When I first began reading “The Evolution of Media” I didn’t really expect much from it and I certainly didn’t expect to be as interested in the reading as I had been. I figured that the evolution of media was pretty simple: we now have computers, cellular phones, and the World Wide Web and we once, well, didn’t.
But as I read on and as I took in the history of the letter and the printing press I found myself picturing what life would be like if I were not able to talk in real time through such conveniences like texting and AIM. And it sort of, in small words, blew my mind. And while I can picture how life would be like without my unlimited texting, I also know that I probably, in all honesty, wouldn’t survive.
In this chapter the author points out that “writing in all forms was an important innovation for conquering distance and time” and that “space and time were conquered by the written word”. Hundreds of years ago people could only write stories and messages on stone tablets, the stone tables then evolved to papyrus paper, which was then followed by the typewriter and a little further down the road the word processor and so on and so forth. As our technologies advanced the gap in the distance and in the time became smaller and smaller. We used to have to wait days for a letter to come in the mail and now we can just hit send on our email account and our words arrive to it’s destination within seconds. Through the evolution of media the problem of distance and time is no longer relevant.
Which brings me to another important point brought up in this chapter: the need for immediacy. I think as a society and a culture we have definitely become way too spoiled by these technologies. We want quick responses, fast answers, and little waiting time. But unlike the author, I do not believe that through this evolution we have lost personalization and intimacy. “In a personal letter, the written word can be very intimate. People tend to express intimacies in a love letter that they would never express face-to-face,” this is still true for texting and email, it’s just now our intimate words arrive faster. J
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I am very much the same way; I often wonder how difficult life would be without these technologies. How could I live without my cell phone? I need it to always be in contact with the world, and so I am always reachable in an emergency. How could I live without the internet? I need immediate access to information.
ReplyDeleteThe fact of the matter is that people DID live without these technologies, and they did so with content. How? Because they had no way of knowing these technologies would ever exist.
I agree that we have been spoiled with all these technologies. Especially in the United States, people value immediacy over intimacy. Quantity over quality. Material over the abstract. Sometimes I wish I lived in a simpler time, one without Facebook and YouTube and Xbox. A time when you actually HAD to go outside to communicate.
On the other hand, this period in human history may be looked at as being a "simple time" by future generations. Only time will tell; too bad we won't be around to see it!
Hey there,
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing about the article when I first started reading it. I had no idea it would be jam packed with so much history about the media and different forms of communication. You mentioned that you have thought about what if would be like to not have the different forms of communication that we have today. I often think about this too, but I think that we are fine as long as we are living in that moment with whatever technology we have at that time. I remember when everyone had pagers and they would come up with different codes to get messages across to eachother. My sister was addicted to her pager, but I never felt the need for one back then. Now that we have smartphones that same sister is very addicted to her iphone, and I still use a basic flip phone and I am hesitant to upgrade. It is interesting how some people have to have the latest technology to communicate and other people don't really care too much.