Innovations in Digital Media

For my blog topic, I want to talk about the today's lecture where we discussed innovations in Digital Media. Technology is rapidly changing and evolving every single day. People have drastically changed the way they communicate due to these new technologies. Way back when, letters were the only way to communicate across long distances, and even then, the postal service wasn't always 100% reliable. After radio, television, and telephones were made, these became better and faster ways to communicate. Messages reached a bigger audience through these widespread devices and people became more accessible. Then the internet and cell phone came into play and they basically took over for communication systems. People can now e-mail each other at any time of the day or call/text a cell phone whenever they feel like it. This saves them from having to have any actual contact, which makes it impersonal. It seems that texting or e-mailing make people a lot bolder because of this fact and sometimes say things they wouldn't have the nerve to say in person. Once myspace, facebook, and twitter came along, things just got crazy advanced. You can now see all aspects of someone's life online without them ever knowing. You can also contact this person from great distances and even instant message with them over the web. People update their twitter accounts hourly and inform the world of their every action. Has technology gone too far? Not saying that I'm any better than anyone else (I, too, have a facebook account and am sometimes known to "fb stalk") but I still sometimes question the communication lines that we use today. Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with people, especially if you are great distances away from each other, but it still involves absolutely no contact whatsoever. It's so impersonal. That's why I prefer Skype or iChat since I can then see the person as well as hear their voice. This makes things much better than just "poking" someone on facebook or "liking" their status. I think that it's great that technology is advancing so quickly, but I also think that sometimes need to take it back and go the old school way. I love receiving letters, although this may seem like a medieval act in this day and age. I know that many people enjoy reading letters or long phone calls, so instead of just texting someone or quickly "facebooking" them, people should take it back a bit and actually pick up the phone!