(Source: http://s9.postimg.org/sbyqw8yyn/main_featured_image.jpg)
(Caption: This image illustrates the process of social networks that was or is still prominent. It is interesting to note how the predecessor of each social network contributed to its successor, and how it transformed the modes of communication society can utilise).
Let's analyse the above image which depicts the evolution of popular Internet websites and social networks. These networks grew over time as ‘upgrades’ of each other. What I mean by ‘upgrades’ is the characteristics of the corresponding networks were adopted and moulded into a better and advanced network. In turn, communication also evolves from words to video and audio files that are made available on such networks. On MySpace users could upload music tracks and videos that are made public under the music section. Music artists and celebrities managed accounts to garner attention while remaining in contact with their fans. It is a platform for creating loose assemblages of diverse groups. The elite used MySpace for commercial purposes, to promote movies and albums, as well as comment on the media’s promotion of false rumours. Politicians used MySpace for campaigns. They would conduct ‘live chats’ to answer the public’s questions and invite them to advise what they want the government achieve when in power. Communication no longer took the form of solely text. Visual and audio tracks were increasingly popular with network users. This makes me reflect on the first primate that represents Blogspot’s ‘Live Journal’. Before FaceBook and Twitter’s entrance into social media, blogging was and still is a favoured online activity. Bloggers were empowered to format their own CSS feed and were not restricted to type posts containing inappropriate topics, nor was information filtered. Bloggers were in control of what they publish and had the opportunity to voice their opinion without being suppressed by Live Journal’s code of ethics. They were given an option to pay money to establish their own domain. If they refused, blogging did not come with a price tag and their content was not compromised as a result. Free communication enabled bloggers to speak against the media, foreign affairs, and issues surrounding civil liberties. Thus the citizen journalist was born out of this movement. Jeffries submitted the Internet has “created an environment where humans could “colonise the dark, extend our remit over part of the world that was beyond mastery”.[1] Society may not be aware of the effect of publishing content, and how this unconsciousness is blinding the fact that it does have an impact on the world and the self.[2] Bateson said: “When implemented by modern technology a consciousness dominated by purpose becomes disruptive of the balances between individuals, their societies and their ecosystems”.[3] Society’s use of technology may no longer have a purpose if we fail to recognise the extent it can disturb our relations and lifestyle.
Today, people are mindlessly using technology without realising. Students in lectures are distracted from paying attention if they are within the presence of a laptop, mobile phone or tablet and the Internet. Likewise private and public high schools are now funded by the government with schemes involving the provision of free laptops, and UWS also implemented a policy where new students are provided a free iPad. Because of this, physical writing may be the last resort when it comes to recording information. Although writing cannot be entirely replaced, society’s ability to write quickly and in a readable manner is affected as we are allowing technology to do the writing for us. Parikka wrote in the Atlantic to imagine what the fossil record will look like in millions of years. He stated if a future media archaeology digs through the “ruins of electronic media culture”, he would discover media devices, keypads or touch screens, and “dead media”compromising of expired industrial equipment and personal devices.[4] Could the “dead media”also include Live Journal Friendster or MySpace? The intangible websites that are defeated by more superior and ‘hip’alternatives. The demise of Bebo is an example of this and there are questions to whether Tumblr may overtake Wordpress and Blogspot. In the last few days, Mark Zuckerberg purchased Oculus. He envisaged a future where people could “enjoy a court side seat at a game, study in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consult with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home”. His desire to build virtual reality technology in an “immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene”merges real-time with virtual space. Although, this ‘space’is not always shaped by the individual. Society has awarded too much power in technology and their reliance on it has increased regardless of space and time. Similarly, Parikka wrote “messages have flowed faster than their tangible manifestations could have conveyed [and] ideas become coded into zeroes and ones, independent of material substrate, transportable on the vague and indeterminate channel of “the Internet”.[5] The fact that ideas are being “coded”alongside material being transported, improves communication, but also rearranges how humans construct more useful, entertaining and personal experiences. In the context of dispute resolution, information technology has transformed the traditional trial format of the court. Witnesses can participate in video conferences during litigation in front of lawyers and the public on LCD screens.[6] In trials, such as Justin Bieber’s, virtual hearing can be conducted using e-mail or instant messaging in an online court.
Moreover, the evolution of social network has also contributed to how information is organised. Twitter recently updated the profile pages of its users to resemble the same layout of FaceBook’s timeline. The photo of the user originally was situated in the middle of the screen, however, now it is positioned in the left hand side. The biography is no longer 4 sentences containing 140 characters. It is now separated by dot points that list the user’s location, and date the account was generated. The user’s tweet transfigured into statuses that took the form of large rectangles that divided the information and the font became a lot larger. These networks are constantly remodelled to fulfil the communication needs of its users in a simplistic manner.
Additionally, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, in 2013 there were 12 million active Australians who accessed Facebook on a monthly basis, 9 million users visited the site daily by computer, and 7.2 million via mobile phones.[7] Similarly, BusinessDay estimated a total of 3 million Twitter accounts have been created in Australia. These statistics are indicative of the rise of social media networks that are inevitably adapted into our culture to the extent to which frequent use is recognised as an addiction.[8] This nation’s obsession with viewing, distributing and publishing content online has affected “our thinking, perceptions, techniques and technologies”(Murphie & Potts 2002, p. 31).[9] It has altered the communicative relationships between individuals (Murphie & Potts 2002, p. 23), while providing a diverse range of options to expand these relationships or destroy them. It is agreeable technologies are ways of building order in the world as Winner contends (Murphie & Potts 2002, p. 26). Corporations such as Apple, Samsung and Windows are fixated with inventing innovative devices and developing software that will revolutionise communication and social media. Their purpose is twofold: to please society by responding to their demands, with hope of amassing a cult of faithful followers committed to funding their vision, and to oust rivals through litigation, in order to maintain a reputable image in a competitive market place. However, does technology only build order? Or does it also bring disorder in reshaping how society structures their lives?
McLuhan argues technology positively changes the scale, pace or pattern in relation to human affairs (Murphie & Potts 2002, p. 13). One would assume technology encourages unity by emphasising the importance of connectivity. Mobile phones have transformed from heavy, brick-sized objects, to portable and thin rectangular devices with the ability to download apps, listen to music, watch movies, read e-books, surf the Internet and take photos. They are programmed to detect the user’s location for apps such as Foursquare that utilise the mobile’s GPS system to record and share information. They are no longer primarily used to text message or call people, nor are they available only for a select class of people. Mobile phones, and technology in general are a ‘precondition’for cultural change (Murphie & Potts 2002, p. 23). Virilio asserts technologies exert a major impact on society’s sense of time, space and consciousness. It challenges society’s capacity to organise their space in accordance to what the device demands rather than their own. Our use of such technologies becomes a fundamental need rather than something we should consider having. It is no longer a ‘want’. This incessant desire to accumulate more technological devices is a product of materialism. Corporations and the media have engrained into our minds we should have devices because it performs certain functions we are incapable of doing physically. Take the trusty e-mail account for example. People can send instantly messages, documents and videos without being limited by time, space or, to a certain degree, money. Generally, sending a text message costs 30+ cents for post-paid and 12 cents for pre-paid. Some companies like Optus and Virgin offer free text messages to people who are on the same cellular network, as well as unlimited access to social networking websites. Further, the success of social media networks have driven the production of apps such as Viber, Keek and Skype. These apps have ultimately modified society’s form of communication. They provided more opportunities to engage with content and interact with each other. Without such apps that are either paid or for free, society would be limited to using letters or telephone. The difference between Skype and the iPhone’s ‘Facetime’when compared to traditional forms of communication, technology enables the user to utilise visual and audio tracks (webcam and microphone) which heightens their experience. Personally, if I would not have the effort to frequently write letters, thus my decision to not contact others will affect the relationship I share with them. Therefore, technology has its advantages and disadvantages. Although this is the case, technology will continue to be developed and refined to support our needs. Eventually, when society becomes more literate in using technological devices, their lives are not only changed but their overall experience of reality can become a fantasy.
[6]M Legg, ‘Changes’ in The Future of Dispute Resolution, LexisNexis Butterworths, Australia , 2013, p. 13.
[9] Murphie A and Potts J, ‘Theoretical Frameworks’in Culture and Technology, Pelgrave, London, 2002, p. 31.
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