Theme 2

Joshua Meyrowitz's idea that different forms of media act as "secret exposing machines" and change the way in which we are able to access people and information plays a strong role in our everyday lives. This idea basically claims that with the increasing amounts of new media that we are using, it has become more difficult to keep information from people. Different forms of electronic media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) allow us to "be there" through the electronic media communication and discover new information almost instantaneously.

The idea of increased access to information through different forms of electronic media leads into that of the para-social relationship. This means that people feel they are having physical relationships with people who they truly only know through their different mediums, such as television characters or Facebook friends. A perfect example of a para-social relationship is Mary Dyck from Kansas in the late 1930's. Mary Dyck was a farm wife who became a frequent radio listener. As a result of spending so much time listening to soap operas, Dyck began to view the characters on her radio shows as personal friends. She would write about these people as if they knew each other personally, while in reality they were just characters on a radio soap opera. We see these para-social relationships even today. With the relatively new media such as Facebook and Twitter, it is very easy for people to form these types of relationships with their online "friends." Many people have hundreds of "friends" on these sites, yet they may only talk to 20-25% of these people. The rest are just people who we are able to see what they are doing, saying, or sometimes even feeling. Through this type of "ambient awareness" people are able to become aware to how people are feeling based on what they say online, and how they say it.