After covering so much material in only a few weeks, I feel like I have a much better understanding of the history — and the complexity — of this ongoing phenomenon we call “new media.” More specifically, I have a profound respect for the reciprocal relationship between technologies and people. One transforms the other, and vice versa, and the developments that result keep moving us into socio-technological environments (social media is a great example) that augment the human communication machine.
Admittedly, I have held on to the idea that I’m just not a new media person for a bit too long. That has changed though, since I have come to the realization that I really do enjoy this stuff (I gave in to Twitter and dammit I’m hooked). The big idea behind it all is that anyone can be a writer, a photographer, a musician, a videographer, hell…a porn star if they are so inclined, and that is something that no other era has enabled. So my biggest attitude change is simple: I can play this game too.
The most surprising thing about the material we have studied is the number of common threads that run throughout. Vannevar Bush had the same basic desire in the 40′s as did the Google guys in the 90′s and Mark Zuckerberg in 2004: They all strove for a more efficient and accessible way to organize seemingly insurmountable amounts of information. And they are now deities of the human race.
I think an interesting topic to which more time could be devoted is that of media literacy as it pertains to the Web. The ability to critically engage with online content is critical, and will become even more so in the future. It will be intriguing to see how the ideas of viability and credibility will change in the “good enough” revolution.
