Platforms: shaping a broad prospective

Gillespie’s article on platforms helped shape the idea that words have a much deeper meaning when assigned to broad capabilities. The indication that a platform is a physical structure, base of action, affiliated party, vantage point, and digital medium combined means that anything adapting the name can and will grow to massive heights and stand above all else. As each of these individual definitions adds to one another, the capabilities of a platform increase — what was once just a digital platform is not a digital platform used to oversee, or a digital platform capable of control. Simultaneously, the idea that a user has their own platform amongst other digital platforms elevates those with larger online followings above others, granting a form of invisible power to those eager to gain a listener. I see this as the case every time I open up Instagram and Twitter, as the more followers pages receive, the more influence and power they have to spread ideas.

Gaming, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is the practice of gambling; an action requiring wager and reward or conversely, loss. To associate ‘gaming’ with ‘gambling’ is a quick leap into a mature context as children are not meant to gamble, yet game regularly with one another. Merriam-Webster’s second definition of gaming is the playing of games that simulate actual conditions, especially for training or testing purposes; also related to the playing of video games. The closest connection to gaming I have previously made is that of playing video games, but implying a wager or gamble is a much deeper connection. The word overlooks a maturity factor when implying gambling — children do not typically gamble while adults can be thought to gamble considerably more. In this sense, adults are not thought to play video games while children are; the word gaming has an odd contrast between age groups, as each uses a vastly different sense of the word.