During last weeks class. We discussed the beginnings of mass media and how much it has grown from its original state to its current state. The change has been extreme and at an alarmingly fast-pace. Technology has grown from a tool to get work done faster and more efficiently to a tool which is utilized in multiple facets of society today.
Not only is technology used for work today but has become widespread in the use of mass media. Today, children all the way to adults use mass media in their everyday lives and recognize little, if at all, the impact that mass media has had in their lives. For example, mass media has a way of stealing our attention and allowing us to dawdle in the digital world doing things that are less than productive.
This outgrowth of mass media from its meager beginnings and its use by coders and software engineers has become a tool for the transmission of information at light speed for mixed images, sayings, games, sounds, and much more. Pulling us further and further away from the topics which should concern us and drive much of our attention to spending time checking social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Blogs.
Not to mention, that mass media has allowed children or young adults to grow up technology driven and consumed by its use to keep in touch with friends, colleagues, and all kinds of social media that draws their attention further from the reality which concerns them. These kids and young adults have become so accustomed to having this mass media and technology at their side that they can barely function without it. They have even become convinced that they are versatile in many areas because they can do other things at the same time they use technology.
But we discussed this such issue in class. These particular youths are not really being versatile, but going from one task to another or task-switching. They are simply placing their attention away from one thing onto another thing. They are not in reality doing two tasks simultaneously. But this is yet another example of how mass media has affected the youth of today. Mass media has made it more difficult for the youth to comprehend the fact that their attention is driven away from one task and lost in the cell phone, tablet, laptop, and or iPod.
Furthermore, the expansion of mass media and technology has led to the creation of online identities. These media have given people the ability to utilize technology to hide themselves in the mass media world. People no longer have to identity themselves or present themselves as they really are in life. This frightens me because it has had terrible consequences, especially with the youth who are infused with technology and the use of mass media since childhood. Mass media has given the youth the ability to speak, and make assumptions about other youths on mass media without the fear of consequences; leading to cyberbullying. The bullying of children and or adults online by a person(s) with digital identities. What makes it worse is the fact that cyberbullying is difficult to prove and to identify the person and or persons doing the cyberbullying. And with the development and advancement of mass media it is being made harder to control.
Therefore, yes, mass media has grown by bounds and leaps with time. But mass media has also created an advanced world in which people can be more efficient workers and productive members of a technological society as well as unproductive and dangerous members of said society. With the ever developing area of mass media come and have come great rewards but we have also attained risks. Only time will tell if the risks are worth the rewards.
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