Jadimauro’s Weblog

So in my Mass Media and Society class(522) our discussion last week was whether we are more informed in the information age. I think it is a tough question and I put that to all of you, are we more or less informed in the information age?

Through this book I would have to say that I think the general thought would be that we are more informed because of the opportunity to obtain more information through extensive searches. I would also have to say that this paper would suggest that if the information is out there then it is obtainable so therefore we all should be better informed about issues. I mean in theory we should all be able to be better informed but I don’t think that it is that simple. One of my classmates in 522 suggested that we are better informed but only on one subject because that is what we are interested in and that is what we focus our attention on. And I think that is true I’m obsessed with old movies and I definetely know a lot of useless information about old movies, it’s not to say that I don’t know other things but I really know a lot of useless things about old movies. I also think that this question has to do with the trends of society. I think in our society no one really cares too much about important information, the masses, I think people might be more concerned with whether Britney Spears is getting her lips injected with collagen. We focus our attention on obtaining information that really is useless and I guess that is just how our society is, so I guess we all are filled with useless information about celebrity gossip. So I guess through my ramblings I have decided that our society is more informed about celebrity gossip than actual useful information about anything including presedential campaigns.

I liked the discussion about presedential elections because as always it is a hot button issue and with the upcoming elections it will be interesting to see who uses the web to their advantage. So far for a past blog I checked out Clinton and Obama and they seemed to be doing a pretty good job. I did think that Clinton was better than Obama, her website had some really good videos about her position on certain issues.

While reading the Shibuya Epiphany one tiny part stood out to me the most, there was a quote from a young girl that said essentially that if I don’t recieve a lot of texts during the day then I feel like no one loves me. I think that this in many ways has become the way is which we show affection and let people no that we care for them. I mean I think maintaining relationships has become much easier since text messaging has really taken off. It makes it easier to communicate things and makes it much easier to keep in touch. I think that idea of using your cell phone as a remote to control things in your life is a really great idea. Linturi in this article was using his cell phone to control things around his house and my favorite thing was if someone rings his doorbell he can talk to them from his cell phone, that is something I would definetely like to have on my cell.

What I was shocked about while reading this chapter was that all of this research was done in 2001 and all of these communities all over the world were completely obsessed with texting. I don’t really think that I became obsessed with texting until probably 2003-2004. It seems like the United States was really behind in the current trends but now in 2007 the companies have really started to utilize text messaging even in their ads. You know the commercial with the family that talks in text messaging abbreviations, even the grandma. I just wonder in the future how the written language will be affected. I wonder if there will continue to be this great divide between text language and proper language?

As for the “Digital Memories” article I think that the general idea is really great an innovative but at the same time I just wonder when it becomes too much. I mean essentially this mans life is controlled by digital devices, and I know everyone in a sense is controlled by their digital devices but I think this is taken to an extreme. I think keeping a lot of digital memories is great, and as “My Life Bits” suggests a terabyte just isn’t going to cover it in the future, but I don’t think that I want every little moment of my day recorded. I think gps for keys and glasses would be good but I think it is just too much. My point is that for this guy as the experiment it sounds really cool and like a really great idea but the practicality of this for the future and for everyone is a little far fetched for me, it is just too much.