Media convergence has had the wonderful side-effect of providing an outlet for the voice of "the common folk." Video hosting services, such as Youtube, allow us not only to watch these videos, but encourage us to make them. Indeed, as technology has developed, the barrier of entry has dropped rapidly. In the early days, you still needed a video camera, a couple wires, maybe even dedicated equipment, simply to get the footage onto your computer. From there, you would have to edit it together using a specialized program, before finally sending it to the website. Now, we have services like Vine, whose entire market is short footage with minimal editing; slices of human life. Where once we were simply the consumer, now, we are all producers as well. One of the best examples of this is collaborative websites. Anything from the group-drawing site Flockdraw, to Google Docs for synchronized document editing, to Plug.dj, a music site that allows you to get into a "room" and have everyone listening to the same video at once.
On the other hand, this rise in technology has also provided us with options. No longer do we rely on one company to sell us a radio, we can pick from any number of hardware, software, and website options. If I don't like Youtube, I can post to Vimeo. I can use Tumblr to blog instead of Google-owned Blogger. I can play mobile games on an Apple tablet, or one from Samsung, or even Microsoft.
Welcome to the 21st century, an era of media freedom. A time where the wall between the producer and consumer has collapsed almost entirely.
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