A runaway train…

Stephen Quinn, in his article “Why and how convergence is emerging,” commented that in just a handful of years online access has managed to gain the kind of “traction” that it took other media decades to achieve.

This is an alarming point. Although the hallmarks for the World Wide Web were in the making in the late 1960s, it’s uptake and adaptation by the general public has been a whirlwind in the last 15 years. In such a short amount of time, we have witnessed the dot.com boom and collapse, citizen journalists emerge, internet banking and social sites such as Facebook and Myspace revolutionising social interactions. However, when has anyone had time to sit back and digest this new virtual world? Certainly not between answering your mobile, while telling the kids to turn down their iPod which has been plugged into the house stereo and asking Johnny to get off his father’s Ebay account, oh and don’t forget to yell the livin’ daylights out of Mark for running up a $500 internet bill while illegally downloading the whole series of Prison Break.

Quite simply, the internet is such a joyful experience. But one must wonder what future generations will be able to achieve online. Perhaps we will grow virtual gardens instead of real ones and be able to instruct a robot to cook steak and veg for dinner at six.

Week 1: Changing nature of society

Hi and welcome to my first ‘blog’ entry. A somewhat alien term, the commencement of this subject (which I might add is compulsory to gain my degree) has immediately sparked anxiety and despair. Not only am I not a techno-savvy type, but I also possess a deep hatred for the changing nature of society and its quick acceptance of all things electronic in the never ending quest to create the convenient lifestyle.

I think Sandi Thom said it best with her record I wish I was a Punk Rocker. Not only do I also wish I was born into a world where the “media couldn’t buy your soul” but also a time when people appeared to have a soul.

The days of letters, radio stations and kick-to-kick are fading into the background as our new high tech world takes charge. Newspapers no longer sell out, and entertainment news dominates.

Does convergence give the public permission to be ignorant about world events? Is it allowing us to pick and choose our news to the extent that we are no longer informed? This is what I see as an overriding negative of the new information age.