*******"e" and "i"*********

Hey there bloggers and blogettes,

I’m sure your week has been as conducive as ever, mine sure has. I managed to read 3 whole chapters from this new e-book I just got on my iPad, then went on to do homework in my online classroom, designed a website via web conference with my brother, and of course, its first Sunday, had to go get my praise on and couldn’t seem to find my Bible but luckily, there’s an app for that!!

Notice everything I did today was without the requirement of paper. Yes my friends, we are now moving faster than ever, into the digital paperless world (queue scary music!) My generation has taken technology and turned it into things that our forefathers would have never dreamed of, the phrase “If you can think it, there’s an app for it” seems to ring true more and more every second. If it doesn’t have an “e” or an “I” in front of it then it isn’t necessarily “hip”. 

 

Growing up, all the images I saw on television, was the pretty mommy sitting in the cute little kids’ room reading his or her favorite bed time story while daddy is downstairs sitting in his favorite recliner reading the latest happenings in the world.  Somehow, that “tradition” has sort of faded away and now. Books are so much more interactive, they talk to you, the characters can move, thanks to technology, children are supposed to be more engaged in learning through this way. But does it take away from people’s creativity, I liked hearing my mom try to make car noises or animal noises to emphasize a passage from the book, I personally felt more engaged in the story than maybe if I had just the book doing all the work.

Some ways digital media has taken over in my life are:

Something about me just doesn’t want to let go of the need to have a cassette player in my car. Not because I can still find an ancient cassette in this day and age, but because I want be able to use it to connect my iPod to the radio!! After purchasing my iPad, it has made it increasingly difficult for me to look to anything paper based as a source of reference, whether it’s the news, weather, research for class or even leisure games, I can find anything I want whenever I want and I don’t have to move an inch!Growing up in Kenya, East Africa, one of our biggest pleasures was being able to go to video stores and renting the “latest” movies on VHS, but with the rise of Netflix and all kinds of ways to download movies to your PC or handheld device, there was no longer a need to make that trip to the friendly video store clerk and rent out a movie, I guess that was our equivalent to Blockbuster in the USA, and even they have declared bankruptcy so imagine what’s happened to that local video store.

The goods and the bads of the digital technology era will forever be debated, and there are valid arguments on both side. Digital media, internet media, eliminates the use of paper, which means we’re cutting less trees and we are so concerned with the global warming crisis that I’m sure this is a GOOD thing, but the emotional attachments people have to reading a book, or writing a paper by hand or listening to a cassette, or watching an old movie with all the imperfections in it are traits that people are not ready to let go of yet, or sitting in the living room reading the paper and ripping out the sports section to give to your significant other.  Digital media gives us the freedom to do more with less energy, but does it take away a little bit of our ability to be “human”. Meeting and getting to know someone in person, going to the coffee shop with a good book on a rainy Saturday afternoon cozied up, parent’s taking the time and effort to engage with their children during the few hours they spend with each other in the busy day, not to mention being able to give credit where credit is due and actually paying artists for THEIR music that we’re listening to.

Whichever way we look at it, one thing’s for certain, it ain’t stopping. So we all need to just buckle our seat belt and enjoy the ride into the world of the impossible becoming possible. So before I get into bed tonight, I’ll check my emails on my Blackberry, read the news and especially sports highlights on my iPad, read my scripture for the night, and put my iPod on to rock me to sleep, I’ll dream about all the endless possibilities the new era will bring to my generation and I must say, it is exciting (but that’s just the techy in me talking!)

Toodles!!! 


Journalism and the Digital Age   , The Demise of Non-Internet Media