7: New Cultural Forms: Dominant, Residual, and Emergent

As streaming technology develops, people begin to develop new cultural forms. Since COVID-19 trapped everyone at home, people began to develop new ways to use existing streaming technology in unique ways. Six months before I wrote this chapter, people wouldn't have thought about Zoom meetings and Zoom etiquette. Now we're experts and children are learning how to cope with Zoom for virtual schooling. As I type my son is participating in his first week of Kindergarten in an all online environment. His first few days have focused on learning to use streaming technology. At five years old, he now knows how to mute a microphone, provide cues to his teacher that he understands (either with exaggerated expressions or on screen emojis), and use the learning management system for kids, Seesaw. On my computer, I am typing this chapter while I await a Microsoft Teams meeting to introduce a center I run to new graduate students at the University of Texas at Arlington. In my meeting, I can now expect people to use the same basic skills as my five year old learned. For six months, we've seen late night talk show hosts and news shows operate from these same platforms. While I write, we are also in the middle of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, an experiment with digital streaming platforms. We're learning from what we see on television and recreating it in our own everyday lives. Interacting with these streaming services becomes part of our cultural milieu, but how we use them emerges from cultural context.