Monday, September 15, 2008

02) The Ecology of Media


During our second class of Mass Communications, we were to have read two articles, one of them being "The Humanism of Media Ecology" by Neil Postman. Of course these articles lead to interesting class discussions. One of the new things i learned during that class was the definition of media:


–noun
1.
a pl. of
medium.
2.
(usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely.


Up until last week, i had a completely different idea of what media was. I actually felt extremely silly when i was finally told the proper definition and compared it to my own idea. I didn't realize that it was a plural of medium. When Mr.Reilly was explaining it to us, it all just clicked in my head, that media is the way the message is portrayed. It got me thinking about how my generation is being constantly bombarded with advertisements and commericals through all sorts of things; the World Wide Web being one of the most popular.


I've had the internet as long as i can remember. I've generally used it to try and complete homework, and various projects over my educational career. But as time went on, it's sad to say that the internet has become a key part of my life. I hadn't realized it entirely until my first two weeks of classes, how much it actually does mediate my life. The thing that has come to bother me so much though, is how dependent people are with things like Msn Messenger, or Myspace and of course Facebook. Using these things so often, has created a social block amongst people. Some have chosen using techonology like the internet to communicate with others instead of good o'l social skills. Even my sister made a comment on it the other day. When she was in high school she would spend hours on the telephone with her friends, or instead of the phone, she would be out hanging with them outside somewhere. Yet today, youth spend more time 'talking' over MSN or Facebook and have entirely forgotten things like the telephone (unless it's a cellular telephone- that's an entirely different story). I've also found that the internet has enabled humans to create an ideal persona. My example being Facebook once again. While communicating over Facebook, the internet gives the user the power to create a 'perfect' person. One without quirks, or eccentricities that a person might normally notice in a face-to-face situation. It eliminates all possibilities of creating any socially awkward incidents. The question to ask yourself now is if all of that is a bad thing? Or is 'talking on Facebook' a new style of communication for man kind altogether?


Don't get me wrong, i appreciate the internet for all it's worth. It makes my school life much easier in finding information for research projects and homework in general, as well as communicating quickly with teachers if i have a problem or a question about something etc. Also, the internet provides me with applications like MSN or Skype to keep in touch with friends and famliy in far away places while i'm at school. But i can't help but feel old fashioned when i say that i sometimes would rather speak face-to-face with my teachers or find time to get together with my family and my friends to catch up with each other, or go to the library and actually find a book or encylopedia to finish that project. Dare i say i find these 'physical' things more dependable then a techonological source?



"media." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v1.1) Random House, Inc. 15 Sept. 2008.

1 comment:

llc said...

amanda
this post was another well written piece by you :)
i also love the title, "between the lines" it is very captivating.

your conclusion about how the "old fashioned" techniques are more dependable than the new ones is actually quite striking but very true.
it also goes hand in hand with a situation where someone cant connect to the internet but they find a medium in their old pen and paper.

amazing job girl