Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="nothing to see here" data-source="post: 2297872" data-attributes="member: 16432">I have a bit of experience in communications theory -- and have to say, your question is a good one.This very forum (and the ENworld community in general) embodies the fundamental paradox of both the internet, and the communications revolution in general.The past generation has seen a wave of groundbreaking new technologies -- the most fundamental of which is the internet, World-Wide-Web and derrivative technologies thereof.  There is no debating the amazing potential of these technologies -- each one ostensibly designed to make communication and, by extension, life, easier.However, this same period of technological growth has occured concurrently with a period of social upheaval -- where, by and large, people general report they are more stressed, feel less connected to their communities, and less empowered than ever before.  Despite communication being easier than ever -- people are finding it harder to do!These trends are the exact opposite of what the anticipated impact of what new technologies would be.  That the internet might actually be CONTRIBUTING to a breakdown in communications seems so counterintuitive that it sounds absurd.  Yet the evidence points to exactly that.  By making communication over great distance trivially easy -- the internet has raised a generation with reduced communications capacity...the best example I've seen yet of McLuhan's "The medium is the message" postulate in effect.This trend is just an oversimplification of a wider trend -- of breakdown of traditional authority and community institutions in western societies.  The funny thing is, people have noticed and are using technologies like the internet, to establish new communities in place of old ones.....like right here at ENworld.So it seems that the internet is paying dividends by creating communities of interest based around it's fundamental characteristics (IMMEDIACY, ANONYMITY)...the same characteristics which undermined traditional communications (based on personal relations deveoped over time), thereby creating the social space for internet communities in the first place</blockquote>

Verification