Blog Post #2 - Mechanized Communication

 This week we were instructed to share any course material that we found interesting. One quote that stood out to me from the course was “The development of ‘mechanized’ communications media such as mass-circulation newspapers had shifted the balance decisively in favour of space and power, over time, continuity and knowledge.” (Innis, 1951). When we talked about this quote in class we discussed new media creating an obsession with ‘present mindedness’ which disregards our concerns for the past or future. This remark made me remember a conversation I had in my course Social Media and Social Life where we discussed social media as being a platform where everyone is obsessed with showing what they are doing at the moment whether that be posting stories, sending Snapchats, posting on your timeline or even now using the new social media app BeReal. In this class, we also discussed how social media allows users to know what’s going on at that moment. Twitter was the main example discussed in class as it’s often used to get real-time news whether it be from a news channel’s account like CP24 or your regional police like Waterloo’s account. I also recall discussing an increase of FOMO (fear of missing out) in our generation because these ‘mechanized’ communications allow individuals to defy space and time and share what they are doing whenever and wherever they want. 


Do you think social media has created this heightened obsession of constantly sharing and communicating with one another? How has space-binding media changed the way we communicate with one another?

Comments

  1. Dylan GowanlockOctober 5, 2022 at 4:09 PM

    Hello Megan, I enjoyed reading your relation of this course's content to your experience and knowledge from "Social Media and Social Life". I personally would like to answer that social media without question has created an obsession with creating an online version of ourselves that we would all like others to see. Space-binding media has certainly affected the instantaneous nature of our communication. As a result of the ease of portability of our phones and the devices we use to communicate with each other, we are now expected to be timely in our responses. It certainly feels as though the days in which it would be normal to miss a few phone calls on a home phone are long gone. Thanks for sharing these questions with us all.

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  2. Zach TyrrellOctober 6, 2022 at 3:11 PM

    Hello Megan, this was a great post and I really like your question. I have certainly got into the habit of checking my phone when there is a notification and at this point it has become second nature. I also feel complied to respond to any message that comes my way. It has become so difficult for us to ignore a message or too. Everyone expects an instantaneous response and oftentimes we will follow up 2,3,4 times if we don't receive that instant response we desire. So yes I do believe that social media has heightened our obsession to constantly share. Another big example is taking photos and videos. Do not get me wrong it is great to have these memories but are ability to live in the moment is virtually gone. You want people to see what you're doing and as a result hopefully spark up a conversation with someone who relates to the media form (post/story).

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  3. Lydia G.October 7, 2022 at 2:18 PM

    Hi Megan!

    Great post! I completely agree with everything you said about social media causing obsession on knowing and seeing what everyone else is up to. I also think social media has created this heightened obsession of constantly sharing and communicating with one another since I also participate in this obsession or I would like to call it "curiosity." I truly know that I am addicted to my phone and constantly have to know what all my friends are up to, I also think the popularity increase of BeReal is due to the curiosity of everyone else as well. Space-binding media has changed the way we communicate with one another by no longer needing to see our friends in person to know about what they've been up to, when I was little me and my friends all lived in the same area and we would only need to walk a minute away to knock on the others door to be able to see them. At our current time, we simply just either send them a SnapChat or Facetime them to hear about how they are or what they're doing.

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