"Art, Entropy, and Entertainment"

In this article, Stevens states that in media, change requires the introduction of new information. However, commercial entertainment reuses the same information and repeatedly sends the same, redundant information at the viewer. The author refers to the presence of entropy within media, of which, the more entropy there is, the less possibility of change occurring.
This argument that Stevens makes can be applied to the modern networking sites that pervade society today. Social networking sites (such as facebook, twitter, myspace, etc…) serve as a means of constantly being able to constantly post small tidbits of generally pointless information (such as, “fell off my bike today” or “ran into a pole today”)—this refers back to Stevens’ concept that an increase in entropy—redundant information—is merely inhibiting the possibility of change. However, this is not limited only to social networking sites.
Youtube, a central place for which to find any video in existence, is a prime source of redundant information; various videos that are based upon other videos, or are responses to videos. A majority of the existing videos are not original in content, rather, they are either parodies, video tributes, or duplicates of existing videos. As a result, it becomes a self perpetuating cycle of replicating the same information, in which the bulk of video production posted upon youtube is very widespread (posted upon blogs or other media sites), yet introduces very little new information. This refers back to Stevens’ argument that the barrage of useless information has resulted in the stagnation of society; the recycling of media has only increased the entropy of media, consequentially reducing what the author refers to as negaentropy, or the introduction of new information and media—something required to spur change.