The rapid evolution of new media technology has taken our society hostage! Presently, any human being who functionally contributes to the collective operations of an industrialized nation exists within a reality of media and technological enslavement; whereby the very essence of one's personal and social fulfillment is contingent upon their committed media involvement.
Three weeks ago I began a New Media Theory course; COM 6270, offered through Wayne State University. Completely unfamiliar with this are of study; it took only two weeks of reading the assigned articles for me to fully realize my true level of ignorance. You see, I consider myself to be technologically illiterate; it's just not something that I'm good at. As a result, I have never really had any interest in the exploration of new media technology. Through propagating this pessimistic perception, I eventually came to self-identify as an "online introvert." I use this term to represent my whole-hearted resistance to the ever-increasing culturally conventionalized inundation of new media technology into nearly every piece of our cumulative human existence, especially within the home, and at work.
With every coming week, the new information I obtain continues to exceed my realm of comprehension. Media and technology have invaded the reality of our everyday lives, and for some odd reason, no one seems to be concerned with the potential ramification which may come about as a result. A technological expansion of this precedence has never before occurred in the history of the world, therefore we have nothing to guide our course of innovation, nor do we have a point of reference for possible comparison.
New media is evolving at a rate that is faster than we as humans are capable of keeping up with; call me crazy, but I think that this scenario has many ways in which things could end badly. Maybe it’s just me, but this seems a little offsetting that so few scholars are actually taking the time to consider potential implications of the negative consequences which may come to pass as a result of this total media takeover.
As previously noted above, I self-identify as an “online introvert", which apparently places me in the minority. My non-conforming, cautionary views of media and technology are for the most part, in strict contrast to the majority of discussions concerning these subjects, which often take the stance of an “online extrovert.” The main objective within this blog will be to showcase my introverted point of view in relation to the standpoint of other new media theorists. In this day and age of Facebook, Second Life, YouTube, and so on, most of the younger generations who were brought up utilizing these new media technologies have probably never stopped to ponder a world without access to instant live wire.
The future of new media technology requires profound consideration. Where we reside currently is uncharted territory; now more than ever, it is absolutely essential to think outside the box, and to consider possible implications from all sides spectrum. Some of the more thought-provoking issues which have come up throughout the course of reading our assigned articles, have dealt with matters concerning the effects of an increasingly sophisticated capacities demonstrated by artificial intelligence, how we might come to distinguish an amalgamated world consisting of the virtual and the real, and what we might hold up as the discerning characteristics representing the differential treatments we consider appropriate for both humans and machines?
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