Technological advances are made everyday from new apps to new processors. The technological revolution of internet and computers is still a fairly new field of human communication. There is no evidence of any computers before mid 1900s so we don't really know all the effects of such a technologically saturated lifestyle. Technology has been a part of human existence from day one when cavemen invented fire. But who would have predicted that we have gotten this far?
So the question is, are we in a fifth age? According to to Marshall Mcluhan, there are four ages of technology. These ages are tribal, literacy, print, and electronic communication age. In the tribal age, the ear was the most dominant organ because there was no form of writing. As civilization advanced, methods of writing were developed. The age of literacy put scribes on a high pedestal and gave them great power. As we advance to the print age, hundreds of books and newspapers can be printed and it creates an entirely new dynamic. People are now able to get information about things across their nation. The last age of communication is the age of electronic communication, the global village. Electronic communication age is defined as when humans started to talk instantly to someone over a phone or computer. Now the question is, does electronic communication encompass things that perhaps Mcluhan did not factor into his ages of technology? Modern advancements like instant video chat were never part of Mcluhans' design.
According to Mcluhans' media ecology theory, we can construct meaningful social environments through different forms of communication. The key to this is that humans are adaptive with their communication. Many speculators thought that instant messaging and texting would not be such a craze because it lacks face to face emotion. The prediction was assuming people wanted to have that kind of interaction. However emotions adapted to texts and now people construct environments via texting and IM daily. As a result, some people have more online friends that real life friends. That topic in itself can be debated for weeks however each side has valid reasons in which their method is superior. Some people think it's great they can text for various reasons and likewise with people who believe face to face or phone calls to be superior.
In a recent article I read on Slate the author Taylor Clark discusses three of the biggest contributing factors why college students and Americans are so stressed out. One of the factors is that our brains are not designed to handle as much information as we process daily. This is an effect of having new technologies and computers. This causes us subconscious stress. Another factor is loss of a real community. When we exist solely on computer mediated human interaction, our bodies feel a loss of real human interaction. This is bad for us because it is natural for humans to have a community. The article states that people in Nigeria are five times less likely to have anxiety and stress issues than Americans. How can that be possible when they are a third world nation and we are lead to believe our lifestyle is superior to other nations? Its because its natural for people to interact with others and deprivation of that can have effects. Like all things, computer mediated communication needs to be taken in moderation.
The overall effect on our society from this information overload is negative in my opinion. It allows people to communicate with people they don't want to see in person and makes it easier to say mean things. I believe excess of IM and texting has a negative effect on people. There is no more getting nervous to call a girl for the first time when you can just text her. It lacks nonverbal messages so it can be whatever the sender wants. This is ok to a degree with human interaction but eventually humans require real interaction. I would believe it's safe to assume we are entering a fifth age. There are elements to daily life that Mcluhan had not predicted and CMC has evolved beyond the age of electronic communication. Although there are positives and negatives to use of CMC the bottom line is that like everything, needs to be taken in moderation.
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