Dear Audience/Public/Whatever,
in case you've been reading this blog before, which you probably haven't, you might realise that I've changed the name from 'On The Lorne' to 'Two Pubs on the Lorne'.
You might ask 'why?' and I would tell you that I started this blog last semester just because I wanted to and then I forgot about it but now a blog is a course requirement of my subject ARTS2090- Publics and Publishing at UNSW. The new name refers to the name of the course 'PUBlics and PUBlishing', and 'On The Lorne' refers to where I live.
Here I'm going to discuss the concepts that come up in my readings each week; starting today with 'History of Tools and Techniques'.
The history of tools and techniques in relation to revolution and change in society is a concept that is understood by most people in today's society- especially those in developed countries as they are surrounded by new media and technologies.
However the Elizabeth Eisensetein's book 'The Printing Press as an Agent of Change Vol. 1' looks at the history of the tool and techniques involved in publishing from the outset of the widespread use of the printing press in the 15th century.
The 'oh-so' informed yet ignorant Gen Y, myself included, are consumed by adapting quickly to the technological, diverse and divergent forms of media that we often fail to see that the changes happening today are only a part in the giant snowball that has been happening for hundreds of thousands of years since man first form of communication.
What we see is that communities and interaction has changed in that we are not as easily part of a physical community. We don't have a strong sense of belonging to a town or city in the way that it was manifested in previous centuries, even just pre1970.
Eisensetein suggests that this wasn't just a result of recently emerging technologies such as the internet or the smart phone which has revolutionised the way people interact but in fact even the printing press changed the way humans interact. She says, "As communion with the Sunday paper has replaced church-going, there is a tendency to forget that sermons had at one time been coupled with news about local and foreign affairs..."
She explains that it came down to that most villagers were part of 'an exclusively hearing public', however the widespread distribution of books and the increase of literacy due to their accessibility changed the public into a reading one thus changing the dynamics of interaction.
(secularism)
(distribution of new ideas)
Do you think that from a "hearing public" to a "reading public" we are now a "watching public" or an "interactive public"?
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that we do not interact face to face as much as we once did. Not to blow things out of proportion- people do see each other. We're social beings however there has an increase of online interaction and I wouldn't be the only once to say that this has meant the decrease in face to face social interactions.
DeleteWe could term this a "watching public"....we no longer need to see or talk to our friends to know what's happening with them we merely watch their page, check their inbox messages.
There is also a large 'share' culture in which we become obsessed with sharing our experience to the point that we do not experience it as we should. Take a walk on the beach or a fun dinner with friends- we interrupt these things to take a picture, share our photo, tag the people we're with and show our location. How often people check their phones or jump on facebook while catching up with a friend. We're bombarded with a lot of things that make it hard for people to enjoy their time or focus on who they're with or what they're doing.
Anyway I'm not sure what to term that. But it's not horribly negative. We just need to learn to use technology as a tool FOR social interaction and communication, not as a prosthetic for it.
http://www.adasiaonline.com/2012/08/a-fight-for-better-telephone-etiquette/
ReplyDelete