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| Be honest: if you don’t know the answer to something, do you A. Ask an older, wiser family member? B. Head to the nearest library and research it? C. Experience it for yourself? D. Google it? If your answer is D, do not be ashamed. If your answer is A-C, you’re a liar. Mass communications first took off when the printing press was invented in the late 1400’s, and has been growing and spreading exponentially ever since (very similar to Lady Gaga’s STDs). Having information in the palm of your hand led to the rise of individualism, for people no longer needed to run to their neighbors to ask a question. But mass media is very tricky, for there are flaws everywhere. It can be biased, missing something, edited or just plain false. Let’s take a quick look at this cultural landscape: there’s high culture, which consists of ballet, symphony, museums and classical literature, and then there’s low culture, which includes soap operas, video games and rock ‘n’ roll. The latter is obviously superior, and requires you to take the stick out of your rear to enjoy, but there is a significant concern. Although I know you hated reading Shakespeare in your high school English classes, it does give a sense of class and morale. Critics are concerned that contemporary pop culture exploits classic works. For example, take the classic story of Frankenstein, part of the high culture that we just brought up. This concept was transformed into a sitcom called The Munsters, which was eventually lowered to Frankenberry cereal. As much as I love that bag of bolts, it’s difficult for a student to appreciate the classic lit when they were first introduced to the concept via a cartoon cereal box. This brings us to the “Big Mac Theory:” US citizens are so addicted to mass-produced media menus that they’ve lost not only the will to challenge social inequities but also their taste for finer fare. Even the news has taken a nose dive towards Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, for as entertaining and captivating as their twist on the news is, it’s a horrible way to first receive information. Some nations however, don’t care for this plethora of information, such as China. They have what people refer to as “the Great Firewall of China,” including over 30,000 censors to block what is thought to be inappropriate or rebellious by Chinese authorities. A big example of censored material are blogs, or web logs. They fear their people rising against them and posting offensive articles about their political system or culture, rallying others who agree. About 70 million blogs exist, and there are 120,000 new blogs daily, which is about 1.4 per second. One and a half million posts are put up per day, which is 17 posts per second. The issues with these are that there is simply too much information out there. With everyone believing they are entitled to their opinion, that their voice should be heard, we lose sight of what’s true and what’s not. There’s so much out there that our reading habits have actually began to change over the years. We no longer read, we do what’s called “power browsing,” which consists of either only reading the first two paragraphs of something, or scanning an article/story in roughly 18 seconds before moving on to the next website. I like to call it media ADHD, and it’s completely involuntary. So much is forced upon you that it’s hard to focus on one thing for long. You could be watching TV, listening to music, writing in your blog, IMing with friends, Skyping with your mom, checking your e-mail, transferring money to your bank account, shopping for a movie poster, downloading a movie, and uploading pictures to Facebook all at the same time. This is exactly what I mean by information overload, and it definitely will not be slowing down any time soon. For some it is a crisis. Internet addiction centers have been opening up all over the place in order to receive proper rehabilitation from too much Internet use. A prime example is a 19-year-old student who played so much World of Warcraft that stopped attending class, had insufficient nutrition, horrible hygiene, and he was kicked out of school without even being aware of it. He is now in Internet rehab at a clinic in Washington state. For some, it’s an opportunity. Fall of 2008, Natalie Dylan wanted to auction off her virginity to pay for her schooling. Using radio, TV and Internet, she promoted her cause and the bidding got up to nearly 3.7 million before the bidder’s wife beat him silly for his investment, and he pulled out of the deal (literally and figuratively). The Internet is never going away, and more and more will be added to it each day. It’s up to you to decide what is garbage and what is valuable. Don’t let it become a crutch, but a useful tool that is there if you NEED it. Otherwise, you may end up like the level 80 Night Elf that currently has nothing but fresh air and good reading, God forbid. (Disclaimer: There ARE websites that should be visited multiple times daily: NYTimes.com, Weather.com, and, of course, TheCollegeMan.com.)
3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved." |