The Ecology of Media

Vehicles, cell phones, radio and computers.   Palm Pilots, cameras, heavy machinery and portable music devices.  All kinds of different technology surround us, but I look at one kind in particular because of its obvious domination and complexity.  

Internet.

In the early 1960s, it was a shared dream between a group of scientists to be able to somehow connect computer systems, to have them communicate to one another and share a common network.

 Eventually the dream was achieved.   Internet was produced, allowing anyone and everyone to obtain access to the World Wide Web and other internet features. 1

As a conscientious internet user, I can see how it affects my life, along with many other lives.  I can see how it impacts our culture and society because of the topics people talk about and the things people get pleasure out of. To me, the internet is a type of technology that became popular so fast that it replaced and took over what ever system people used before. It became so convenient and easy to use that EVERYONE started to use it. I think Marshall McLuhan nailed it in the ‘Playboy Interview’, he said that “In the past, the effects of media were experienced more gradually, allowing the individual and society to absorb and cushion their impact to some degree."2 However, when internet was introduced, it didn't follow that pattern. People’s adaptation to the internet was so accelerated compared to other types, like a computer or cell phone.  The impact that the internet had on our culture can be argued as either good or bad.  Good because it connects us with the rest of the universe.  It gives any ordinary person like you or I access to whatever we want to see or participate in; daily news, Blue Jays tickets, weather on the other side of the world, pornography, etcetera.  Bad because people take this privilege, this benefit to an extreme level.  We have the power to fake our identities, to stock people, to look up information that may or may not be any of our business.  We can break the law on the internet, steal people’s work on the internet and the list goes on.  People make what they want out of the internet,what do you make of it?

The internet’s intended purpose was to give individuals anywhere in the world with a computer, the opportunity to connect themselves to a network of other computers.  To share information, and to make their lives that much easier.   However, the internet’s actual function is different.  It is taken advantage of, manipulated and cheated. Along with all the powers the internet gives us, we have the power to respect it.  We have the power to choose what we want to do with it.  

 

1. "1960s-1990s-the Internet." Imagining the Internet. Aug. 2005. Elon University. 30 Sept. 2008 <http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/150/1960.xhtml>.

2. "The Playboy Interview; Marshall McLuhan." Next Nature. Mar. 1969. 30 Sept. 2008 <http://www.nextnature.net/?p=1025>.