The Wonders Of Convergence (Response #9)

By the end of last week, my family and I were at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines. We were greeted by my grandmother, aunt, and uncle and then taken to our hotel. After a bite to eat and a quick shower we got into our rented van and made our way through endless traffic to my grandfather’s house. My little brother commented on the lack of traffic lights and asked if there are a lot of accidents caused by its inexistence. My uncle clarifies that everyone uses their common sense and accidents are not as frequent as one would think. When we arrived at my grandfather’s house we were greeted by swarms of neighbors, relatives, and family friends, many took pictures with their camera phones, and others took pictures with their digital cameras. They were very happy to see us because it has been years since they’ve seen us and all have never met my little brother and little sister since they were born in the U.S. My brother was video-taping and I held a digital camera. It was the last day that people can visit my grandfather after his passing before he is buried. That night, I imported all the images from my sister and my cameras and uploaded them on flickr for my Uncle in the States because he was not able to make the trip back to the Philippines. The next day we prepared for the burial. Unfortunately, my brother had left the video camera on and we have not left the house yet. Fortunately, my point and shoot digital camera also records audio and video so we made due with using a little digital camera with a 2 gigabyte memory card to record more memories for the rest of the family in the U.S. who were not able to come to the Philippines.

“Introduction: “Worship at the Altar of Convergence” by H. Jenkins claims, “convergence is a word that manages to describe technological, industrial, cultural, and social changes depending on who’s speaking and what they think they are talking about” (3). For instance, text messaging in the Philippines is a new cultural norm producing a social change. My fourteen-year-old cousin claims to have “text-mates” where they carry on a romantic relationship strictly through text messaging. I actually met a husband and wife with a five-month-old baby who said they have carried on a text messaging relationship for a year and then met in person and later got married.

While my stay here in the Philippines, I’ve had the opportunity to experience convergence at first hand. I logged on AIM and kept in touch with my friend who is dog sitting for me and I was able to continually receive emails on my gmail account. A couple of days ago, my family and I were in one of the provinces where the Wifi access is only available in the small towns, far away from where we were staying, but with my phone, I was able to browse through the internet.

With its convenience and its power to integrate multiple medias, convergence promises an efficient future where one can stay connected and make the most of interactive communications.

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