Friday, February 19, 2010

Information as a Weapon

Hello class:

I find chapter 11 of New New Media quite interesting. Titled “The Dark Side of New New Media,” it discusses the duality of any tool entering into the lives of any given society.

The driving force for various innovations lies in the idea of progress: “How can life become easier and allow people to function more efficiently?” It is interesting to examine the use and consequences of implementing new technology into people’s lives.

The examples brought about throughout the chapter argue the positive and negative use of such tools.

It is evident that New New Media, therefore, just like any other tool before them do not come with either a positive or negative manual. It is the way each user decides to employ them that makes the difference.

The sooner everyone realizes that it is not the medium but the person/people/organizations/countries operating through it, the better equipped we will be to deal with the abusive messages produced.

Margaret Maria Roidi

3 comments:

  1. Margaret,

    I cannot agree more with this. And after reading Levinson, and all of the insightful comments he has on New New Media, it makes me appreciate it more rather than fear, or tear away from it. I want to embrace this new new media for what it is worth, and best capable for.

    I think if more people were aware of how they used this new new media, and what it is intended for and all of the positive possibilities it can bring (intelligent debate, social networking, promotional, professional networking) there would be a lot less abuse. Or at least the abuse would be easier to ignore.

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  2. The way I would put it is that there's always a price to pay for whatever gain we may obtain, but we often aren't prepared to pay it, nor do we consider whether the benefit is truly worth the cost.

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