Hackers and Makers

A longer-than-usual introduction to a reading assignment in my “Media and Culture” class turned into a useful opportunity to reflect.

We are all busy people; yet somehow, many people who say they are too busy to take on another task spend hours reading, interpreting, and debating Harry Potter; some post stop-motion Lego spoofs; some do crossword puzzles; some study statistics for their fantasy football leagues; some perfect dance moves that they see in their favorite videos; some knit.

In order to be complete people, in order to exercise the creative portions of our brains that we may feel aren’t stimulated by our day-to-day life, many of us make things, with our hands, our bodies, our voices, our imaginations.

In order to understand today’s culture, we must participate in it. For digital culture in the 21st century, that means hacking and making

via Hackers and Makers; Kirschenbaum – Media and Culture (EL336).