what will our world come to?
Posted by: alyssacatherine on: January 19, 2009
Today I began reading The Empire of Mind – Digital Piracy and the Anti-Capitalist Movement by Michael Strangelove. Before I even finished reading the introduction, the book began to make me think about the future of the world that we live in, especially in terms of technology, and where it will bring us next.
On page 4, Dr. Strangelove tells us about a book written by W. Russell Neuman entitled The Future of the Mass Audience. The book was written in 1991, after a study commissioned by many media outlets, on how new electronic media and personal computers will affect audience behaviour. Dr. Strangelove notes that Neuman came to many conclusions before the coming of the Internet, which ultimately changed the world he knew,but, he did nonetheless predict such things such as the decline of video games, calling them “just a fad”, and the fact that, on the whole, audiences did not prefer to interact with media.
Obviously, since 1991, this predictions have proven themselves very wrong, and i suspect that Dr. Strangelove included them in his introduction to prove to readers how quickly things can in fact change. This passage in particular made me wonder about predictions that are being made today concerning technology, and our future. Will there be another development that will make changes as massive as did the Internet? Will things that we consider to be fads, evolve in to international and multi-billion dollar hobbies, as did the video game? My guess is that yes, there will be, but i cannot predict, while I sit here using the latest model of my laptop computer, what these changes will be.
Most likely, 25 years down the road, i will be sitting somewhere else, mind boggled.
2 Responses to "what will our world come to?"
January 27, 2009 at 5:26 pm
This message is being posted to all student blogs. Please subscribe to my RSS feed at
http://radicalmedia.wordpress.com/
and read the following revised instructions:
B: Create a WordPress Blog (15 points)
1. The following must be completed by March 27.
2. Register with WordPress.com and create a new blog. You must use WordPress and you must begin with a new blog for this assignment – no exceptions. Use http://wordpress.com/signup/ or download the latest copy of WordPress and add it to your Web site (only for those who own their own Web site and are technically skilled).
3. E-mail Michael@strangelove.com by January 16 with a link to your blog. Dr. Strangelove will subscribe to your blog.
Your blog must have the following features and content:
4. Your blog must allow people to subscribe to your blog. To do this you MUST use a template that has an RSS link (also called a FEED) clearly indicated on the main page. It is usually seen at the very top, the bottom, or the side. Failure to use a template that has an RSS link on its main page will result in automatic failure of this assignment.
5. Your blog must contain at least 24 separate entries on 24 different days (approximately twice a week). Each entry should reflect on a passage of your choosing from the texts or something Dr. Strangelove said in the lectures. Each entry must be accompanied by an image of your choosing that is related to the subject of your reflection. The image can made by your or taken from the Internet.
6. Your blog must contain an additional 12 entries that included an embedded YouTube amateur video and your reflections on the video as part of popular culture.
7. You must change the subheading that comes with your blog.
8. You must give your blog a clever and informative name and subheading.
9. You must subscribe to 6 other student blogs in this course.
10. You must write 24 comments on other student blogs in this course.
11. You must assign a subject category to each blog posting.
12. Your blog must have the following features: an About section; a list of Categories (give each posting to your blog a subject category), a BlogRoll.
13. You must allow comments to be added to your blog.
14. Again, do not ask the professor how to make your blog – the WordPress site has all the help you need – use the help forums.
15. You must reflect and analyze within your postings using references to research, theory, and media scholars. A posting that is merely your own thoughts will not suffice for this assignment.
16. Your ABOUT page must have your full name and your course code – otherwise I will not be able to give you a mark! DO NOT put your student number, address, or phone number in your blog (or anywhere on the Internet). Blog safely.
Leave a Reply
Search
- urbzen: I am so, so, so tired of the notion of women as sexual "gatekeepers"--as if it's physically beyond the reach of a man to keep it in his pants. Case
- kellyyoung: Wow that video is so boring I can't believe that many people have actually watched it. It amazes me the amount of random junk there is out there on yo
- kellyyoung: Its crazy to me how people can't live without their blackberry, but at the same time I have one so I guess I'm one of the crazies
Categories
- advertising (1)
- children on YouTube (1)
- digital piracy (1)
- facebook (1)
- generation google (1)
- hookup culture (1)
- online dating (1)
- online news production (2)
- parody (1)
- powers of the internet (1)
- privacy (1)
- self disclosure (2)
- text messaging (2)
- the BlackBerry (1)
- the future of the internet (1)
- uses of YouTube (1)
- video blogging (1)
January 19, 2009 at 1:44 pm
“Dr. Strangelove notes that Neuman came to many conclusions before the coming of the internet, which ultimately changed the world he knew,but, he did nonetheless predict such things such as the decline of video games, calling them “just a fad”, and the fact that, on the whole, audiences did not prefer to interact with media.”
Keep in mind the point here is that Neuman was incorrect when he saw video games as declining and interactivity as unimportant.
Dr. Strangelove