ABSTRACT
Many of the most powerful “flow metaphors” within present-day mass-mediated contemporary culture arise from pervasive digitalization. The digital economy, for Kevin Kelly, “runs on the river of freely flowing copies.” The Internet “bathes” in streams of notifications and updates. The “Cloud” is formed by the union of a “zillion streams of information intermingling, flowing into each other.” The recourse to the aquatic metaphor of “streaming” signals a major shift in technology, film exhibition, and media circulation that forms part of the pervasive digitalization of everyday life and culture. The digital era obviously brings immense gains; indeed, most of would feel absolutely bereft if deprived of beloved apps and devices. Every change generates more change, where change is injected into the technology itself, changing even change itself, or as Kelly puts it, changing “how other things change, and changing itself, is mutating and growing.”
