Media Ecology
The twenty-first century is an era where everything can be in your hands in an instant, anytime, anywhere. How? The advancement of the mobile phones. It has made our lives easier and has become a necessity. It’s portable and accessible almost everywhere so you can connect to friends and family wherever they may be. The phone has become a tiny, all-in-one functional packet. In Asia, you can even pay with your phone. How convenient. Like Neil Postman though, I too wonder whether the mobile phone is really all that great for us.
The twenty-first century is an era where everything can be in your hands in an instant, anytime, anywhere. How? The advancement of the mobile phones. It has made our lives easier and has become a necessity. It’s portable and accessible almost everywhere so you can connect to friends and family wherever they may be. The phone has become a tiny, all-in-one functional packet. In Asia, you can even pay with your phone. How convenient. Like Neil Postman though, I too wonder whether the mobile phone is really all that great for us.
Innis was afraid a culture would be obsessed with conquest if a medium overemphasized time and space (Postman, 2000). Maybe this medium - the mobile phone - is overemphasizing instantaneous connectivity with everything and everyone. Many may agree cell phones bring the world together immediately and effortlessly. Ironically at the same time, it is disconnecting all of us. Phone calls are so convenient that people no longer feel the need to make physical efforts (travelling) to see each other. Also everyone is so absorbed in texting and calling those who aren’t with them that they ignore the people that are physically right there beside them.
“...Today is a gift and that is why we call it the present.”
Think about it - have you really focused on the people around you while having your phone out? Have you made the effort to see your family and friends or did a phone call replace that need? Are we taking this gift for granted and missing out on the moments that make life worth living?
After this post, I hope you’ll put the phone down more often.
Go outside. Smile, play, and smell the roses.
Listen to the entire world, not just part of it.
Works Cited
Postman, Neil. "The Humanism of Media Ecology." Media Ecology Association. 2000. Media Ecology Association, Web. 20 Sep 2009.
