Marshall MacLuhan had many idea about different forms of media, and technology in general, that have recently started being looked at more closely as different media such as IM's, Facebook, and Twitter have swept the nation, and the globe. One of MacLuhan's more prominent ideas, technological determinism, claims that technology determines the way a society works. This idea is basically summed up as , whenever a new technology is introduced or changes, the culture responds directly to that change. I believe this idea to be true based on the widespread use of different media, such as those previously mentioned, in our everyday lives.
This leads us into another one of MacLuhan's ideas, that of "ideology of technology." This idea claims that every technology brings with it improvement, and every new technology is better than the previous one. I feel this idea i
s clearly seen with the Facebook and Twitter phenomena. When Facebook came out, it was amazing how fast we were able to gain information about people without having to make any form of contact with said person. All we had to do was click our way to someone's profile page and see what their "status" was. Since then Twitter has come into play. Twitter has changed the way in which we are exposed to information about people, and how we went about obtaining it. Twitter is a constant, automatic, and endless news feed of what our friends, or just whomever we wish to "follow" is saying, thinking, or doing. This made even the ease associated with Facebook seem bothersome.
s clearly seen with the Facebook and Twitter phenomena. When Facebook came out, it was amazing how fast we were able to gain information about people without having to make any form of contact with said person. All we had to do was click our way to someone's profile page and see what their "status" was. Since then Twitter has come into play. Twitter has changed the way in which we are exposed to information about people, and how we went about obtaining it. Twitter is a constant, automatic, and endless news feed of what our friends, or just whomever we wish to "follow" is saying, thinking, or doing. This made even the ease associated with Facebook seem bothersome.One issue, however, with the introduction of various types of new media, is that there has been increased opposition to them. Many people have expressed opinions saying that these new medias are detracting from our ability to be attentive. The claim is that m
edia such as Facebook and Twitter have made accessing information so easy that people no longer have the patience or attention span to "work" for their information. By "work" for their information I mean that people have begun reading far less than they used to, and this can most likely be directly linked to the introduction of new media. The concern regarding this issue is that, with the ever-increasing amount of time people spend poking around on their computers, we will become less likely to be able to sit and read or pay attention to something for any lengthy period of time.
edia such as Facebook and Twitter have made accessing information so easy that people no longer have the patience or attention span to "work" for their information. By "work" for their information I mean that people have begun reading far less than they used to, and this can most likely be directly linked to the introduction of new media. The concern regarding this issue is that, with the ever-increasing amount of time people spend poking around on their computers, we will become less likely to be able to sit and read or pay attention to something for any lengthy period of time.
No comments:
Post a Comment