After reading chapter 4: Web 2.0 Storytelling, it made me rethink the way I look at social media. How he said that each person’s Facebook account or Twitter account can be seen as the story of their lives, it kind of blew my mind a little. I hadn’t thought about it in that way, per se. Sure, I keep up with the stories of my friends lives via social media, but I didn’t think about it as the story of their lives. That may be because I tend to keep to myself more on certain social media, so people don’t really see my story except on the rare occasion when I post pictures.
I liked his definition of storytelling–combining sequence with meaning and engagement. However, in his explanations, some of the examples of storytelling that he gave did not include sequence (like the one tweet stories, single pictures, etc). Though I agree with him that these singular posts are, indeed, storytelling, I think he might need to reconsider his definition of it.
I am fairly new to the world of blogging so I hadn’t really followed any blogs that told stories. I thought it was cool, though, how he brought up the Dracula story and how he did a blog of it semi-real time. I also liked that he brought up 24 (love that show!). The ideas of historical chronological Twitter accounts was cool to me too, I hadn’t thought about Twitter being utilized in that manner.
The Tumblr page Scenes from the Wire seems to be digital storytelling to me, based on his explanations, though not based on his definition. Based on the definition that Alexander gives, the tumblr account would not be a story because I believe it lacks sequence. It is simply a series of posts in no particular order. It does add the social layer to the show though, like he was saying about the DraculaBlog that he started. At first I didn’t think that the individual GIFs even qualified as storytelling. However, when I got to the section about the pictures, I realized that the GIFs are similar to the five picture stories on Flickr. They tell a story in and of themselves, as well as in the larger context of The Wire.
Similarly, at first I didn’t think that the Facebook page for The Wire should have been considered a story. However, just like the Tumblr page, each post (except for advertising and “Watch The Wire” types of posts) tell a story in and of themselves. The pictures and the quotes are their own stories as well as being stories in the larger context of the television series.
