In the last few years what have been the most significant developments in how individuals use the internet?

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Within the last 5 years Youtube, Facebook, Twitter have become hugely popular/ influencial on peoples lives. This means that the internet has become more of a social network rather than retail and origionally scientific research network. Technogical convergence has had a huge impact on these 3 networks. Myspace was created for advertising music, however facebook and youtube converge socialising with music advertisment.

Globalisation - Facebook and Youtube origionally started in America, and have rapdily spread across the world.
Because facebook converges all medias it has replaced MySpace, Bebo.

Henry Jenkins Participary Culture - Youtube allows anyone to upload all types of videos and share them with the world.
Twitter is another example of participary culture, its quick and simple way of broadcasting whats on your mind. This means that we dont need to use television anymore as technological convergence allows us to watch tv online, for example Misfits have their own website, it allows you to review series, catch up on series, play games, and interact with the actors through their twitter page.

Chris Anderson - Long Tail theory - If you could ad up all the revenue of niche market films over time, it would equal/ be more than a block buster film, and example of this could be "Little Miss Sunshine"and Napoliane Dynamite, neither of these were in cinemas however over the years they have generated profit gradually and become popular.