PSP as Cross-Media Platform

THE OTHER DAY I played an arcade-era Pacman game on a borrowed Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). It got me into thinking about the hardware as a media platform. Originally designed as a hand-held video game console, the PSP has since transformed into a robust multimedia gadget. Apart from its primary video-gaming purpose, it also functions as any of the following: music and movie player, Internet browser, electronic book reader, and file storage. It can practically handle all types of media content - from digital print, streaming videos to webpages.Indeed, this device’s introduction of a new media platform agrees with technology evangelist Marshall McLuhan’s seminal pronouncement that “the content of [the] new environment is the old mechanized environment of the industrial age.” What sets apart the PSP from its plug-and-play counterparts is its being very handy. Because it is highly portable - it fits in a jeans pocket - it agrees with today’s mobile lifestyle. Although it is not the first to pioneer such techno-mobility (it was marketed late 2004), the PSP’s popular reception, especially among the youth, ignited media content scaled down and targeted to such handheld devices.Network SocietySo what does the PlayStation Portable tell of contemporary time? McLuhan believed that lifestyle changes are brought about by the way people process information. He says, “any technology gradually creates a totally new human environment.” From the phonetic alphabet, the printing press, to the television screen, drastic improvements in human communication styles were observed. In a networked world with 24/7 access to information, the PSP effectively ensures that its users can go online any time, anywhere - communication characterized as instantaneous, real-time, and interactive. When information - even in the form of entertainment media - becomes the most prized commodity, a consuming need for its retrieval is entrenched in the market. A gateway to download nirvana is the PSP’s 4 ½-inched, 16-million colored LCD screen. Its joystick buttons, directional pad, and analog knob steer users into at least 5 (rechargeable) hours of multimedia playback. Built-in infrared port and wifi-readiness warrant link ups to other consoles and fast data transfers to the Internet. Electronic communication devices such as the PSP connect our daily lives to a global village. The more mobile these devices get, the more condensed information - picked up from traditional media like print and canned television - are fed back to our insatiable appetite for data. However, user input is distinctly very much involved in the use of the PSP. The one-way transmission model of old media is transcended by the enablement of users to choose, modify and/or create content. In effect, information is sought, sifted through and selected as a response to what users decide they want to consume. (R)evolutions in technology directly impact society. Every imaginable socio-cultural frontdoors are affected by the applied technology of communication.Neural HubFollowing McLuhan’s medium theory, if print emphasizes the eyes and radio the ears, perhaps what connectivity devices like the PSP highlight is the neural network of the brain itself. Each button pressed exact a reaction - an initialized game, an email message sent, an mp3 downloaded. The PSP digests information and communication data through its hardware, conveniently brought down at our fingertips and palms.Apart from the data it aggregates from around the world and its virtual spaces, what is exciting is how the PSP can hold our personal memories - texts (in the form of emails, chat logs), photographs, and audiovideo we ourselves created - safely kept in digitized gigabytes, and also ready for upload sharing.Indeed the PSP’s inception cannot be divorced from the fast-evolving technological context that empowers its connectivity purposes. Its primary function as a gaming console sometimes takes a backseat as it is now widely used as a connectivity tool. The availability of media content (which as has been said draw from traditional media) tailor-fitted to its platform is the prime reason behind its unforeseen appeal as a multimedia player. It is a symptom of our networked society: mobility is the way to go.