The New Media Epidemic: The Undermining of Society, Family, and Our Own Soul
208
The New Media Epidemic: The Undermining of Society, Family, and Our Own Soul
208eBook
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780884654278 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Holy Trinity Publications |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 208 |
| Sales rank: | 824,852 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
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CHAPTER 1
Invasion
Invasion: the sudden and powerful penetration into a country to pillage it and master it. In medicine: the initial stage of an illness from the first symptoms to its full development. Figurative: the sudden appearance of something which takes up much space or even almost all the space.
— ORTOLANG, Centre National des Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales
Definitions
A medium is a means of passing an object, a word, a sound, or an image from one state or one place to another. It is an intermediary. The term "media" has been used for many years to mean the main transmitters of information: the press, radio, and television. The term "new media" refers to more recent means of communication using the digital techniques developed with the computer. An equivalent term is "digital media." Networked computers, tablets, and smartphones are the backbone of the new media, supported by digital photography, recorders, and portable players of CDs and MP3 files. Because they all use screens, one may use the term "screens" to describe them, which allows the television to be included. It shares many features with the new media that we will discuss later.
The word "media" describes both the methods of transmission and their content, for example, the Internet with its sites, blogs, forums, social networks, online games, and the like.
The singular form of the word, medium, has for many years been strongly associated with parapsychology, so here we will generally use the plural: media.
Digital Colonization
Digital media have progressively invaded every kind of activity and every part of our public and private lives. Roberto Casati has described this as "digital colonialism," which he defines thus:
Digital colonialism is an ideology based on a simple principle: "If you can, you must." If anything, or any activity, can become digital then it must become digital. The digital colonists spare no pains to bring new technologies into every facet of our lives, from reading to games, from teaching to decision making, from communication to planning, from the preservation of artefacts to medical diagnosis. The colonialist assumption is taken as read by the colonists. They like its simplicity: it is general, applying equally to any object or activity whatsoever.
Everyone is pushed firmly by society to use the new media. The main pressure is commercial, to buy the hardware, to buy the software, and to participate in "free" activities that generate profit for business through advertising, and the sale of personal data. But governments are also deeply involved in the propagation of the new media. They encourage their use from the youngest age in schools, and make them essential for certain administrative operations. They think it a moral imperative to reduce the digital divide between different classes of citizens: the "superior" class with full access to the media and their "inferiors" who lack it. No corner of the land must be left without coverage for the Internet, the portable phone, and the television, lest some should be excluded and disadvantaged.
To these economic and political pressures is added a peer pressure: everyone should feel obliged to have access to all the media and all the latest gadgets that use them. The new media and their gadgets are not simply means of integration into the community and signs of belonging, but badges of social value and self-esteem.
The Television
The television is one of the modern media yet does not strictly belong to the category of "New Media," despite the high-definition images, which digitization allows. It has already been widely used for more than 50 years and is to be found in almost every home in the world, even the poorest. In both America and France, 99% of all households possess at least one television. Even in Africa, the poorest continent, 85% of households possess a television. In many households the main television, which presides in the living room, is backed up by several more in the bedrooms of both parents and children.
Only a few are able to resist. They are generally in the higher social classes and, motivated by religious, intellectual, or cultural considerations, seek to protect their children from bad examples and evil influence that may distract them from their school work or from more cultivated and social pursuits. They voluntarily abstain, but are seen as eccentrics. In many families the television is on from morning to night, and, even when no one is watching it, it remains as a background that flavors the whole life of the house.
In general, people spend much time in front of the television, 4 hours per day on average over all the regions of the world. The television occupies a large part of the days of the retired and the unemployed, but it also invades the days of working adults, schoolchildren, and infants. Studies have shown that schoolchildren spend more time in front of the television than in front of their teacher, or in interacting with their parents.
It is a cheap leisure pastime that is easy to access. Many people develop an addiction to it, and it can be hard to tear children away from the screen without provoking disobedience, complaints, and screams.
Children become more deeply dependent than adults. They are occupied less by daily duties in the home, and so are more passive and receptive, captivated by the worlds the television reveals to them. Inexperienced, lacking any points of comparison or solid principles, and bereft of critical ability, they are far more permeable to external influence.
It is not true that the television has been supplanted by more recent media. It coexists with them, either in parallel or as their partner. For instance, while the Internet transmits programs live, it also allows them to be recorded so that they can be viewed later with a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.
Television's impact on children is especially powerful. As Lilian Lurçat has observed: "The television moulds a child from birth. It implants its message unhindered, for the child has no experience which could counter its effects and the restraint imposed by adults is minimal. The social effects of the media are yet more powerful, for they capture the imagination, seducing and shaping it, by associating what they show with the fulfilment of the basic needs of daily life such as eating and relaxing."
Its power of seduction rests mainly on its use of the emotions, which it stimulates by subtly combining the real and the imaginary into scenes that are truly manipulative. The television aims, through our affections, to draw us to participate and to identify with its message.
Furthermore, many studies over the last decades have shown how the image has an overwhelming effect in modern society. It has its own power to impress, which gives it a huge influence on the way we see reality.
Video Games
Video games also merit our attention. They have always used a screen, and nowadays generally use the Internet with a smartphone. They are not insignificant since worldwide statistics show, for example, that a 13-year-old boy spends on average 2.31 hours per day on video games, or around 35 entire days per year, that is, 9.6% of his entire life. The propagation of video games is powered by their developers who profit immensely (presently around $100 million/year), and who thus gain a significant social role.
At first, video games did not depend on the media. No messages were transmitted from one place, or person, to another. They were simple, but as their software developed, they became more and more elaborate. At first, only one player was involved, as in Gameboy and early versions of PlayStation. They were solitary activities, and they were criticized for their individualism that isolated their users, cutting them off from their fellows.
Once these games became interactive and could use the Internet, they could be played online using connected computers and thus became part of the media. They could then be used for role-playing, each player assuming the identity of a character in the game. These new games were much more demanding of time and energy than those that went before. The players had to be continually present, reactive, and perform well. But the games of old have now made a comeback on smartphones, and once more cut people off from their spouses, their families, and their friends.
The Computer and Its Offspring
In itself, the computer is not part of the media, but it has become their main enabler: connected through the Internet to other computers, it allows different users to send each other messages and files, and it can access files from other Internet sites that it can transform and transmit, thanks to the scale of the Internet.
At first, the computer was essentially a tool of people's trade that it changed radically. Now it is everywhere, in industry, commerce, the civil administration, and schools. It has speedily progressed from the public sphere to the private. Its ability to implement other media was quickly exploited to allow it to be used for leisure activities, which assured the rapid growth of its use. Leaving the office for the home, the computer soon became more compact so that it could be carried around everywhere. First were the portables and the laptops. Then came the simpler and lighter tablets that could be used in any situation, and finally the still smaller smartphone was developed.
The Smartphone
There are currently 7 billion smartphone lines in the world for a population of 7.5 billion, a phenomenon that affects even the poorest countries. In poor families, a "portable" is often a priority, and a contract for every family member can strain the budget and increase the weight of debt. Some people have several smartphones, each for a different sphere of activity, personal and professional, so that in some countries the number of portable phones is greater than the population.
At first, the portable telephone was, like a fixed-line phone, for verbal communication, but could be taken and used independently anywhere. Later, it was embellished with extra features, becoming a camera, a video camera, a recorder, a player of audio and video files, and a mini-computer to connect to the Internet and the social networks. Thus, it became a smartphone and now supports a huge number of applications (over 500,000) that enhance its utility in different ways.
The sales increase all the time, since users, driven by subjective and objective obsolescence, feel compelled to replace their smartphone with one of the newer models, which the makers put regularly on the market. The various factors that oblige people to buy smartphones are cleverly manipulated by the suppliers of phones and the network providers. Among the external factors are the abolition of phone cabins, omnipresent advertising, phones whose price is subsidized in exchange for a contractual commitment to a network supplier, and the requirement to have a portable phone for work, or for seeking work. There are also inner factors: the need to be and do as others (which can be seen even in the school playground); the need to be reassured in a world which seems unknown and menacing; a means of self-promotion (for a fashionable and pricey smartphone is an outer sign of being rich, original, and up-to-date); and a palliative for boredom and loneliness.
The smartphone takes up a good part of its user's time, and its presence is absorbed into life at every moment of the day, from rising to retiring.
The Internet
The computer and smartphone allow everyone access to the Internet (or web, or net) at all times and in any place. Also, the Internet has greatly encouraged the development of the computer and the smartphone. For most people, gaining access to the Internet is the main reason for buying them. Their main use, far ahead of work or games, is to surf the web.
The Internet is a worldwide information network that joins together all the information networks accessible to the public. The word comes from "Internetting" — the act of relating different networks to each other. The result may be depicted as a giant spider's web, which gives the name "web" to the Internet. Through the Internet, each local network can instantly access all the others. The most popular Internet sites are the search engines. There are many, but Google of the United States quickly became the most widely used. Feeding a single word into these search engines will find every site in the world, which refers to it and the information given about it. Thus, the internaut is immediately presented with a huge mass of information about his search in the form of text, images, videos, and sounds. Specialized sites have been developed, which cater for all manner of needs and tastes. Online commerce (e-commerce) has invaded the web. Almost all institutions and associations have their site, and many users have their own personal blogs to which they regularly send information.
Email is part of the Internet, allowing internauts the world over to communicate almost instantaneously, and to exchange rapidly and freely their messages and attachments (text, images, sounds, etc.). Almost 215 billion emails are currently exchanged every day. For many people, browsing the web takes many hours every day. (At present, 70% of internauts use the web daily, spending on average 4.8 hours on a computer and 2.1 hours on a smartphone.)
Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, and the Rest
The social networks, accessed through the Internet, have developed a huge presence over the last 10 years. They have their roots in the discussion forums found on blogs where users of the Internet may exchange their ideas, impressions, and sentiments. They are still widely used, but thanks to Facebook, there has been a real revolution in this world of communication. It allows anyone to have a personal space where anything can be expressed, and illustrated with texts, images, videos, and sounds as desired; and the content can be shared with tens, hundreds, or even thousands of others.
Facebook has now moved beyond the simple exchange of information between "friends" (the term for those linked together) to become, as well, a platform for sharing knowledge between members of project teams or interest groups, be they students, researchers, or businesses.
It was created in 2004 for the private use of students at Harvard, but has now grown to be the second-most consulted Internet site after Google. It has become a veritable social phenomenon, translated into eighty-five languages and affecting a majority of the young the world over. Today, it has over 2 billion users; more than half of them (1.37 billion) connect to the site at least once a day, spending an average of 50 minutes each to post over a billion items online.
Facebook owes its success to everyone's natural need to be in contact with others. This need is often felt acutely in modern society, which for various reasons has weakened social links and deconstructed the family. Thus, more and more people find themselves alone. Social networks are praised for "making the link" that brings people together and creates social contact for the lonely and shy. Those connected with others are encouraged to empathize with their contacts who present themselves as "friends."
Another reason for Facebook's success is that it satisfies the need of humans to feel that their existence and value are recognized by their fellows. So, the personal Facebook page is often used to expose not only one's existence, tastes, and interests, but also, freely, even rashly and shamelessly, all kinds of details of one's private life, even the most intimate, and one's real and imaginary exploits.
Facebook is the model for other networks of this kind. One of the best known is Snapchat, which allows sharing of photos and videos, but which limits viewing time to between 1 and 10 seconds, and leaves less traces than other such media. It is mainly used by those aged between 15 and 25. It currently has 178 million users online daily. Another popular network, Instagram, was based on the same ideas as Snapchat and serves the same user base, but attracts older users. With 500 million users online daily, it is much bigger than its competitor.
Twitter provides a microblog service. Users can post freely short messages called "tweets" on the Internet using instant messaging or text messages. In the beginning, Twitter aimed to allow people to tell what they were doing as they did it. But soon it was used as a place to publish news, links, and brief comments, especially on recent events. Once connected to Twitter, one has access to all the tweets (mini-messages) posted by one's "followers" (those account holders who have so chosen). The better known one is, the more followers one has. Some have tens of millions.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The New Media Epidemic"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Holy Trinity Monastery.
Excerpted by permission of Holy Trinity Publications.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Addicts of Modern Media,
1. Invasion,
2. When the Medium Replaces the Message,
3. The Tyranny of the New Mediators,
4. Shrinking Distance and Time,
5. The Destruction of Interpersonal Relationships,
6. Evil Encounters,
7. The Abolition of Private Life,
8. The Denial of the Body and Its Effects on Health,
9. The Dominance of the Virtual over the Real,
10. Mental Disorders,
11. Dumbing Down the Mind,
12. The Impoverishment of Spiritual Life,
13. Prevention and Treatment,
Notes,
Index,