Hi everyone! My name is Emily and I am currently studying a Bachelor of Communication at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. I am enjoying the course so far! One of the courses I am enrolled in is called "New Communication Technology" which asks us to create a weekly blog; hence - here I am. So welcome to my blog! If you are eager to hear my ideas and opinions relating to the course lectures - then you have come to the right place!
We have now had two lectures and I am currently at my first Tute. To tell you the truth; I have never thought so much about advances in technology and communication as I have in the past two weeks. I started thinking about myspace in particular - and how many people are getting involved in it. I thought about how my friends and I often connect through myspace rather than sending an SMS. I thought about the fact that everything around us is changing constantly - nothing will ever be the same; and it sort of made me a little sad.
We have now had two lectures and I am currently at my first Tute. To tell you the truth; I have never thought so much about advances in technology and communication as I have in the past two weeks. I started thinking about myspace in particular - and how many people are getting involved in it. I thought about how my friends and I often connect through myspace rather than sending an SMS. I thought about the fact that everything around us is changing constantly - nothing will ever be the same; and it sort of made me a little sad.
This sort of questioning was discussed in the first couple of textbook chapters of "Communication and New Media" (Harrison.J, Hirst.M, 2007). For example; I read that mobile phones are now being made with GPS tracking devices in the USA. On one hand - this is great technology. If someone is lost in the wilderness - rescuers will obviously track them down with no trouble. On the other hand - is this not invasive technology? Big Brother is certainly watching.
Neil Postman described technology as both a 'burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that' (Postman 1993, Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology p.5) What may be said- from this quote - is that although with advancing technology we lose the "hassles" of daily life; do we not also lose morals that were reflected by the hardships that often brought families together. Take a movie like "Little Women", where the children gather round' to read a letter from a loved one who hasn't been seen in months; and compare that to listening to your mother on the phone to your aunty (or someone of that nature). Now - compare watching the movie "Little Women" to reading the novel that Louisa May Alcott wrote over weeks and weeks to watching a two hour movie. Isn't there so much to lose?! We have been studying this and so much in our first couple of courses and it is beginning to interest me very much - which is probably a good thing considering I am studying a Bachelor of Communication!
Stay tuned for next weeks blog!
Till then, Emily.
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