instagram an “influencer” will create a great variety of data points about themselves in the making of their account, they will also create and share another flow of data and media in the form of posts. Users of Instagram can them very directly interact with this flow by giving their opinions through comments and likes, which is again another production of data.
Flow- Lana Vjestica
The concept of flow encompasses every single keyword we’ve learned about in this chapter. Whether it be assemblage, data, agency, etc. they all come from flow. Flow is how networks grab onto the audience’s attention from one program to another. It’s basically “how they get you”. Just like how one moment you’ll be browsing through instagram and the next minute you’re buying a pair of shoes you don’t need. This happens because ads are implemented through the social media we consume. It happens frequently with social media influencers. Their main job is to see products in a way that’s “relatable” to get the audience to apply it to their life and want to buy it. We see this as well as just regular ads that pop up as we go through our feed or are clicking through instagram stories. Going along with this, we get distracted by this ads in the same way we get distracted with notifications. As soon as an interesting notif pops up, we’re already onto the next thing and it’s like an never-ending cycle.
Keyword #11: Flow
The keyword this week I felt effectively integrated almost all of the keywords discussed thus far in terms of summarizing how the internet, and older media formats, relies on user interaction as capital. I found the phrase, “empty software shells” particularly relevant as it demonstrates what these non-human aspects of technology would be without participation. However, something I had not thought of prior to this reading is that even lack of activity contributes to flow. For example, we discussed in class the concept of gaming and the psychological components of losing and continuing to want to play. While the infrastructure of the game tracks how much time you play, it also tracks your lack of play to find ways to increase play time as a whole. Thus, there is never a moment in which you are not contributing to the overall flow of data analysis and the production of information across media platforms as our activity is always being surveilled and utilized. While user interaction is necessary, it is also an inevitable part of our existence under the digital infrastructure we currently have. Components of our ID nodes such as our SSN and our credit card information are necessities for survival and those who go “off the grid” are very rare and live outside the protections of the state.
Mapping identity as a node in the global information network (Dr. Daniel Hocutt (11/16/21))
Mimi Bainbridge “Flow” Post
As explained in the reading, flow can be regarded as “the impulse to go on watching.” (74) Flow has the ability to create a network of connections across multiple different media sources. As we continuously discussed in class, identity can be mapped as node with flow happening through it. Notifications, text messages, account data, and gifs all act as examples of flow through identity. Moreover, flow can also be seen in social media apps and television shows. When it comes to TikTok, there are videos consistently present on a users FYP. This helps them to remain entertained and to continue to utilize what the app has to offer. Similarly, Instagram also features a wide variety of never-ending posts and televisions shows tend to keep up with the storylines throughout each episode and use cliff-hangers to keep viewers interested as well. Flow is a part of many aspects of the media world and aids in keeping many apps and shows going.
Flow: Gwen Savidge
Flow is a concept that can be interpreted in various ways depending on the context. In this context we refer to flow in a way of connecting media coming in and out, assisting human interactions within technology. This flow can be information such as identity, credit card information, and even email information. This information is known as capital, this capital is shared within the network and helps the various algorithms to create interactions. For example, the notifications sent onto your cell phone creates an incentive for you to open your phone and respond, creating flow from the phone to you. This interaction is only one of the several entities that comes to me and comes from me. I still wonder if flow can be broken down into subcategories like our examples for agency. Another example is how various TV shows keep people interested in their media, moving from each program they create a continuous flow of shows to not lose their audience interactions. This is a similar concept to TikTok because it has a continuous flow of media as you swipe through the FYP, making the audience not realize how long they actually have been on the app.
Abby Bangs-Flow
Flow is an ambiguous concept due to its connective nature. Flow exists through agency, networking, media, identity, and many more keywords; flow exists as the underlying connections between different conceptual entities (i.e. keywords for media studies.) The author of the essay writes flow as a “circulation of disconnected images and sounds that exemplify the post modern condition,” that being capital, the ‘flow’ of personal capital, that being personal data, information, etc. from, to, and through different nodes. Now, this is a profound statement, as spoken about during class, that capital is flowing constantly and a lot of the time, we as people are unaware of this flow. Me, as a person, “I”, exist as a lens for the keyword flow. Things, such as media entities (information, notifications, messages, ads, etc.) are moving to and from me, however things like waves, and possibly even thoughts are moving to, and to an extent, through me. Now I wonder, if “thoughts” fit through this category of flow? Are thoughts materialistic, or real, in some sense?-I think so, and therefore I believe people’s thoughts/thinking to be a form of flow within an identity perspective.